Hello, and welcome to Mythic Mind. We pursue wisdom on the paths between
primary and psycondary worlds. I'm your host, Andrew Snyder, and I am
always grateful for your company. In the last episode, we introduced Rothgar and
his band of Danes, valiant in battle and rich and splendor in the Great
mead Hall Harolt, which was haunted by a looming threat. Today, that
threat arrives, but first I need to thank all my super patrons and higher
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And now back to our story. Now, before the living threat is
named, we're told something about its nature and its bent, which is a
word intentionally chosen, as this is clearly a crooked creature, the poet tells
us. Quote, then the fierce spirit that abode in darkness grievously endured a
time of torment. In that day after day he heard the din of revelry
echoing in the hall end Quote. So what was this revelry? Well,
the host of herault was singing and telling stories, the voice of the minstrel
ring clear, and they told of how the Almighty had set the earth in
its place, illumined the heavenly bodies of Sun and Moon, which served to
illuminate the way of the earth dwellers. This Almighty also brought forth the landscape
of the earth, the realm of nature with its bows, with its leaves,
and the life of all things that move. This is one of the
first theological frames we get of our protagonists, because while our narrator is clearly
a Christian who fills in some of the conceptual gaps left by his pagan subjects,
they are indeed pagans, as I briefly highlighted in the last episode in
relation to Christian revelation. There as much as they simply do not know.
But these are not fundamentally an anti Christian people, but pre Christian. At
their best, they are seen as noble pagans who principally follow the capital A
Almighty. We see virtues here and even some thought patterns that we might be
tempted to say are force innovations of the narrator, but I'm not interested in
going that direction. I believe it would be more helpful to say that these
are virtues and thought patterns that are common grace insights of a people who make
use of the knowledge that it's available to all who seek it. Such pagan
virtue was certainly recognized for the most part by the early and the medieval Church,
and I'm certainly inclined in that direction as well. In fact, it's
rather easily arguable that the pagan is actually in an even better position than the
so called post Christian c. S. Lewis addresses this in a few places.
For example, he wrote the following in his essay is theism important quote?
When grave persons express their fear that England is relapsing into paganism, I
am tempted to reply, would that she were, for I did not think
at at all likely that we shall ever see Parliament opened by the slaughtering of
a garlanded white bull in the House of Lords or cabinet ministers, leaving sandwiches
in Hyde Park as an offering for the dry heads. If such a state
of affairs came about, then the Christian apologist would have something to work on.
For a pagan, as history shows, is a man eminently convertible to
Christianity. He is essentially the pre Christian or sub Christian religious man end quote.
Furthermore, in one of his letters, he said, for faith perfects
nature, but faith lost corrupts nature. Before many men of our time have
lost not only the supernatural light, but also the natural light which pagans possessed.
Kirkegard makes a very similar point in the concept of anxiety. He says
that the pagan is in a kind of innocence. I mean not entirely,
but he is innocent in the sense that he has not received the human spirit
that has the potential to be awakened through Christian revelation. Where there is no
law, there is no judgment. So as with a child, the pagan
is something like, as Lewis says, the pre Christian. This is a
much better situation than that of the so called post Christian. Kirkyguard continues quote.
Thus, spiritlessness in Paganism is only culpable to the degree one has willfully
ignored one's task to be a self, and to the degree this task can
be known without divine revelation. In Christendom, spiritlessness is still the unawareness of
one's task to be a self, though it more culpable end quote. And
so in both Paganism and Christendom, someone may be spiritless, meaning that aspect
of human existence that actualizes its essence, that leads us toward its ideal,
is not yet awakened. But the spiritlessness of Christendom is a wilful suppression of
spirit. There's a difference between the one who is not yet married and the
one who wilfully walked away from his marriage, although both could be described as
unmarried. So I believe Kirkgard and Lewis heartily agree on this point that the
virtuous pagan is in a much better state than the so called post Christian,
because the pagan he sees as a kind of pre Christian. Now let's take
it a step further to consider how the pagan virtue of Prothgar might not only
prefigure Christian truth, but might actually participate in it. And Tolkien writes,
quote, I think that he, as the poet, attempted to equate the
noble figures of his own Northern antiquity with the noble figures stages, judges,
and kings of Israel before Christ. They too were damned owing to the fall,
even if they were members of the Chosen people. The redemption Christ might
work backwards, but in the herong of Hell, why should not say Rothgar
be among the rescue two, For the people of Israel could also fall away
in time of trial, to the worship of idols and false gods. For
that reason, I think that when Anglo Saxons made Sheaf, the son of
Noah born in the Ark, it was not merely genealogical fantasy, a mere
trick to make their king's lines go back to Adam. It was rather a
process due to a line of thought closely related to the ideas of the Beowulf
poet. It gave the Northern kings a place in an unwritten chapter, as
it were in the Old Testament endote. So just as Israel was only ever
saved by the redemption of Christ working backwards, perhaps the virtue of Rothgar was
also so redeemed. It was a shadow of the ideal, which works backwards
to give the shadows some substance. And by the way, some of these
themes, especially what I just read from Tolkien there about chief going back to
the sons of Noah. That's something I'm going to get in to in the
course. I was leave that dangling where it is for now. So we
see that Frothgar's hall is feasting, merrymaking and proclaiming a world that is inherently
good, purposeful, and designed for the life and delight of man. This
is the torment of our foe, Grendel, the fiend of Hell, who
broods in the shadows of the forsaken marshlands. Now there's this line that stood
out to me. Just before the name of Grendel is introduced, we're told
even thus did the men of that company live in mirth and happiness until one
began to work deeds of wrong, a fiend of Hell. This reminds me
of a line in the Silmarillion, which comes at a time when Morgoth,
the chief enemy of the First Age, and I suppose beyond as well,
in a sense, seemed to be silent. Tolkien writes, quote, in
those days there was joy beneath the new sun and moon, and all the
land was glad, But still the shadow brooded in the north end quote.
