Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Mythic Mind. We pursue wisdom in
Speaker 1: the past between primary and secondary worlds. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Andrew Snyder, and I am always grateful for your company.
Speaker 1: All right, welcome back. As we go ahead and wrap
Speaker 1: up this short series on Tolkien's translation of Beowulf as
Speaker 1: our hero meets with the dragon as well as with
Speaker 1: the fate of all mortal men doomed to die. Now,
Speaker 1: I know you've skipped over a good bit of this story,
Speaker 1: only really focusing on the big fights. But if you
Speaker 1: want a more extensive journey, then you can enroll in
Speaker 1: my Beowulf and Bothia's course, which just recently started if
Speaker 1: you're listening to this soon after it first came out,
Speaker 1: or maybe the live run has already ended if you're
Speaker 1: listening to this sometime in the future. But in any case,
Speaker 1: you're welcome to hop in the course and you'll have
Speaker 1: access to all the materials indefinitely, and if the course
Speaker 1: is still running, then you'll walkome to jump into the
Speaker 1: live components as you're able. In any case, you can
Speaker 1: roll in this course at Andrew Snyder dot Patia dot
Speaker 1: com or just click the link in the show notes.
Speaker 1: And now before we get to this final sequence, let's
Speaker 1: do some quick review. The story begins with the legendary
Speaker 1: king Shield Shaving, who washed up on the shores of
Speaker 1: Denmark in a boat from who knows where. This founding
Speaker 1: rose to prominence and proved to be a valiant warrior
Speaker 1: and a strong leader. So a band of noble warriors
Speaker 1: gathered around him. He smashed foreign mead halls, grew his retainer,
Speaker 1: and he was generous to his men as a great
Speaker 1: giver of rings. Shield dies and he gives us one
Speaker 1: of the major funeral sequences that sandwiches this entire poem,
Speaker 1: the second, of course, it being that of Beowulf. Well.
Speaker 1: The Shieldings placed their king on a ship laden with
Speaker 1: treasures and send them back to the powers from which
Speaker 1: he originally came. Shield's son Bo took over after him,
Speaker 1: followed by his son haf Dana, and then his son Hrothgar,
Speaker 1: who founded the great mead hall. Herot during merriment and
Speaker 1: celebration of the good world designed for the habitation of men.
Speaker 1: The helrunin Grendel brooded in neihilistic anger and hostility toward
Speaker 1: the world of men. Grendel was descended from Kine, the
Speaker 1: first kinslayer and the father of all kinds of wicked
Speaker 1: creatures that existed just on the other side of humanity
Speaker 1: as corrupted near humans. And as mister Beaver tells us
Speaker 1: in Narnia, you should never trust something that seems nearly
Speaker 1: to be human but is in fact something else. Well,
Speaker 1: Grendel dishonorably attacks Heroltes at night en slays thirty of
Speaker 1: Hrothgar's men, and then he continues to stalk the land
Speaker 1: and even sets himself up as a kind of shadow
Speaker 1: ruler in herot. Fortunately, Beowulf of the Gaats, here's what
Speaker 1: is happening, and so he sets sail for Denmark and
Speaker 1: he kills Grendel in hand to hand combat, literally ripping
Speaker 1: his arm off. That is great merrymaking after this, But
Speaker 1: then Grendel's mother shows up and an attacks Herote in
Speaker 1: the same way that her son did, and Beowulf seeks
Speaker 1: out in her underwater layer and with the sword of
Speaker 1: a Nephelum, cuts off her head, and then he also
Speaker 1: cuts the head off from Grendel's body just for good measure,
Speaker 1: and he returns to Rothgard with the head of Grendel
Speaker 1: as a trophy growth Guard adopts Beowulf, creating some confusion
Speaker 1: regarding his successor, as troth Guard already has sons, But
Speaker 1: in any case, Beowulf heads back home to Gayet Land
Speaker 1: in the halls of his lord and uncle Ilac. We
Speaker 1: then jump ahead fifty years and now Beowulf is king
Speaker 1: of the Gayats, and this is where today's tale begins. Now,
Speaker 1: this portion of the story begins with a thief under
Speaker 1: the command of a higher lord stealing a goblet from
Speaker 1: a nearby dragon's hoard, which then sends the dragon on
Speaker 1: a rampage berninading the countryside and all of the peasants.
