WEBVTT 1 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:17.920 Hello, and welcome to Mythic Mind. We pursue wisdom on the paths between 2 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:21.440 primary and psycondary worlds. I'm your host, Andrew Snyder, and I am 3 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:32.840 always grateful for your company. In the last episode, we introduced Rothgar and 4 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:36.920 his band of Danes, valiant in battle and rich and splendor in the Great 5 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:41.320 mead Hall Harolt, which was haunted by a looming threat. Today, that 6 00:00:41.479 --> 00:00:46.039 threat arrives, but first I need to thank all my super patrons and higher 7 00:00:46.359 --> 00:00:49.880 which at the time of recording this includes Mark, Paul, Aaron Aaron, 8 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:54.280 Andrew Brandon, Emmy Harrison, Ian Jamie, Jeremiah, Joscelyn, Joshua, 9 00:00:54.320 --> 00:00:58.560 Matthew and William. We currently have about forty patrons in total, and I 10 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:02.119 cannot keep doing this without you. If you would like to join this fellowship 11 00:01:02.119 --> 00:01:04.760 and support my work here and beyond, as well as gain access to our 12 00:01:04.760 --> 00:01:08.400 discord server and all the other perks, you can head over to patreon dot 13 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:12.400 com slash Mythic Mind and join up for as little as five dollars a month. 14 00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:17.560 And now back to our story. Now, before the living threat is 15 00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:21.560 named, we're told something about its nature and its bent, which is a 16 00:01:21.560 --> 00:01:26.359 word intentionally chosen, as this is clearly a crooked creature, the poet tells 17 00:01:26.439 --> 00:01:30.359 us. Quote, then the fierce spirit that abode in darkness grievously endured a 18 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:34.680 time of torment. In that day after day he heard the din of revelry 19 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:40.560 echoing in the hall end Quote. So what was this revelry? Well, 20 00:01:40.599 --> 00:01:44.560 the host of herault was singing and telling stories, the voice of the minstrel 21 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.000 ring clear, and they told of how the Almighty had set the earth in 22 00:01:48.040 --> 00:01:52.359 its place, illumined the heavenly bodies of Sun and Moon, which served to 23 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:57.200 illuminate the way of the earth dwellers. This Almighty also brought forth the landscape 24 00:01:57.239 --> 00:02:00.920 of the earth, the realm of nature with its bows, with its leaves, 25 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:04.719 and the life of all things that move. This is one of the 26 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:09.520 first theological frames we get of our protagonists, because while our narrator is clearly 27 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:15.080 a Christian who fills in some of the conceptual gaps left by his pagan subjects, 28 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:19.479 they are indeed pagans, as I briefly highlighted in the last episode in 29 00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:23.560 relation to Christian revelation. There as much as they simply do not know. 30 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:28.680 But these are not fundamentally an anti Christian people, but pre Christian. At 31 00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:32.960 their best, they are seen as noble pagans who principally follow the capital A 32 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:37.840 Almighty. We see virtues here and even some thought patterns that we might be 33 00:02:37.919 --> 00:02:40.879 tempted to say are force innovations of the narrator, but I'm not interested in 34 00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:45.120 going that direction. I believe it would be more helpful to say that these 35 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:50.159 are virtues and thought patterns that are common grace insights of a people who make 36 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:53.400 use of the knowledge that it's available to all who seek it. Such pagan 37 00:02:53.479 --> 00:02:59.639 virtue was certainly recognized for the most part by the early and the medieval Church, 38 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:02.319 and I'm certainly inclined in that direction as well. In fact, it's 39 00:03:02.439 --> 00:03:07.520 rather easily arguable that the pagan is actually in an even better position than the 40 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:13.080 so called post Christian c. S. Lewis addresses this in a few places. 41 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:16.719 For example, he wrote the following in his essay is theism important quote? 