Tolkien often gives us this alternation between respite and danger, and on more than
one occasion, especially in the summer Relian, he makes sure that we know,
in the midst of merriment, the threat is still present. There is
much wisdom in this, as Boethius would tell us, the will of fortune
does sometimes turn in our favor, but we must always be aware that the
wheel is ever turning. Good fortune is sure to pass, and so we
need to make sure that we're always on guard, and that, more importantly,
our guard is something stable, something grounded, something that is not contingent
on the movement of external fortune. Is now back to Grendel, our poet
gives us a Christian framework for understanding the Northern monsters. Grendel is a descendant
of Cain, whom God drove away from mankind in judgment for the murder of
Abel. In many ways, this judgment is an affirmation of what Cain had
already done himself in murdering his brother, in becoming a kinslayer. He murdered
his most basic ties to the familiar bond that ties man to man. He
drove himself from mankind, and so doing was driven from mankind. Cain then
fathered all manner of corrupted beings, trolls, ogres, goblins, haunting shapes
of hell, which, by the way, Tolkien identifies as something like his
Barowhites and the giants which we're told long ward with God. And so we
are clearly getting some monochian imagery here mixed into the story of Cain, as
well as the monstrosities of the Old North, as demonic quasi human monsters are
born of humans and anti human spirits. The same spirit that led Cain to
murder his brother has now produced a host of villains that are mockeries of what
man is meant to be, and that hate the true form from which they
are corrupted. But I'm going to save some of that for the course,
But for now sufficient to say that Grendel is a corruption, a counterfeit creation
that serves to mock and destroy the goodness that is man in his proper cosmological
place. So in the night Grendel makes us move after the great feast the
Danes are sleeping, and we get this great line as we're told sorrow.
They knew not the unhappy fate of man. Our fate is suffering. It
is sorrow, and ultimately so apart from the Gospel, this world, although
good, is given over to corruption. No matter how fortunate you may be,
you will grow old. If that, you will start to fall apart,
and you will die. In the ancient Northern Mythos, there was not
an ultimate victory for the good guys. The best you could do is to
join the side of the gods against the monsters. But in the end the
monsters win. In the monsters and the critics, Tolkien writes as in a
little circle of light about their halls, men with courage as their stay went
forward to that battle with the hostile world in the offspring of the Dark,
which ends for all, even kings and champions in defeat. So suffering is
our fate. This is the theme that we will continue to deal with.
But we also see here that there is a valor and a virtue in establishing
your relationship with that fate that we all will experience in a worthy manner.
And now that fate of mortal man is made known. Grendel strikes the sleeping
Hall and kills thirty knights before thinking back to his lair. He then returns
the next night to devour once more, which prompts the Danes to abandon herote
for lesser chambers. Much time passed as the hell fiend continued to stalk the
Danes with no interest in treaty or bribe, for he was set only on
the destruction and terror of man. With a chilling description, the poet tells
us the fierce killer pursued them still, both knights and young, a dark
shadow of death lurking, lying in wait in long night, keeping the misty
moors. Men know not whither sorcerers of Hell in their wanderings roam. I
appreciate this. Grendel has no motive but evil. This is refreshing in our
age, in which every villain is given a sympathetic stra but no Grendel shows
us that there is real evil in this world. That it is said on
nothing but destroying what is good, because goodness is intrinsic to existence. To
proper form, evil is ultimately irrational. It travels in wispy lands, in
the shadows of non being, and it cannot be truly understood by right reason,
and this is why Augustine says that there's not much value in contemplating the
origin of evil, particularly in the Fall of the Devil. It is a
leap into non being, a movement against reason, and as such it cannot
be grasped by reason, at least within the reason that is allotted to us.