Speaker 1: And by the way, congrats to you if you found
Speaker 1: that to be an amusing reference. This is surely a
Speaker 1: testament to your fine taste and upbringing. Well. The dragon
Speaker 1: continues to rage, starting on the outskirts, then moving closer,
Speaker 1: and it finally destroys Beowulf's home, which does lead me
Speaker 1: to wonder why Bewolf did not act sooner but waited
Speaker 1: until the threat king to him personally. Perhaps he had
Speaker 1: his reasons, but it does make me wonder if he'd
Speaker 1: become more complacent in his old age than he was
Speaker 1: in his youth when he would travel across the sea
Speaker 1: to defeat a foreign threat. And actually, I think that
Speaker 1: this is probably a good time to point out a
Speaker 1: major difference between this monster, this threat, and the previous
Speaker 1: monster fights. Babe's fight with Grendel and his mother were voluntary.
Speaker 1: These were elective fights. They were not intrinsic to his existence,
Speaker 1: even if we might say that they are connected with
Speaker 1: his intrinsic identity as a hero. But remember that heroism
Speaker 1: has to be earned. As Tolkien says, this is not
Speaker 1: a heroic lay per se, but that this really is
Speaker 1: the story of the tragedy that is man's existence, and
Speaker 1: so it is the story of every man to that extent.
Speaker 1: And so just as we do, Baoth had to decide
Speaker 1: to be the hero. And in fact, we get a
Speaker 1: little bit of backstory around this part of the poem
Speaker 1: when we're told that as a youth, no one really
Speaker 1: thought he was going to amount to very muchI. This
Speaker 1: is not somebody who was born with herculean strength. This
Speaker 1: was just an ordinary human born in a very ordinary way.
Speaker 1: In fact, it seems like he was scrawnier than average
Speaker 1: as a child and as a youth, And so this
Speaker 1: is somebody who earned his strength that was not simply
Speaker 1: given to him, and so he had to decide to
Speaker 1: be the hero, and that makes him more relatable, more
Speaker 1: of an every man's heroic journey. Well, Beowulf heard tell
Speaker 1: of the rampages of Grendel, and so he voluntarily set sail,
Speaker 1: recognizing that he might die or he might not, and
Speaker 1: so he was forging a heroic path through the fog
Speaker 1: of uncertainty, just as we all must do if we're
Speaker 1: going to play the hero and do our part in
Speaker 1: putting this world into order. However, the dragon is different.
Speaker 1: This is a threat of his own homeland, brooding for
Speaker 1: over three hundred years in this barrow, literally this place
Speaker 1: of death. And so when Beowulf was born, the dragon
Speaker 1: was there. When Beowulf gained glory in Denmark, the dragon
Speaker 1: was there when Beowulf became king of his people and
Speaker 1: defeated their enemies, the dragon was there. You see, The
Speaker 1: dragon a real dragon. But it's also more than that.
Speaker 1: It is the epitome of fate. It is Beowulf's doom.
Speaker 1: Even as we all are born into such mortal doom
Speaker 1: of our own, we all have a death day appointed
Speaker 1: for us, and that is not one that we choose,
Speaker 1: but one that has chosen for us. And I think that,
Speaker 1: at least from the poetic perspective, this is why Beowulf
Speaker 1: does not head out to face the dragon before it
Speaker 1: was forced upon him. We need to have this sense
Speaker 1: of impending doom that moves closer and closer and that
Speaker 1: we really don't have control over. However, once that doom
Speaker 1: becomes personally related to Beowulf to the point where he
Speaker 1: can no longer escape it, well, now it's time for
Speaker 1: him to determine what the relationship is going to look
Speaker 1: like with this doom, and this is when Beowulf determines
Speaker 1: to fight, and he decides to fight alone. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: said that Beowulf does this out of pride, thinking of
Speaker 1: this threat will be as readily dismissed as his previous
Speaker 1: monster fights, and there is some reason to go this route,
Speaker 1: seeing Beowulf as a tragic hero, as Beowulf himself actually
Speaker 1: seems to make this point that he's dismissed these other
Speaker 1: monsters before he's killed Grendela killed his mother, and so
Speaker 1: surely he can defeat this dragon as well. However, I
Speaker 1: think that there's more going on. Here than mere pride,
Speaker 1: even though they very likely is present. At least from
Speaker 1: one angle. I think that we're seeing here is that
Speaker 1: in the end he needs to face his doom alone.
