This is an archetype that appears again and again throughout history, more as a way to extrapolate and emphasize the best that humans can offer as opposed to being born into a tradition of royalty. The saving of society, though, is usually met with grave personal sacrifice, sometimes of wealth, more often of loved ones, or, in the case of Beowulf, the ultimate sacrifice -- giving up one's own life in the service of society (Raffel intro). So, too, fate is interspersed with a very simple concept of armor -- which corresponds to linage, reputation, and the essentials of what makes an individual unique, certainly not just that they were born of royal blood, but that somewhere and somehow they reached down to the very depths of their soul and found the courage, stamina and something "heroic" in which mere mortals can only hope for:
Beowulf donned his armor for battle,
Heeded not danger; the hand-braided byrny,
Broad of shoulder and richly bedecked,
Must stand the ordeal of the watery depths.
Well could that corselet defend the frame
Lest hostile thrust should pierce...
Once this has been discussed, it is somewhat easier to translate Einstein's concept to the poet's own courageous scientific imagination, as scene in the scene from "Beowulf" previously mentioned. Just as the modern scientist, the poet introduces and, subsequently, tries to understand and explain, the idea of chaotic events, events that cannot be explained by the traditional ideas. Despite his own behavior aimed at avoiding conflict, Beowulf cannot control all the
Beowulf, Grendel, and Grendel's Mother Monstrous? To be monstrous is to be something other than human, but monstrous means more than extraordinary; it is a term with a bad or evil connotation, so that those who are monstrous are not only outside of the realm of the average human being, but also outside of it in a negative way. In the novel Beowulf, one encounters three different characters who have
Beowulf What does it mean to be good in the world described in Beowulf? The way that good is described in the world of Beowulf, is as an individual who is: masculine, fearless and strong. The main character (i.e. Beowulf) is the classical depiction of this person. As he will continually, fight and slay the dragon that has been terrorizing the Danes. The way that he acts and carries himself throughout the
And all that would remain would be their brothers to mourn them, inconsolable. The anxiety expressed by this poem is acutely felt and accurately represents the norms of the era. During this era, if someone was killed by someone else, the family of the slain person would have to kill the murderers in order to avenge the death of their beloved. Thus, it makes perfect sense that the poem goes
Nevertheless, he is resolute in his decision to face the dragon in order to continue on towards his attainment of the paradoxical heroic ideal, even if he recognizes that this ideal may be the cause of unwarranted pain and suffering, and thus tells his men that "this fight is not yours, / nor is it up to any man except me / to measure his strength against the monster
In this context, Beowulf is indeed the preserver of order against the darkness and anarchy brought by the violent, evil forces: "The circle of light that is human life is constantly under attack by the powers of Chaos and darkness, and the hero fends them off as well as he can, purging Heorot and Grendel's mere, fighting monsters in the waters, harrowing Hell in order that God's light may
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