42 00:03:16.879 --> 00:03:22.360 When grave persons express their fear that England is relapsing into paganism, I 43 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:25.199 am tempted to reply, would that she were, for I did not think 44 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:29.800 at at all likely that we shall ever see Parliament opened by the slaughtering of 45 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:34.360 a garlanded white bull in the House of Lords or cabinet ministers, leaving sandwiches 46 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:37.479 in Hyde Park as an offering for the dry heads. If such a state 47 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:40.479 of affairs came about, then the Christian apologist would have something to work on. 48 00:03:40.840 --> 00:03:46.000 For a pagan, as history shows, is a man eminently convertible to 49 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:52.520 Christianity. He is essentially the pre Christian or sub Christian religious man end quote. 50 00:03:52.840 --> 00:03:55.439 Furthermore, in one of his letters, he said, for faith perfects 51 00:03:55.560 --> 00:04:00.840 nature, but faith lost corrupts nature. Before many men of our time have 52 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:05.719 lost not only the supernatural light, but also the natural light which pagans possessed. 53 00:04:06.120 --> 00:04:11.159 Kirkegard makes a very similar point in the concept of anxiety. He says 54 00:04:11.159 --> 00:04:14.840 that the pagan is in a kind of innocence. I mean not entirely, 55 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:18.120 but he is innocent in the sense that he has not received the human spirit 56 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:23.160 that has the potential to be awakened through Christian revelation. Where there is no 57 00:04:23.319 --> 00:04:27.639 law, there is no judgment. So as with a child, the pagan 58 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:30.279 is something like, as Lewis says, the pre Christian. This is a 59 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:35.759 much better situation than that of the so called post Christian. Kirkyguard continues quote. 60 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:42.279 Thus, spiritlessness in Paganism is only culpable to the degree one has willfully 61 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:46.480 ignored one's task to be a self, and to the degree this task can 62 00:04:46.519 --> 00:04:51.480 be known without divine revelation. In Christendom, spiritlessness is still the unawareness of 63 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:56.319 one's task to be a self, though it more culpable end quote. And 64 00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:00.600 so in both Paganism and Christendom, someone may be spiritless, meaning that aspect 65 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:04.720 of human existence that actualizes its essence, that leads us toward its ideal, 66 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:11.600 is not yet awakened. But the spiritlessness of Christendom is a wilful suppression of 67 00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:15.199 spirit. There's a difference between the one who is not yet married and the 68 00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:18.560 one who wilfully walked away from his marriage, although both could be described as 69 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:25.040 unmarried. So I believe Kirkgard and Lewis heartily agree on this point that the 70 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:29.160 virtuous pagan is in a much better state than the so called post Christian, 71 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:32.759 because the pagan he sees as a kind of pre Christian. Now let's take 72 00:05:32.759 --> 00:05:36.959 it a step further to consider how the pagan virtue of Prothgar might not only 73 00:05:38.040 --> 00:05:42.720 prefigure Christian truth, but might actually participate in it. And Tolkien writes, 74 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:46.839 quote, I think that he, as the poet, attempted to equate the 75 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:50.839 noble figures of his own Northern antiquity with the noble figures stages, judges, 76 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:56.720 and kings of Israel before Christ. They too were damned owing to the fall, 77 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:00.000 even if they were members of the Chosen people. The redemption Christ might 78 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:04.839 work backwards, but in the herong of Hell, why should not say Rothgar 79 00:06:05.399 --> 00:06:10.399 be among the rescue two, For the people of Israel could also fall away 80 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:13.839 in time of trial, to the worship of idols and false gods. For 81 00:06:13.879 --> 00:06:16.439 that reason, I think that when Anglo Saxons made Sheaf, the son of 82 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:20.519 Noah born in the Ark, it was not merely genealogical fantasy, a mere 83 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:25.240 trick to make their king's lines go back to Adam. It was rather a 84 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:29.439 process due to a line of thought closely related to the ideas of the Beowulf 85 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:32.680 poet. It gave the Northern kings a place in an unwritten chapter, as 86 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:38.519 it were in the Old Testament endote. So just as Israel was only ever 87 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:43.480 saved by the redemption of Christ working backwards, perhaps the virtue of Rothgar was 88 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:48.319 also so redeemed. It was a shadow of the ideal, which works backwards 89 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:51.839 to give the shadows