Any student versed in both Norse and Anglo-Saxon literatures may immediately recognise similarities between the Norse god Thor and the Anglo-Saxon hero, Beowulf. The text of Beowulf, it may be observed, suggests all throughout many parallelisms not only in the stories of the two characters, but also in the contexts in which both are situated. I would argue that Beowulf not only exemplifies aspects of Thor, but that, moreover, it is in the Beowulf poet’s intention to represent in Beowulf the human figure of the god himself. It is important to recognize this perspective especially in Beowulf’s final battle with the dragon, in order for us to be able to observe how the poet, with beautiful, elegiac undertones, wistfully celebrates Northern heroism.
It is a widely accepted fact in Beowulf’s readership that the author was a Christian writing for a Christian audience. Heather O’Donohue specifically implies that the author was most likely a cleric: “Anglo-Saxon authors were Christians, perhaps mostly clerics, and clerical culture dominated literary production” (11). J.R.R. Tolkien gives the clerical identity of the author more clarity as he expounds on him thus:
…he brought probably first to his task a knowledge of Christian poetry, especially that of the Caedmon school, and especially Genesis. He makes his minstrel sing in Heorot of the Creation of the earth and the lights of Heaven….Secondly, to his task the poet brought a considerable learning in native lays and traditions: only by learning and training could such things be acquired (Monsters and the Critics 26-27).
This blending of the old and new[1], the Christian and the pagan, is a possibility construed from the conditions of the poet’s native land. Harold Bloom thus describes a firmly Christian nation that has “established control of a mixed and somewhat turbulent Anglo-Scandinavian society” (37). It can then be asserted that Beowulf’s author was supplied with enough materials from the past and a sufficient understanding of his present time to be able to compose a poem that could recount the old days with a certain novelty. Furthermore, it can be said of Beowulf (and indeed of any Anglo-Saxon poetry) that the poems “concerned themselves with the resigned but wistful recreation of a distant and faded past, and meditations on ends and beginnings” (O’Donohue, 11).
The antiquarian author of Beowulf artfully draws forth some themes in Norse literature that may not be too apparent at first glance[2]. The principal of these – and my chief concern – is the insinuation of Thor’s characteristics and background into Beowulf. One of the first similarities that arises is the presence of the necklace of the Brosings. Beowulf receives it as an award after killing Grendel (1197-1201). Thor as well wears it in a quest in Þrymsviða:
Létu und hánum
hrynja lukla
ok kvenváðir
of kné falla,
en á brjósti
breiða steinna,
ok hagl ga
of höfuð typðu (19).
O‘Donohue additionally recounts three other common exploits of the heroes. “Both Thor and Beowulf, when young, contend with a sea monster or monsters, out in the ocean, and best their companion; their safe return is carefully noted….Both Thor and Beowulf wrestle with an old woman….Finally, both Thor and Beowulf have a close encounter with a giant’s glove”(20).
I observe two more relevant and related events. Both Beowulf and Thor have a final battle against a serpentine or dragon-like creature about to lay their kingdoms to waste. These occasions have been foreshadowed in the Völuspá for Thor and in the story of Sigemund (ll. 898-915) for Beowulf. The heroes eventually succeed in slaying the dragons, and likewise both die from the battle wounds. It is from these encounters that the heroes achieve their most praiseworthy deed. Tolkien may add:
…as far as we know anything about these old poets, we know this: the prince of the heroes of the North, supremely memorable – hans nafn mun uppi meðan veröldin stendr – was a dragon-slayer. And his most renowned deed, from which in Norse he derived his title Fáfnisbani, was the slaying of the prince of legendary worms (Monsters and the Critics 16).
He also mentions that Beowulf’s first major fight – the one against Grendel – makes for a perfect balance when contrasted against the climactic battle against the wyrm, the dragon[3]. Finnegan observes this buildup thus: “as the hero becomes increasingly entrammeled in the meshes of the society of which he is a part, the victory becomes harder, as in the struggle with Grendel’s mother, until it becomes finally impossible[4]” (54). There is here a sense that is deeply connected with Beowulfian and Viking society, where “a hopeless battle was not something to be avoided; it was an opportunity to win undying word-fame in the mortal world and ultimately a place in the golden age after Ragnarök” (Dougherty 39).
Seamus Heaney further emphasizes the importance and full meaning of the dragon in Beowulf. “He [the dragon] lodges himself in the imagination as wyrd [fate/destiny] rather than wyrm, more a destiny than a set of reptilian vertebrae” (xix). So represented then is the power of Fate – “Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel”, Fate goes ever as she must (line 445).