And so Grendel is evil. He is described as a sorcerer of hell,
a hellronin, and there's no compromise to be made with hell Nin.
Tolkien tells us, quote, Truly it is said that men know not whither
hellrounin go in their courses, Darkness goes with them. Their secret and malicious
purposes are unfathomable, except that they are perilous and hostile to man, beyond
hope of peace. And quote Grendel and all hell runin know no honor and
deserve no sympathy. This makes me think of the scene from Perilandra when Ransom
is fighting with the unman and experiences absolute hatred for the evil that he is
fighting, and initially he's surprised to find that this hatred is actually the correct
disposition. Yet he is still sympathetic to the man who may still reside somewhere
in the host that he's dealing with. And I'll avoid giving any more details
just in case anyone intends to read it for the first time, and you
should if you haven't already. And so, if we aren't able to recognize
the veracity and the ferocity of evil, then we will continue our attempts at
making peace, offering whatever sacrifices we think worthwhile, no matter how great the
price, until we finally wake up and recognize that we've been feeding an endlessly
ravenous monster. There is evil in this world, and the only defense that
we have is the good that kingdom, against which the gates of hell cannot
stand. Of those such allegiance may cost us everything in this mortal life.
Now where did the hosts of rothguard turn at this time? What were told?
Quote? At times they vowed sacrifices to idols in their heathen tabernacles in
prayer, implored the slayer of souls to afford them help against the sufferings of
the people. Such was their wont the hope of heathens? They were mindful
in their hearts of hell end quote? So our poet makes it clear that
they know hell, they know evil, although they do not know God,
and so they turned to their idols in heathen hope. And one hand,
this seems to be framed rather clearly as a kind of judgment on a false
turn of a people who, in their best moments are directed toward the capital
a Almighty as the virtuous pagan tends to be. Tolkien writes, quote,
the leading idea is that the noble pagans of the past, who had not
heard of the Gospel, knew of the existence of Almighty God, reckon nice
him as good and the giver of all good things. But they were by
the fall still cut off from Him, so that in time of woe they
became filled with despair and doubt. That was the hour when they were specially
open to the snare to the devil. They prayed to idols in false gods.
So to be clear, this slayer of souls to which they turned is
in fact the devil. Now, as talking elaborates, Prothguard's company is not
being accused of anything like conscious satanism, but the reality behind idle worship is
being highlighted here. And so we see that in pagan settings, that is,
even in a generally polytheistic context, we often get a kind of devotion
to that which is best, an ultimate, a shadow of the true God.
In this case, however, they turn away from such light toward lesser
idols. Not at the same time. As I've discussed, they do get
some slack here. They're not operating with the knowledge of Christian revelation. However,
they do know Hell, and this makes sense. It's often the case
in this mortal life that Hell is more readily than heaven. The tendency of
this world to fall apart, for good men and good peoples to fall to
darkness, and indeed the broader northern mythos of the Giant's victory all make the
nether world quite evident. And this is why the so called problem of evil
is likely the most common objection to Christianity. Suffering is a plain fact seen
by all. However, it takes faith that it takes something more to see
that there is a broader context for suffering. And as Sandwise muses, that
there is light and high beauty forever beyond the reach of the shadow. And
to this point, our narrator tells us nor knew they the Creator, the
judge of deeds, nor had they heard of the Lord God, nor verily
had learned to praise the Guardian of the heavens and the King of Glory.
Woe shall be to him that, through fiendish malice, shall thrust down his
soul into the fire's embrace to look for comfort, in no wise to change
his lot. The sacrificial fires of false gods provide nothing but fall hope.
They are counterfeits of true glory, and counterfeits cannot defeat counterfeits. Such sacrifices
are darkness upon darkness, as all of our vain manipulations of fortune are apart
from the embrace of the Light, which Augustine tells us would make us a
light if we would set our hearts upon it. Our narrator continues, quote,
Blessed shall be he that may, after his death day go to the
Lord and seek peace in the bosom of the Father end quote. If their
fortunes were to turn, it would be owed to the true Lord and preserver
of the righteous, although this is not something that truthguard knew to seek.
There's this line that we get a little bit later that says, never might
he approach the precious throne of grace in the presence of God, nor did
he know his will. Now there's some question as to what this means.