some substance. And by the way, some of these 90 00:06:51.879 --> 00:06:57.160 themes, especially what I just read from Tolkien there about chief going back to 91 00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:00.680 the sons of Noah. That's something I'm going to get in to in the 92 00:07:00.759 --> 00:07:03.199 course. I was leave that dangling where it is for now. So we 93 00:07:03.240 --> 00:07:09.519 see that Frothgar's hall is feasting, merrymaking and proclaiming a world that is inherently 94 00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:14.040 good, purposeful, and designed for the life and delight of man. This 95 00:07:14.199 --> 00:07:16.360 is the torment of our foe, Grendel, the fiend of Hell, who 96 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:20.240 broods in the shadows of the forsaken marshlands. Now there's this line that stood 97 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:25.480 out to me. Just before the name of Grendel is introduced, we're told 98 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:30.399 even thus did the men of that company live in mirth and happiness until one 99 00:07:30.439 --> 00:07:33.959 began to work deeds of wrong, a fiend of Hell. This reminds me 100 00:07:33.959 --> 00:07:38.279 of a line in the Silmarillion, which comes at a time when Morgoth, 101 00:07:38.360 --> 00:07:41.519 the chief enemy of the First Age, and I suppose beyond as well, 102 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:46.839 in a sense, seemed to be silent. Tolkien writes, quote, in 103 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:50.040 those days there was joy beneath the new sun and moon, and all the 104 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:55.480 land was glad, But still the shadow brooded in the north end quote. 105 00:07:55.680 --> 00:08:00.600 Tolkien often gives us this alternation between respite and danger, and on more than 106 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.879 one occasion, especially in the summer Relian, he makes sure that we know, 107 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:07.519 in the midst of merriment, the threat is still present. There is 108 00:08:07.720 --> 00:08:11.720 much wisdom in this, as Boethius would tell us, the will of fortune 109 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:16.279 does sometimes turn in our favor, but we must always be aware that the 110 00:08:16.279 --> 00:08:20.319 wheel is ever turning. Good fortune is sure to pass, and so we 111 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:22.439 need to make sure that we're always on guard, and that, more importantly, 112 00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:28.199 our guard is something stable, something grounded, something that is not contingent 113 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:33.440 on the movement of external fortune. Is now back to Grendel, our poet 114 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:39.360 gives us a Christian framework for understanding the Northern monsters. Grendel is a descendant 115 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:43.480 of Cain, whom God drove away from mankind in judgment for the murder of 116 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:46.639 Abel. In many ways, this judgment is an affirmation of what Cain had 117 00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:52.039 already done himself in murdering his brother, in becoming a kinslayer. He murdered 118 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:56.879 his most basic ties to the familiar bond that ties man to man. He 119 00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:03.159 drove himself from mankind, and so doing was driven from mankind. Cain then 120 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:07.639 fathered all manner of corrupted beings, trolls, ogres, goblins, haunting shapes 121 00:09:07.639 --> 00:09:11.159 of hell, which, by the way, Tolkien identifies as something like his 122 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:16.360 Barowhites and the giants which we're told long ward with God. And so we 123 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:22.000 are clearly getting some monochian imagery here mixed into the story of Cain, as 124 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:26.480 well as the monstrosities of the Old North, as demonic quasi human monsters are 125 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:31.480 born of humans and anti human spirits. The same spirit that led Cain to 126 00:09:31.559 --> 00:09:37.279 murder his brother has now produced a host of villains that are mockeries of what 127 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:41.360 man is meant to be, and that hate the true form from which they 128 00:09:41.399 --> 00:09:43.559 are corrupted. But I'm going to save some of that for the course, 129 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:48.440 But for now sufficient to say that Grendel is a corruption, a counterfeit creation 130 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:54.360 that serves to mock and destroy the goodness that is man in his proper cosmological 131 00:09:54.399 --> 00:10:00.159 place. So in the night Grendel makes us move after the great feast the 132 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:03.200 Danes are sleeping, and we get this great line as we're told sorrow. 