The coast guard letting Beowulf through can be looked at as Beowulf's already showing tone of leadership as the Coast Guard just takes his word for it. So he must look as if he is who he says and have an ora about him.
pg23 L320 "It was paved...of greyesh tapering ash"
There is a defendant tone change here The words rhyme and flow smoothly giving the guards a more "glorious" feeling to them as if they are destined to be in the meat hall and have finally found it.
pg27 L380 "...with the strength of 30 men in each hand"
This is how many men Grendel grabbed up and took back to his layer with him. Is this a forshadow and a statement that Beowulf is outmatching Grendel?
pg31 L431 "...privilege of purifying Hereot"
The idea of purifying the hall by killing Grendel is interesting because normally purifying is compared to a priest or somebody of great power such as when a priest baptizes somebody. This is setting up the idea of Beowulf being as a godlike hero.
pg41 L580 "...you will suffer damnation of hell"
There is a large amount of epic boasting which is expected especially of a great warrior like Beowulf, but there is a lot of mention of Hell which is related to many religions but Hell is more similar to christianity. The idea that Beowulf comes in to purify Hereat and is telling people they are going to hell almost seems to make him out as God himself.
pg49 L711 "God cursed Grendel"
I find it very sad that Grendel is completely screwed as he is so fated to die. Beowulf is set up as a force so mighty he doesn't even use what available armor or weapons he has and is blessed by god while Grendel is a poor swamp creature with Gods curse...
No comments:
Post a Comment