Speaker 1: It's not something that can be done from the outside,
Speaker 1: or at least it seems that way. However, he is
Speaker 1: not actually going to be alone in the end. When
Speaker 1: the rest of his men cower and fear, despite making
Speaker 1: much talk of themselves in the meat hall, one loyal
Speaker 1: knight named Weelof stands with his lord, a shield brother
Speaker 1: who literally uses his shield to protect his lord, giving
Speaker 1: us a beautiful display of loyalty and valor. Shortly before
Speaker 1: the fight, Weelof gives a speech rebuking his cowardly companions
Speaker 1: and unfortunately vainly calling them to recover their honor. He says,
Speaker 1: now is the day come when our liege Lord hath
Speaker 1: need of valor and of warrior's good come. Let us
Speaker 1: go to him. Let us help our leader in arms.
Speaker 1: While the heat endures the glowing terror, grim God knoweth
Speaker 1: that for my part, far sweeter is it from me
Speaker 1: that glowing fire should embrace my body beside the lord
Speaker 1: that gave me gold. Nor seems it fitting to me
Speaker 1: that we bear back our shields unto our home, unless
Speaker 1: we can first smite down the foe and defend the
Speaker 1: life of the King of the wind loving people. Verily,
Speaker 1: I know that his deserts of old were not such
Speaker 1: that he alone of proven gayetish men should suffer anguish
Speaker 1: and fall in battle with him. My sword and helm,
Speaker 1: my corset in my armor shall be joined in league.
Speaker 1: And so Welof was prepared to die with his lord Beowulf,
Speaker 1: But it would turn out that he actually would survive,
Speaker 1: while Beowulf and the Dragon would both deal mortal blows
Speaker 1: to one another. Yet despite this tragedy of death which
Speaker 1: all men must face, Beowulf conquered. He vanquished his doom.
Speaker 1: His death did not utterly consume him. He went as
Speaker 1: he must, but acting as a kind of Christ, he
Speaker 1: defeated death with his death, and he secured riches for
Speaker 1: his people before he died. Although mortally stricken, Babil have
Speaker 1: sent Weelof to survey the treasure Horde and to bring
Speaker 1: him back something to look upon. Weeloft does this, and
Speaker 1: he revels at the great wealth of the Horde. But
Speaker 1: we are given this penetrating insight that treasure gold hidden
Speaker 1: in the earth easily may overtake the heart of any
Speaker 1: of the race of men, let him beware who will.
Speaker 1: In fact, Tolkien suggests that it may actually be that
Speaker 1: the final human possessor of this treasure, who entrusted it
Speaker 1: to the earth with spells, may himself have fallen under
Speaker 1: the treasure's curse, and perhaps that he himself is or
Speaker 1: that he became the dragon. And Tom Shippey thinks that
Speaker 1: this theory is likely the inspiration for Usis's Scrubs transformation
Speaker 1: story in The Dawn Treader, as sleeping on a dragon's
Speaker 1: hoard with dragonish thoughts may actually turn you into a dragon. Well,
Speaker 1: weelof returned to his anguishing life, Lord, who makes one
Speaker 1: last speech saying to the Master of all, the glorious
Speaker 1: King in everlasting Lord, I now speak my words of
Speaker 1: thanks for these fair things that I here gaze upon,
Speaker 1: for that I have been suffered ere my death's hour,
Speaker 1: such wealth to gather from my people, now that I
Speaker 1: have for the horde of precious things bartered the span
Speaker 1: of mine old life, do ye henceforth furnish renowned in war,
Speaker 1: to make a mound for me plain to see when
Speaker 1: the pyre is done upon a headland out to the sea.