133 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:09.840 They knew not the unhappy fate of man. Our fate is suffering. It 134 00:10:09.879 --> 00:10:15.120 is sorrow, and ultimately so apart from the Gospel, this world, although 135 00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:18.840 good, is given over to corruption. No matter how fortunate you may be, 136 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:22.120 you will grow old. If that, you will start to fall apart, 137 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:26.759 and you will die. In the ancient Northern Mythos, there was not 138 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:31.799 an ultimate victory for the good guys. The best you could do is to 139 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:35.919 join the side of the gods against the monsters. But in the end the 140 00:10:35.960 --> 00:10:39.120 monsters win. In the monsters and the critics, Tolkien writes as in a 141 00:10:39.159 --> 00:10:43.399 little circle of light about their halls, men with courage as their stay went 142 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:48.159 forward to that battle with the hostile world in the offspring of the Dark, 143 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:52.720 which ends for all, even kings and champions in defeat. So suffering is 144 00:10:52.759 --> 00:10:56.919 our fate. This is the theme that we will continue to deal with. 145 00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:01.120 But we also see here that there is a valor and a virtue in establishing 146 00:11:01.159 --> 00:11:07.240 your relationship with that fate that we all will experience in a worthy manner. 147 00:11:07.559 --> 00:11:11.679 And now that fate of mortal man is made known. Grendel strikes the sleeping 148 00:11:11.720 --> 00:11:16.159 Hall and kills thirty knights before thinking back to his lair. He then returns 149 00:11:16.200 --> 00:11:20.440 the next night to devour once more, which prompts the Danes to abandon herote 150 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:26.480 for lesser chambers. Much time passed as the hell fiend continued to stalk the 151 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:31.559 Danes with no interest in treaty or bribe, for he was set only on 152 00:11:31.639 --> 00:11:35.919 the destruction and terror of man. With a chilling description, the poet tells 153 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:41.559 us the fierce killer pursued them still, both knights and young, a dark 154 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:46.759 shadow of death lurking, lying in wait in long night, keeping the misty 155 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:50.840 moors. Men know not whither sorcerers of Hell in their wanderings roam. I 156 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:56.279 appreciate this. Grendel has no motive but evil. This is refreshing in our 157 00:11:56.320 --> 00:12:01.480 age, in which every villain is given a sympathetic stra but no Grendel shows 158 00:12:01.559 --> 00:12:05.279 us that there is real evil in this world. That it is said on 159 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:11.000 nothing but destroying what is good, because goodness is intrinsic to existence. To 160 00:12:11.240 --> 00:12:16.679 proper form, evil is ultimately irrational. It travels in wispy lands, in 161 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:22.600 the shadows of non being, and it cannot be truly understood by right reason, 162 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:26.320 and this is why Augustine says that there's not much value in contemplating the 163 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:31.720 origin of evil, particularly in the Fall of the Devil. It is a 164 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:35.519 leap into non being, a movement against reason, and as such it cannot 165 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:39.639 be grasped by reason, at least within the reason that is allotted to us. 166 00:12:41.159 --> 00:12:45.960 And so Grendel is evil. He is described as a sorcerer of hell, 167 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:50.320 a hellronin, and there's no compromise to be made with hell Nin. 168 00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:54.559 Tolkien tells us, quote, Truly it is said that men know not whither 169 00:12:54.679 --> 00:12:58.480 hellrounin go in their courses, Darkness goes with them. Their secret and malicious 170 00:12:58.519 --> 00:13:05.080 purposes are unfathomable, except that they are perilous and hostile to man, beyond 171 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:09.679 hope of peace. And quote Grendel and all hell runin know no honor and 172 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:13.559 deserve no sympathy. This makes me think of the scene from Perilandra when Ransom 173 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:18.919 is fighting with the unman and experiences absolute hatred for the evil that he is 174 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:24.480 fighting, and initially he's surprised to find that this hatred is actually the correct 175 00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:28.440 disposition. Yet he is still sympathetic to the man who may still reside somewhere 176 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:33.000 in the host that he's dealing with. And I'll avoid giving any more details 177 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:35.519 just in case anyone intends to read it for the first time, and you 178 00:13:35.519 --> 00:13:39.720 should if you haven't already. And so, if we aren't able to recognize 179 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:43.360 the veracity and the ferocity of evil, then we will