Hello, and welcome to Mythic Mind. We pursue wisdom of the past between
primary and secondary world. I'm your host, Andrew Snyder, and I am
always grateful for your company. All right, welcome back if we finally get
back to Beowulf. Now, this is going to be a bit of a
shorter episode, but reducing the scope of what I'm doing in each episode may
help me to keep things going on a more regular basis. So in the
last episode of this series, which I admit was some time ago, we
took a look at the lead up to the confrontation with Grendel. Grendel had
been haunting the lands of growth car unabated as the Danes lived in utter tear,
dread, and shadow. Word of this plight eventually moved across the sea
to the ears of Beowulf of the Giats. With glinting arms and the sun
sparkling on the sea, Beowulf became a light in the darkness, a prince
of fairy come to re enchant the disillusion with proper vision and valor. He
was warmly received by Rothgar, but Unfirth, a warrior of the mead Hall
Hero, questioned his abilities, referencing a swimming race that Beowulf had lost,
and Beowulf readily puts Unfirth in his place, rebeaking his vain words of petty
envy with the substance of his feats. Yes, he may have lost a
swimming race against Brecca, but that was because he took a detour, pulled
in a torrent into an abyss of sea monsters, which he readily slew.
Once he gained this glory, were told that light came from the east,
God's beacon bright, so that I could descry the headlands out to the sea
in windy cliffs. Fate oft saveth a man not doomed to die when his
valor fails not, and this continued the ongoing interplay between personal responsibility and providence
or fate. Beowulf had a part to play. He had to make the
choice to fight, but as one who was carried by providence, his light
is a gift which he receives that he himself might be a beacon of divine
light in a world given over to shadow and brutes. He himself is a
beacon of divine light that is rising up from the east. Unfirth, on
the other hand, has no great victories in battle to recount. If he
had any heart with which he might boast against Beowulf, Beowulf says, Brothgar's
halls would not be plagued with Grendel. In other words, Beowulf is only
there because Unfirth has nothing but empty words. Beowulf, on the other hand,
has substance, which in turn gives substance to his words. Now Beowulf
prepares for his battle with Grendel with confidence that is true, confidence that is
confide with faith, for his strength is not his own by nature, but
by grace. As it's written verily, the Gaddish knight, trusted confidently in
his valiant strength God's grace to him. And a little further down, Beowulf
says, let the foreseeing God, the Holy Lord, adjudge the glory to
whichever side seemeth meat. And so Beowolf is not responsible for winning in this
contest against Grendel. Beowulf is responsible for choosing to fight. Choosing the good
and embodying virtue is his task. The results are in the hands of the
Lord, where they've always been, and so too is always the case with
us. We cannot guarantee outcome that is not ours to decide. What is
ours to decide is how we are going to relate to present circumstance. In
so doing, we establish a proper relation to fortune, accepting whatever spins our
way in this great wheel. As Marcus Aurelius writes in his Meditations, good
fortune is a good disposition of the soul. If you want to have good
fortune, then what you don't want to do is spend your time focusing on
things that are outside your control. What you do need to do is focus
on what is in your control, such as the way that you relate to
fortune. And so truly, good fortune is a good disposition of the soul.
That is the fortune that we have responsibility for handling appropriately. And so
Beowulf finished men await in he wrote for granted to descend upon them as was
his way. Grendel began by attacking a sleeping knight and gorging on his blood.
And so Grendel's clearly a vampire like figure. He's feeding on the life
of men, even as evil must feed on the good to exist, for
evil is a privation. Evil is a lack in order for evil to exist,
which isn't even really phrasing because evil doesn't exist, but in a manner
speaking, in order for evil to exist, it must borrow its being from
that which is good. Even death would not be a reality but for the
reality of life. So too, as a brute with no honor, Grendel
consumes the sleeping night. He then moves to beoulf, but quickly finds that
he has met a warrior prepared for battle. Not desiring to meet with the
glory of genuine combat, Grendel attempts to flee, but he's forced into combat.
Beowolf's nights encircle Grendel with their swords, but there still cannot pierce the
hell Ronan's hide as he had already intended to do. Beowulf must engage with
Grendel in hand to hand combat. This victory against evil could not be won
by sharpened tools, but only by the strength of his own god given valor,
which had already been well stewarded for the task at hand. And so
with this strength Beowulf quite literally disarmed Grendel. As then he ripped his arm
off at the shoulder and the helfiend escape the hall, but he was mortally
wounded. Whimpering back to his foul dens to die in the presence of his
mother. Grendel's bloodied arm was raised in Herote as a trophy of the victory
of Beowulf, slayer of the Helrunin, and beacon of light that can dispel
the shadows of hell. There was great joy and merriment in the halls of
Herote and throughout the lands of the Danes, and a poet recounted the tale
of Zigmund, the dragon slayer in Beowulf's honor, exalting him to the company
of the great epic heroes and foreshadowing Beowulf's path ahead. Now, Unfortunately,
and a little bit surprisingly, Tolkien, at least in the book that I'm
using, doesn't have any direct commentary on this passage. And so what can
we take away from this? Well, first, we see that reliance on
providence does not deny personal risks reponsibility. God is responsible for the outcome,
be an earthly victory or an untimely at least as we might call it,
an untimely meeting with the fate of all mortals. The reality is we're going
to die, and that time is fixed before we are born. We cannot
control how the wheel of fortune turns. But we can determine how we relate
to fortune. We can decide to play the hero. We can choose the
path of valor. We can stand strong against the hell, runin against those
irrational, neihilistic forces of hell. After all, are we not called to
participate in the war of the heavenly places. Sometimes we will win the battle,
and sometimes we will lose, at least in the way that our eyes
can see. But even losing in the right way is a kind of victory.
Note that Mars is the influence over noble knights of Marshall prowess as well
as martyrs. You can even see the name Mars within that word martyr.
The noble victory and the noble death both involve standing firm against external forces that
would do you and the world that you love, or better there yet,
the world that you should love harm. So guard yourself for battle. Stand
against evil first and foremost, the evil within your own soul, where Helrounin
may roam unknown, as well as the external evils that plague your kin and
your neighbors. To quote the Great Mary Brandybuck, it will certainly mean fighting.
You won't rescue Lotho or the Shire just by being shocked and sad.
My dear Frodo. If you enjoy this episode and you'd like to take a
deeper dive into Beowulf along with a great community, be sure to enroll in
the Life, Death and Meaning with Beowulf and Boethius course that is starting up
next month. I'm currently in the midst of my first public facing study on
the fiction and philosophy of C. S. Lewis, and that's going really
well. We have sixty participants and regular discussions in our discord chat as well
as our weekly Zoom meetings. It has really just been a great community formed
around this study. And as with that course, the Beowulf and Boethis course
includes weekly course exclusive videos, ongoing Discord Chad, and weekly live meetings.
To enroll, you can go to Andrew Snyder dot Patia dot com and you
can also find that link in the show notes. And also because I'm getting
back into this podcast series on Beowulf, I'm currently running a deal through the
end of July use the Code podcast to enroll in the Beywolf and Boethist course
at half of the normal price. Now. I also have several other projects
in motion, including a potential book deal on a Tolkien project. But as
always I struggle to find the time for all the things that I want to
do as I balance out these passion pursuits with things that are going to pay
the bills. And so if you would like to buy me some more freedom
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Until next time, I wish you Mandy, meaningful roads ahead and glorious
victory against any hell runin that may haunt your path.