Beowulf's Funeral

This short musing is something I wrote for a World Lit class that I am taking from Center for Lit this year. It describes the mood surrounding Beowulf's funeral at the end of the epic Old English poem Beowulf. I very much enjoyed reading Beowulf, and I would highly recommend it. It is shorter than the more well-known epic poems (i.e. Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid), it is beautiful poetry, and the author is clearly coming from a Christian worldview. I found it much more edifying than the Greek and Roman epics. I have greatly enjoyed the Seamus Heaney translation, and I look forward to reading the poem in other translations as well as learning more about Old English.

    There is great sadness. Beowulf’s army weeps when the messenger brings them news of the death of their king and the war that looms over them. The Geat people all weep together as Beowulf’s pyre burns, and a Geat woman sings a lament. She does not sing about the greatness of the king that they have lost, but rather about the great doom that lies before their people — invasion, slavery, and abasement. The messenger who brings tidings of Beowulf’s death prophecies similarly in some of the most chilling lines of the poem, “in the path of exile / they shall walk bereft, bowed under woe… Many a spear / dawn-cold to the touch will be taken down / and waved on high; the swept harp / won’t waken warriors, but the raven winging / darkly over the doomed will have news, / tidings for the eagle of how he hoked and ate, / how the wolf and he made short work of the dead” (3020).*

    Do the Geats judge their king for leaving them in this place of weakness? Wiglaf sternly rebukes the warriors who fled and left their lord alone in time of need. He lays upon them at least part of the blame for the coming dangers. Once word spreads of their cowardice, the enemies of the Geats will not hesitate to attack them (2890). In his speech to Beowulf’s army, Wiglaf does not absolve Beowulf of responsibility for their current situation, but neither does he fault him. “Often when one man follows his own will / many are hurt. This happened to us.” He goes onto say that they could not convince Beowulf to leave the dragon alone — Beowulf “held to his high destiny” (3080). The Geats are proud of their king. They mourn his loss as well as their own dire plight, but they do not fault him. He was a good king.

* Sidenote — Comparison to Rohan in The Lord of the Rings:

I was overwhelmingly reminded of the poem about the Rohirrim that Aragorn quotes on the way to Edoras. “Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing? Where is the hand on the harp-string, and the red fire glowing?” In the movie adaption of The Lord of the Rings, this is quoted as the people of Rohan in Helms Deep (a few young warriors, but many who are either too old or two young) are preparing to fight Saruman’s army of Uruk-Hai. I read online that Tolkien based this poem upon an Old-English poem called “The Wanderer,” which sounds uncannily similar to the mood at the end of Beowulf.

“Where is the horse gone? Where the warrior?
Where is the treasure-giver?
Where are the seats at the feast?
Where are the revels in the hall?
Alas for the bright cup!
Alas for the mailed warrior!
Alas for the splendour of the prince!
How that time has passed away,
dark under the cover of night,
as if it never were.”

Also, the Geatish woman’s lament at Beowulf’s funeral pyre reminded me of Eowyn’s lament at Theodred’s burial in the movie adaption.


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