continue our attempts at 180 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:48.279 making peace, offering whatever sacrifices we think worthwhile, no matter how great the 181 00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:54.120 price, until we finally wake up and recognize that we've been feeding an endlessly 182 00:13:54.279 --> 00:13:58.720 ravenous monster. There is evil in this world, and the only defense that 183 00:13:58.759 --> 00:14:03.039 we have is the good that kingdom, against which the gates of hell cannot 184 00:14:03.159 --> 00:14:07.000 stand. Of those such allegiance may cost us everything in this mortal life. 185 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:11.960 Now where did the hosts of rothguard turn at this time? What were told? 186 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:16.080 Quote? At times they vowed sacrifices to idols in their heathen tabernacles in 187 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:20.840 prayer, implored the slayer of souls to afford them help against the sufferings of 188 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:26.080 the people. Such was their wont the hope of heathens? They were mindful 189 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:30.799 in their hearts of hell end quote? So our poet makes it clear that 190 00:14:30.840 --> 00:14:33.919 they know hell, they know evil, although they do not know God, 191 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:37.720 and so they turned to their idols in heathen hope. And one hand, 192 00:14:37.720 --> 00:14:43.639 this seems to be framed rather clearly as a kind of judgment on a false 193 00:14:43.720 --> 00:14:48.480 turn of a people who, in their best moments are directed toward the capital 194 00:14:48.519 --> 00:14:52.639 a Almighty as the virtuous pagan tends to be. Tolkien writes, quote, 195 00:14:52.840 --> 00:14:56.000 the leading idea is that the noble pagans of the past, who had not 196 00:14:56.080 --> 00:15:00.279 heard of the Gospel, knew of the existence of Almighty God, reckon nice 197 00:15:00.360 --> 00:15:03.519 him as good and the giver of all good things. But they were by 198 00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:07.120 the fall still cut off from Him, so that in time of woe they 199 00:15:07.159 --> 00:15:11.600 became filled with despair and doubt. That was the hour when they were specially 200 00:15:11.639 --> 00:15:15.799 open to the snare to the devil. They prayed to idols in false gods. 201 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:20.159 So to be clear, this slayer of souls to which they turned is 202 00:15:20.200 --> 00:15:22.720 in fact the devil. Now, as talking elaborates, Prothguard's company is not 203 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:28.960 being accused of anything like conscious satanism, but the reality behind idle worship is 204 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:31.840 being highlighted here. And so we see that in pagan settings, that is, 205 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:37.399 even in a generally polytheistic context, we often get a kind of devotion 206 00:15:37.720 --> 00:15:41.720 to that which is best, an ultimate, a shadow of the true God. 207 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:45.759 In this case, however, they turn away from such light toward lesser 208 00:15:45.799 --> 00:15:48.080 idols. Not at the same time. As I've discussed, they do get 209 00:15:48.120 --> 00:15:52.200 some slack here. They're not operating with the knowledge of Christian revelation. However, 210 00:15:52.519 --> 00:15:56.559 they do know Hell, and this makes sense. It's often the case 211 00:15:56.559 --> 00:16:00.759 in this mortal life that Hell is more readily than heaven. The tendency of 212 00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:04.639 this world to fall apart, for good men and good peoples to fall to 213 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:10.679 darkness, and indeed the broader northern mythos of the Giant's victory all make the 214 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:14.879 nether world quite evident. And this is why the so called problem of evil 215 00:16:15.080 --> 00:16:19.480 is likely the most common objection to Christianity. Suffering is a plain fact seen 216 00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:25.360 by all. However, it takes faith that it takes something more to see 217 00:16:25.399 --> 00:16:29.159 that there is a broader context for suffering. And as Sandwise muses, that 218 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:33.279 there is light and high beauty forever beyond the reach of the shadow. And 219 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:37.120 to this point, our narrator tells us nor knew they the Creator, the 220 00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:41.720 judge of deeds, nor had they heard of the Lord God, nor verily 221 00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:45.679 had learned to praise the Guardian of the heavens and the King of Glory. 