Some say here that the subject at hand is Grendel saying that he could not
approach God's throne, or maybe that there was some kind of divine protection on
Trouthguard's throne that Grendel couldn't approach. But that doesn't seem to be the case
here. Tolkien believes that the object as actually Shrothgar, and this makes sense
in the context. In his heathen worship of false gods, he does not
have access to the true Almighty, who alone can dispel the darkness that haunts
his hall. He too is left in the dark. However, by grace
and the goodwill of the Almighty, Providence does have a path to the halls
of Trothgar. After countless nights of torment, the stench of Grendel's foul deeds
reached Beoulf of the Giats. Beouff gathered a small band of valiant men and
set out for the Danish coast. Upon landing, we are told that the
company gave thanks to God that the passage of the waves have been made easy
for them. And so we get this fairly clear juxtaposition between the Shieldings Heathen
hope in contrast to the gratitude the men of Beowulf give to the True God,
at least to the extent that they were able in their pre Christian context.
The Shieldings looked to the darkness, but Beowulf looked toward the light,
and the light would surely shine in the darkness and not be overcome. Who
is Beowulf? Surely, at least in the form that we have him,
he is not a strictly historical person, As we'll see, he really is
a superhero of sorts, a man of legend, or, as Tolkien says,
a champion of fairy. He is a bright star of the fantastical,
which is precisely what is needed to scatter despairing shadows. As Tolkien writes quote,
he is historical, if at all, in the sense and degree that
King Arthur is a historical germ, a real person perhaps, about which practically
everything that is told is borrowed from myth, folklore, or sheer invention.
Beowulf, the bear man, the giant killer comes from a different world fairy
story end quote. Now, in many ways that does not make him less
real, but more real he represents something more real than particular fact. He
is an incarnation of sorts, or at least a shadow of the true incarnation,
the true myth of the Gospel, to use Lewis's language, the true
myth which grants echoes of veracity to all good myths, and Beowulf is a
good myth, one that ought to play out in our own lives. As
need arises. Now, Beowulf speaks with a watchman of the Danes and Truthguard's
Herald, and finally comes to speak with Rothgard himself. Now we see that
in opposition to the bleak, dark, despairing setting where we left Rothgar's people,
Beowulf's company has glinting armour intovine favor. Even on their voyage where told
that the ocean was gleaming and that their harness was bright. They are literally
and metaphorically a light of hope, piercing the shadow, much as the crippled
theodin before gain off the white Truthgar is renewed before the light of Beowulf,
with valor, hope and fresh resolved against the darkness. As he exclaims to
his Herald concerning Beowulf, holy God has sent him to us in his mercy
even to the West Danes, as is my hope against the terror of Grendel.
And so here Ruthguard does not credit his idols and heathen hope. No,
he credits Holy God for sending Beowulf to bring light to the darkness of
his land. And when Beowulf, the True and Valiant Knight finally speaks with
Rothgar face to face, he recounts some of his past victories over monsters and
demons, which are more or less the same thing in this context. And
there is mention that he has the strength of thirty men, which of course
is the number of men slain in Grendel's first attack, and Beowulf asks for
only one boon from Horothgar that he and his men may cleanse Herot. He's
in effect asking that the charge of Ferult be handed over to him for the
time being, so that he can put it in its proper order. To
lesser men like you are eye, it seems like a strange request. He
does not ask for riches, or a lady's handed marriage, or anything that
you would think that such a warrior would request for such a deed. No,
his reward is in vanquishing this evil. His reward is in the satisfaction
of carrying out his duties as a warrior king. He is the ideal of
the noble warrior, the utmost of the martial spirit. To take it a
step further, he points out that Grendel does not use weaponry beyond his own
arms, and so Beowulf pledges to do the same, forsaking both sword and
shield, as he says, quote, I shall see upon the foe and
engage in mortal contest with hate against hate. There to the judgment of the
Lord, shall he resign himself, whom death doth take. And thus Beoulf
does not rely on the heathen hope of idolatrous sacrifice, nor on the strength
of chariots, so to speak. But he ultimately casts his fate where fate
always resides, in the hand of God. Now, this fate is unknown
to him at least at this point, but he at least recognizes that hand.
Tolkien notes that it is not the power God that is unknown, but
it is his will. Now. Hruthgar, of course, heartily agrees to
Beoulf's request as he recounts the ill fate befallen his people. But he affirms
God alone may easily hinder from his deeds that savage foe Grendel will soon be
in Beowulf's hands, but he was always in God's. But before the hand
is shown, it is time for feasting. There for the young Gaddish knights
together in company, adventures made free in the drinking hall. There to their
seats, when those stout of heart resplendent in their strength in Esquire his office,
heated he that bore in hand the jeweled ale goblet, and poured,
greaming out the sweet drink. Ever and Anon the mistrel sang in clear herat
there was mirth of mighty men, no little assembly of the tried valor of
Danes and Wederas. Join me next time, as Grendel and Bewulf discover their
fate in the great Herot. I hope you consider supporting me on Patreon at
patreon dot com slash Mythic Mind, And until next time, I wish you
many meaningful roads ahead.