Fate in Beowulf is directly linked to God, who is oftentimes referred to in the poem as Metod (in line 180, for example), which is also a word for fate. It is he who decides ultimately the fate of the hero Beowulf. It may be said that his divine blessing is what gives Beowulf protection in his first two major encounters. In his fight with Grendel the poet declares thus:
Ac him Dryhten forgeaf
wig-speda gewiofu, Wedera leodum,
frofor ond fultum, þæt hie feond heora
durh anes cræft ealle ofercomon,
selfes mihtum. Soð is gecyþed,
þæt mihtig God manna cynnes
weold wide-ferð (696-702).
Here God is described as a seamster of fate who rules over mankind, weaving victory for the “Weather-Geats”. In Beowulf’s battle against Grendel’s mother, the poet notes that “halig God / geweold wig-sigor” – “holy God decided the victory” (1553-1554). These blessings are alarmingly absent in Beowulf’s final clash. Thus the hero, boastful – as a Northern hero is wont to be – in his own strength and might, is left to pay the final wages of his heroic endeavours: “the wages of heroism is death” (Tolkien, Monsters and the Critics 26). Finnegan notes that “the dragon fight, particularly when compared with the Grendel battle, is more overtly pagan in tone” (53). Recalling its connections with Thor’s encounter with the Midgard Serpent, this last battle indeed brings with it certain elements from Norse mythology.
What is interesting here is the silence of the poem about God’s actions; neither the poet nor any of the characters speak of God at this point. What the readers see instead is an unfolding of events taken right from the story of Thor’s fight with Jörmungandr. God’s actions are either suspended or withheld, and the pagan clash is allowed to take place without restraint. The aftereffects, as the poet presents them, are plaintively devastating. The gold that Beowulf fought for proves to be useless[5]. Beowulf’s death, moreover, signifies the end of his Geatish kingdom (O’Donohue 22-23).
It seems fitting to say that the poet is weaving the ending into a sombre celebration of Beowulf’s death. Victorious he was indeed, as was Thor, in ridding the world of the evil wyrm, but the poet laments the godlessness of the characters in Beowulf and perhaps the vanity of the heroes’ deaths. Hrólfs Saga Kraka ends in a similar, yet more outspoken note. Master Galterus, seemingly randomly inserted into the final passage of the saga, voices out what I believe to be a remark that Beowulf’s poet only hints at: “Sagði meistarinn Galterus, at mannligir kraftar máttu ekki standast við slíkum fjanda krafti, utan máttr guðs hefði á móti komit, — ‘ok stóð þér þat eitt fyrir sigrinum, Hrólfr konungr, at þú hafðir ekki skyn á skapara þínum’” (Förnaldar 104)[6].
It will feel even more woeful when the readers keep in mind that Heorot, the Great Hall of Hrothgar, a symbol of Valhalla transfigured into the mortal world[7], has been at this point burnt down by the dragon. We may say that it is a representation that helps the poet’s “resigned but wistful recreation” of the past (O’Donohue 11). Likewise, Beowulf’s dirge brings us back to the melancholic tone of an elegy, mourning the loss of a great leader beloved by all.
So the sole might and power of the Thor-like Beowulf, lacking the aid of the Almighty, equates to nought upon facing his Fated doom. Yet here also he finds his glory, his most renowned deed – a licence which in a more ancient time would have given him full permission to enter Valhalla. Fate and Metod have set aside this time for Beowulf, a king beloved and a warrior valiant, to receive lof, the fame, which he, as a Northern hero (right down to the marrow), seeks most eagerly and deserves indubitably. Thus hans nafn mun uppi meðan veröldin stendr.
[1] Alluding to Tolkien’s quote in The Monsters and the Critics, p.20
[2] O’Donohue notes that we “can only expect carefully meditated allusions at best”. (11) The author has indeed put some careful meditation and deep thought into weaving the story of Beowulf together.
[3] See The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, p.32
[4] Finnegan states that the armor is “symbolic of the defenses his society can afford him in the battle” (49)
[5] As Finnegan notes in p. 54
[6] In essence: “Human strength cannot stand such fiendish power, unless the strength of God is employed against it” (Byock)
[7] James Earl suggests this relationship between Heorot and Valhalla in Thinking about Beowulf, pp. 115-116
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