Speaker 1: It shall tower high above the world nesnes a memorial
Speaker 1: to my folk, that voyagers upon the sea shall hereafter
Speaker 1: name it beowulf Sparrow, even they who speed from afar
Speaker 1: their steep ships over the shadows of the deeps. He
Speaker 1: then appoints Weelof to be his successor, and he utters
Speaker 1: his last all hath fate swept away my kinsfolk to
Speaker 1: their appointed doom, good men of valor, I must follow them.
Speaker 1: And with that Beowulf died, and so sough. This aged
Speaker 1: warrior king was accepting of his death, as he knew
Speaker 1: that it brought freedom and riches for his people. And
Speaker 1: what more could a good king desire for his people?
Speaker 1: What better death could he die? And he makes his
Speaker 1: request that he be placed on a pyre, and that
Speaker 1: Beowulf's barrow serve as a marker in his signal for
Speaker 1: passing ships. As of course, any noble legacy ought to
Speaker 1: do ought to be for those who still travel the
Speaker 1: waters of this life. And at the end we receive
Speaker 1: this warning that with the death of Beowulf, these swedes
Speaker 1: are at the gates, and the people of Gayetland will
Speaker 1: soon follow their Lord in meeting their doom, thereby giving
Speaker 1: us a demonstration of this long defeat idea. The great
Speaker 1: Hearers might hold back the darkness for a time, but
Speaker 1: it's going to come to an end. And now for
Speaker 1: some summary and reflection points, I'm going to read a
Speaker 1: few passages from Tolkien's monumental essay Beowulf, the Monsters and
Speaker 1: the Critics. In this first passage, Tolkien points out the
Speaker 1: clear moral and spiritual nature of the conflict in Beowulf,
Speaker 1: and Lewis talks about this as well in his preface
Speaker 1: to Paradise Lost that Homer's poetry is beautiful, but there's
Speaker 1: not a clear consciousness of good and evil, such as
Speaker 1: we get in Beowulf, which is of course written by
Speaker 1: a Christian poet, even if this poet is describing a
Speaker 1: pagan past. Tolkien writes, but the gigantic foes whom Beowulf
Speaker 1: has to meet are identified with the foes of God.
Speaker 1: Grendel and the Dragon are constantly referred to in language
Speaker 1: which is meant to recall the powers of darkness with
Speaker 1: which Christian men felt themselves to be encompassed. They are
Speaker 1: the inmates of hell adversaries, of God, offspring of Cain,
Speaker 1: enemies of mankind. Consequently, the matter of the main story
Speaker 1: of Beowulf, monstrous as it is, is not so far
Speaker 1: removed from the common medieval experience as it seems to
Speaker 1: us to be from our own. Grendel hardly differs from
Speaker 1: the fiends of the pit, who are always in ambush
Speaker 1: to waylay a righteous man, and so Beowulf, for all
Speaker 1: that he moves in the world, a primitive heroic age
Speaker 1: of the Germans, nevertheless, is almost a Christian knight, and
Speaker 1: so to this extent it is not at all difficult
Speaker 1: to allegorize Beowulf, or better yet, to find points of applicability.
Speaker 1: There are real forces of evil in this world. There
Speaker 1: are real perversions of being that hate the good design
Speaker 1: with which God has made the world, and it does
Speaker 1: take a brave, valiant, sacrificial heroism to defeat them and
Speaker 1: to put this world into order. As Mary says, when
Speaker 1: Saramon is ravaging the Shire, it will certainly mean fighting.
Speaker 1: You won't rescue Lotho or the Shire just by being
Speaker 1: shocked and sad, my dear Frodo, or, as Lewis says,
Speaker 1: in mere Christianity, for Christianity is a fighting religion. It
Speaker 1: thinks God made the world that space and time, heat
Speaker 1: and cold, and all the colors and taste, and all
Speaker 1: the animals and vegetables are things that God made up
Speaker 1: out of his head as a man makes up a story.