222 00:16:45.080 --> 00:16:49.320 Woe shall be to him that, through fiendish malice, shall thrust down his 223 00:16:49.399 --> 00:16:55.200 soul into the fire's embrace to look for comfort, in no wise to change 224 00:16:55.240 --> 00:17:00.720 his lot. The sacrificial fires of false gods provide nothing but fall hope. 225 00:17:00.919 --> 00:17:06.480 They are counterfeits of true glory, and counterfeits cannot defeat counterfeits. Such sacrifices 226 00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:11.000 are darkness upon darkness, as all of our vain manipulations of fortune are apart 227 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:15.160 from the embrace of the Light, which Augustine tells us would make us a 228 00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:19.119 light if we would set our hearts upon it. Our narrator continues, quote, 229 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:22.720 Blessed shall be he that may, after his death day go to the 230 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:26.240 Lord and seek peace in the bosom of the Father end quote. If their 231 00:17:26.279 --> 00:17:30.079 fortunes were to turn, it would be owed to the true Lord and preserver 232 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:33.720 of the righteous, although this is not something that truthguard knew to seek. 233 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:37.119 There's this line that we get a little bit later that says, never might 234 00:17:37.160 --> 00:17:41.480 he approach the precious throne of grace in the presence of God, nor did 235 00:17:41.519 --> 00:17:45.839 he know his will. Now there's some question as to what this means. 236 00:17:45.240 --> 00:17:49.400 Some say here that the subject at hand is Grendel saying that he could not 237 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:52.960 approach God's throne, or maybe that there was some kind of divine protection on 238 00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:57.359 Trouthguard's throne that Grendel couldn't approach. But that doesn't seem to be the case 239 00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:02.359 here. Tolkien believes that the object as actually Shrothgar, and this makes sense 240 00:18:02.359 --> 00:18:06.160 in the context. In his heathen worship of false gods, he does not 241 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:10.880 have access to the true Almighty, who alone can dispel the darkness that haunts 242 00:18:10.920 --> 00:18:15.519 his hall. He too is left in the dark. However, by grace 243 00:18:15.640 --> 00:18:19.480 and the goodwill of the Almighty, Providence does have a path to the halls 244 00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:25.400 of Trothgar. After countless nights of torment, the stench of Grendel's foul deeds 245 00:18:25.559 --> 00:18:30.400 reached Beoulf of the Giats. Beouff gathered a small band of valiant men and 246 00:18:30.480 --> 00:18:33.000 set out for the Danish coast. Upon landing, we are told that the 247 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:37.880 company gave thanks to God that the passage of the waves have been made easy 248 00:18:37.880 --> 00:18:41.400 for them. And so we get this fairly clear juxtaposition between the Shieldings Heathen 249 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:47.759 hope in contrast to the gratitude the men of Beowulf give to the True God, 250 00:18:48.119 --> 00:18:51.680 at least to the extent that they were able in their pre Christian context. 251 00:18:52.079 --> 00:18:55.839 The Shieldings looked to the darkness, but Beowulf looked toward the light, 252 00:18:55.920 --> 00:19:00.279 and the light would surely shine in the darkness and not be overcome. Who 253 00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:03.200 is Beowulf? Surely, at least in the form that we have him, 254 00:19:03.240 --> 00:19:06.519 he is not a strictly historical person, As we'll see, he really is 255 00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:10.000 a superhero of sorts, a man of legend, or, as Tolkien says, 256 00:19:10.119 --> 00:19:12.599 a champion of fairy. He is a bright star of the fantastical, 257 00:19:12.680 --> 00:19:18.839 which is precisely what is needed to scatter despairing shadows. As Tolkien writes quote, 258 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:22.400 he is historical, if at all, in the sense and degree that 259 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:26.640 King Arthur is a historical germ, a real person perhaps, about which practically 260 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:30.640 everything that is told is borrowed from myth, folklore, or sheer invention. 261 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:36.839 Beowulf, the bear man, the giant killer comes from a different world fairy 262 00:19:36.920 --> 00:19:38.799 story end quote. Now, in many ways that does not make him less 263 00:19:38.839 --> 00:19:44.440 real, but more real he represents something more real than particular fact. He 264 00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:48.759 is an incarnation of sorts, or at least a shadow of the true incarnation, 265 00:19:48.039 --> 00:19:52.000 the true myth of the Gospel, to use Lewis's language, the true 266 00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:56.200 myth which grants echoes of veracity to all good myths, and Beowulf is a 267 00:19:56.240 --> 00:19:59.599 good myth, one that ought to play out in our own lives. As 268 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:03.160 need arises. Now, Beowulf speaks with a watchman of the Danes and Truthguard's 269 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:07.720 Herald, and finally comes to speak with Rothgard himself. Now we see that 270 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:12.759 in opposition to the bleak, dark, despairing setting where we left Rothgar's people, 271 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:18.640 Beowulf's company has glinting armour intovine favor. Even on their voyage where told 272 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:22.559 that the ocean was gleaming and that their harness was bright. They are literally 273 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:26.880 and metaphorically a light of hope, piercing the shadow, much as the crippled 274 00:20:26.880 --> 00:20:30.640 theodin before gain off the white Truthgar is renewed before the light of Beowulf, 275 00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:36.400 with valor, hope and fresh resolved against the darkness. As he exclaims to 276 00:20:36.440 --> 00:20:41.000 his Herald concerning Beowulf, holy God has sent him to us in his mercy 277 00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:45.920 even to the West Danes, as is my hope against the terror of Grendel. 