Beowulf | Mythological Criticism

Beowulf

(unknown author)

   Hello everybody, thanks for being here reading my blogs once again. For today we have a Mythological Criticism for Beowulf.

Grendel's mother

    Beowulf was first created as a poem (a really long poem). There is a good movie for this poem, I recommend you to look for it and watch it. Beowulf has an unknown author, but many people claims that it was probably based on real life. In this poem, you can find a lot of important details that make it interesting. From my personal point of view, there are many aspects in which I defer, because those are beliefs that we do not have now. First of all, we have the conflicts between the king and the creatures. There are two mythological creatures fighting against the kingdom, because they (Grendel and his mother) pretend to destroy the king Hygelac. But, once Grendel is killing the soldiers from the kingdom, he cannot attempt against the king Hygelac (because he is his father). Yes, guys, that sounds weird. They are mythological creatures; how could that be possible? We can find in many stories written many years ago, the existence of these type of “living creatures”. My argument here is, if they were not humans, how they had a son (Grendel). In the past, these creatures were just like a “curse” for people.

Grendel

   On the other hand, we have Beowulf, who is the king’s nephew. He is considered the hero in this poem. Beowulf is a warrior that possess enormous strength and courageous to confront the monster (I want to make emphasis in “enormous strength”). Now, we do not have people with those “special powers”. This hero defeated Grendel and his mother, but there is actually one more thing. He got charmed by the lady and they had a son (a Dragon). Grendel’s appearance is not described at all, but he has some similarities with humans, with horrible aspects. Beowulf’s son, is a Dragon. Today, we can find this creature in many recent movies, but we do not have evidence of their actual existence. The same happens with “the hero”. His son (dragon) wants to destroy the kingdom and kill Beowulf. At the end, Beowulf, the hero dies saving and protecting innocent people from the kingdom.

Dragon

    Regarding some archetypal criticism, I want to share some with you based on the movie. We have “water”, it represents birth and life. Grendel’s mother lives into a lagoon. There is a lot of “blood” during the movie, it represents the sacrifice of many warriors protecting the kingdom. We have number three, it represents unity and power. There three creatures; Grendel and his mother, and the Dragon. There is a hero, Beowulf. And there is finally, a sacrificial scapegoat, when Beowulf, the hero, dies to save his people.

Now guys, I want to your points of view about this poem/story.

How can you relate this story with real life?

Attached a short summary video about Beowulf (click here)

See you later ;)

-Bell Solís