Speaker 1: But it also thinks that a great many things have
Speaker 1: gone wrong with the world that God made, and that
Speaker 1: God insists and insists very loudly, on our putting them
Speaker 1: right again. We need more Beowulfs in this world. However,
Speaker 1: Note that Beowulf's fights are also temporal, and Tolkien highlights
Speaker 1: this as well. These monster fights are not merely spiritual
Speaker 1: if we're understanding spiritual as non physical, but they operate
Speaker 1: in the temporal physical sphere, and so to this point
Speaker 1: Tolkien says Beolf was still dealing with the great temporal
Speaker 1: tragedy and not yet writing an allegorical homily. In verse Grendel,
Speaker 1: it habits the visible world, and he eats the flesh
Speaker 1: and blood of men. He enters their houses by the doors.
Speaker 1: The dragon wields a physical fire and covets gold, not souls.
Speaker 1: He is slain with iron in his belly. Beolof's burn
Speaker 1: was made by Wheeland and the iron shield he bore
Speaker 1: against the serpent by his own smiths, it was not
Speaker 1: yet the breastplate of righteousness, nor the shield of faith,
Speaker 1: to the quenching of all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Speaker 1: And so Beowolf is indeed a type of Christian knight,
Speaker 1: but he's not exactly that Christian knight per se. He
Speaker 1: has a pagan virtue that still needs to be brought
Speaker 1: up into the context of grace and revelation. And how
Speaker 1: to conclude, talking points out that there is a reality
Speaker 1: to the idea of dragons. He says, a dragon is
Speaker 1: no idle fancy, whatever may be his origins in fact
Speaker 1: or invention, the dragon in legend is a potent creation
Speaker 1: of men's imagination, richer in significance than his barrow is
Speaker 1: in gold. Even today, despite the critics, you may find
Speaker 1: men not ignorant of tragic legend and history, who have
Speaker 1: heard of heroes and indeed seeing them, who yet have
Speaker 1: been caught by the fascination of the worm. And so
Speaker 1: there is something real to dragons, whether they have some
Speaker 1: actual existence in primary world history or something more metaphysical.
Speaker 1: Something of dragons exists in our blood, and we know
Speaker 1: that we respond to them, and there's a reason why
Speaker 1: they are so prevalent in our imaginations. There is something
Speaker 1: real about them, and we know that. And I may
Speaker 1: have something cooking on this further down the road, but
Speaker 1: I'll leave that as a teaser for now. The meantime,
Speaker 1: I will go ahead and wrap up this series with
Speaker 1: the final passage from the Monster. In the Critics, Tolkien writes,
Speaker 1: there is not much poetry in the world like this,
Speaker 1: And though Beowulf may not be among the very greatest
Speaker 1: poems of our western world, in its tradition it has
Speaker 1: its own individual character and peculiar solemnity. It would still
Speaker 1: have power had to been written in some time or
Speaker 1: place unknown and without posterity, if it contained no name
Speaker 1: that could now be recognized or identified by research. Yet
Speaker 1: it is in fact written in a language that, for
Speaker 1: many centuries has still a central kinship with our own.
Speaker 1: It was made in this land, and moves in our
Speaker 1: northern world, beneath our northern sky. And for those who
Speaker 1: are native to that tongue in land, it must ever
Speaker 1: call with profound appeal until the dragon comes. The realms
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Speaker 1: Don't go it alone, take a middle born armed sword
Speaker 1: or book bark with you, and now back to the show.