278 00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:48.759 And so here Ruthguard does not credit his idols and heathen hope. No, 279 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:53.960 he credits Holy God for sending Beowulf to bring light to the darkness of 280 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.799 his land. And when Beowulf, the True and Valiant Knight finally speaks with 281 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:03.160 Rothgar face to face, he recounts some of his past victories over monsters and 282 00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:07.440 demons, which are more or less the same thing in this context. And 283 00:21:07.480 --> 00:21:10.920 there is mention that he has the strength of thirty men, which of course 284 00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:15.160 is the number of men slain in Grendel's first attack, and Beowulf asks for 285 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:19.160 only one boon from Horothgar that he and his men may cleanse Herot. He's 286 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:22.240 in effect asking that the charge of Ferult be handed over to him for the 287 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:25.920 time being, so that he can put it in its proper order. To 288 00:21:26.119 --> 00:21:29.519 lesser men like you are eye, it seems like a strange request. He 289 00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:33.000 does not ask for riches, or a lady's handed marriage, or anything that 290 00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:36.400 you would think that such a warrior would request for such a deed. No, 291 00:21:36.680 --> 00:21:41.440 his reward is in vanquishing this evil. His reward is in the satisfaction 292 00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:45.680 of carrying out his duties as a warrior king. He is the ideal of 293 00:21:45.759 --> 00:21:49.160 the noble warrior, the utmost of the martial spirit. To take it a 294 00:21:49.160 --> 00:21:52.599 step further, he points out that Grendel does not use weaponry beyond his own 295 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:56.720 arms, and so Beowulf pledges to do the same, forsaking both sword and 296 00:21:56.839 --> 00:22:00.200 shield, as he says, quote, I shall see upon the foe and 297 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:04.920 engage in mortal contest with hate against hate. There to the judgment of the 298 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:11.000 Lord, shall he resign himself, whom death doth take. And thus Beoulf 299 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:15.279 does not rely on the heathen hope of idolatrous sacrifice, nor on the strength 300 00:22:15.319 --> 00:22:18.000 of chariots, so to speak. But he ultimately casts his fate where fate 301 00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:22.359 always resides, in the hand of God. Now, this fate is unknown 302 00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:26.759 to him at least at this point, but he at least recognizes that hand. 303 00:22:26.119 --> 00:22:30.519 Tolkien notes that it is not the power God that is unknown, but 304 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:33.920 it is his will. Now. Hruthgar, of course, heartily agrees to 305 00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:37.839 Beoulf's request as he recounts the ill fate befallen his people. But he affirms 306 00:22:38.200 --> 00:22:44.799 God alone may easily hinder from his deeds that savage foe Grendel will soon be 307 00:22:44.839 --> 00:22:48.519 in Beowulf's hands, but he was always in God's. But before the hand 308 00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:52.759 is shown, it is time for feasting. There for the young Gaddish knights 309 00:22:52.839 --> 00:22:56.440 together in company, adventures made free in the drinking hall. There to their 310 00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:02.160 seats, when those stout of heart resplendent in their strength in Esquire his office, 311 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:04.680 heated he that bore in hand the jeweled ale goblet, and poured, 312 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:10.559 greaming out the sweet drink. Ever and Anon the mistrel sang in clear herat 313 00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:15.319 there was mirth of mighty men, no little assembly of the tried valor of 314 00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:22.400 Danes and Wederas. Join me next time, as Grendel and Bewulf discover their 315 00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:26.759 fate in the great Herot. I hope you consider supporting me on Patreon at 316 00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:30.599 patreon dot com slash Mythic Mind, And until next time, I wish you 317 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:33.160 many meaningful roads ahead.