Speaker 1: Some recommendations. It's been a while since I last had
Speaker 1: a recommendation segment, but I do read a lot, and
Speaker 1: so this really does need to be something that I
Speaker 1: do regularly. One book that I've really been enjoying recently
Speaker 1: is Eleanor Parker's Winters in the World, a Journey through
Speaker 1: the Anglo Saxon Year. It's a really interesting dive into
Speaker 1: Anglo Saxon culture, poetry, theology, and really just life as
Speaker 1: it looks at what each season meant for them, and
Speaker 1: it symbols work, rhythms, and liturgy. What began as a
Speaker 1: poking around to prepare for teaching Beywolf in the Course
Speaker 1: has now turned into something of an obsessive interest with
Speaker 1: the Anglo Saxons. And that's really how my interests tend
Speaker 1: to go. I just go all in with some topic
Speaker 1: and then a related interest begins to germinate until it
Speaker 1: takes over, and then I move on to the next thing. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm now shifting from C. S. Lewis to the Anglo Saxon,
Speaker 1: So I'm reading a lot accordingly, and The Winter's in
Speaker 1: the World is definitely a text that I would recommend
Speaker 1: to you, and there's a really good reading of it
Speaker 1: on audible and wherever else you get your audiobooks. But
Speaker 1: I also just got the real thing because I enjoyed
Speaker 1: the audio so much, and so if you're into history
Speaker 1: and this topic in particular, then be sure to check
Speaker 1: it out, and you can find the Amazon link in
Speaker 1: the show notes. Now, moving forward, the next main series
Speaker 1: on the roster will be The Poetic Ado, which is
Speaker 1: our primary source for Norse mythology, and that will be
Speaker 1: a Patreon exclusive series, but I don't yet have the
Speaker 1: bandwidth to get going on that just now, and so
Speaker 1: I'm going to put out some interview episodes for a
Speaker 1: bit in the public feed because there are some people
Speaker 1: that I've been wanting to talk to for a while.
Speaker 1: And frankly, it's a little bit easier for me to
Speaker 1: keep up with production when I don't have to prepare
Speaker 1: as much ahead of time, and time is very precious
Speaker 1: to me right now. I've always been busy in so
Speaker 1: many directions, and with the summer coming to an end
Speaker 1: now I have to start teaching on campus again. And
Speaker 1: while I am closer than I once was, I would
Speaker 1: really love to be able to shift into completely focusing
Speaker 1: my career on these independent pursuits such as the podcast,
Speaker 1: independently led courses, the substack, working together on Mythic Mind
Speaker 1: Fellowship projects, and working on some other projects since I've
Speaker 1: been and talk to the publisher about writing a Tolkien book,
Speaker 1: and I've been invited to collaborate on a Lewis related screenplay.
Speaker 1: But there's no way that I can do all of
Speaker 1: these things without your support, or really most of these
Speaker 1: things without your support. And I already really appreciate those
Speaker 1: of you who support me on Patreon, and so many
Speaker 1: thanks to all of my ten dollars patron tiers in
Speaker 1: higher and so that's Mark, Cliff, Aaron, Josh Paul William, Aaron,
Speaker 1: Andrew Brandon, Christopher and Jeremiah, Joscelyn, Joshua Landon, Matthew and Steele,
Speaker 1: and of course thank you to all of my Tier
Speaker 1: one patrons as well. Also, I want to let you
Speaker 1: know that there have been some changes to patron benefits
Speaker 1: and so I'm going to quickly run through that with
Speaker 1: just five dollars a month of support, you have access
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Speaker 1: you have access to our Mythic Mind discord server, and
Speaker 1: you are invited to participate in our Fellowship conversations for
Speaker 1: the other podcast, the Mythic Mind Fellowship Podcast. At ten
Speaker 1: dollars a month, you also get recordings of my articles
Speaker 1: on Tolkien's Letters delivered into that same podcast feed, and
Speaker 1: also your name will be mentioned on the show. At
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars a month of support, you also get
Speaker 1: access to the material from past courses, and so this
Speaker 1: means that you'll have access to the video content as
Speaker 1: well as the audio for the podcast feed. At the moment,
Speaker 1: I'm posting content from the Fiction and Philosophy of CS
Speaker 1: Lewis course on a monthly basis, and then at fifty
Speaker 1: dollars a month, I'll let you choose from a curated
Speaker 1: selection of books now and then again every six months.
Speaker 1: If you appreciate the things that I do and want
Speaker 1: me to do more of it, then I welcome you
Speaker 1: to go ahead and become a patron today. For most people,
Speaker 1: I recommend the twenty five dollars a month to year
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Speaker 1: and is very much appreciated. And of course, whether you
Speaker 1: support me financially or not, please share this around and
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Speaker 1: wherever you can do that. But that's it for now
Speaker 1: and until next time, god speed. You may have noticed
Speaker 1: that there were no annoying auto populated ads at the
Speaker 1: beginning or throwing to the middle of the show, and
Speaker 1: that's thanks to our current sponsor, Middleborn Arms. I previously
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