Anglo-Saxon women are objects who are gifts to generate a fragile peace. Bloody combat between men attempting to earn fame embodies the Anglo-Saxon era. But does history include women? No, in fact, most women in the epic poem Beowulf are unworthy of even a name. Men trap women as objects; those who rebel become infamous monsters in society’s eyes. Because Anglo-Saxon men view women as objects, they are unable to control any aspect of their lives--no matter if she is royalty or the lowest of all mothers.
Men ignore royal women’s orders and desires, which means even royal women are nothing more than objects. The widow Queen Hygd scrutinizes her son, Heardred’s ability to rule the clan after Hygelac 's death. Hygd realizes a child cannot lead
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Grendel’s mother slinks through the night, vengeance twisting her mind with plans to stain her nails red with blood. The men within Heoret killed her child, and Grendel’s death merited no wergild. Distraught over Grendel’s death and the missing wergild, she attacks the men responsible for killing her child, and even manages to kill one man before running into the cover of darkness (Beowulf 43-59). Yet, when she attacked “the terror she inspired was less-- just as the fighting strength of a woman is not so great as that of an armed man” (Beowulf 57). She attacks these men, yet, because she is a woman, her vengeance is a horrendous sin. However, Anglo-Saxon men enact revenge even if the guilty paid their wergild, and these men are heroes for their actions, such as the Heathobards. The Heathobards could attack the Danish retainers of Freawaru in act of revenge for the past actions of the Danes, even if the Danish men preset are innocent (Beowulf 75-76). In Anglo-Saxon society, wergild is money pay for a death, and this blood money prevents future bloodshed. This ideal is faulty, because Grendel’s mother is despicable for enacting revenge after not receiving wergild. The men bend the rules to fit their own agendas, while women are trapped as objects with no escape. Furthermore, Grendel’s mother is unable to govern decisions about her child. Consider Hildeburh, a Fin’s wife. “Hildeburh gave orders that her own son should be committed to the flames upon Hnaef’s pyre and that his body was to be burnt besides his uncle’s”. Hildeburh’s son is then burned on the pyre, exactly as she requested (Beowulf 53). Hildeburh is able to decide what occurs to her dead child, and yet Grendel’s mother is denied even Grendel’s entire corpse. When she manages to steal the missing arm back, Beowulf retaliates by killing her and taking the head from
...th for his murders. Beowulf, who is also responsible for the killing of Grendel, is killed as well. The dragon and the trolls, as well as Beowulf, are responsible for their actions. They are all killed: “He would repay Grendel for the many attacks he made on the West-Danes . . . devouring Danish” (Donaldson 28). This is another example of “wergild” being applied.
Since the dawn of man and women, the issue of gender role has existed. Throughout history the norms of each gender have shifted. The two texts of Beowulf and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, both support a single sex, but are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Beowulf, written in around 800 AD represents the time of men superiority over women, who were the dominant figures in society and their families. On the other hand, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, depicts the contrary, the time of the 1960’s where women’s power grew stronger in contrast to men. In each test the power of each gender is perceived as threatening to the opposite sex, to keep in place, the supremacy of their own gender.
The roles Anglo-Saxon women played in their society depended on the status they had in their community. As in most cultures, the roles of women in Anglo-Saxon society included mother, wife, caregiver, and teacher. Because Anglo-Saxon women had many different roles, I will only focus here on marriage, divorce, and their daily life in their society.
“A peace-weaver was a woman who would be married to a person from an enemy tribe in the hopes of ending a feud” (Yewdaev). The role of women in Anglo-Saxon culture was simple: to settle arguments through arranged marriage. However, Grendel’s mother did not follow similar principles. Instead of arriving at the mead hall ready to make amends and to settle Grendel’s dispute, she returns bloodthirsty and yearning for revenge. Another part that women in the Anglo-Saxon period undertook was that of a cupbearer. “So the Helming woman went on her rounds, / queenly and dignified, decked out in rings, / offering the goblet to all ranks, / treating the household” (Heaney 620-623). Cupbearers served the purpose of passing around cups of mead around to the men until they were all drunk and merry. Grendel’s mother’s independence and lack of subordination to men in the culture epitomizes the contrast she faces with other women in the era. Her attack is surprisingly more impactful than all of Grendel’s together, even though she only delivers a single fatality. Rather than taking out a random drunk guard, she goes straight for Hrothgar’s favorite advisor. “To Hrothgar, this man was the most beloved/ of the friends he trusted between the two seas” (1296-1297). Evidently, coincidence or not, her attack on his advisor was immensely powerful, and contradicts the passive,
The fictional world of Grendel has great divides between male and female characters. While the novel is written in a fairly contemporary society, the world that Gardner constructs still follows under the same logic and principle as the ancient writings of Beowulf. The men are overtly masculine and tough, and the women are constructed with extreme passivity; there is marginal middle ground in both worlds. The constructions of how certain genders act are crucial to interrogate in order to understand one’s bias and become cognizant of the variety of gender roles men and women can endorse. The world of Grendel is full of symbols that construct men as violent, sexual creatures and women as passive objects.
There are three prominent monsters in the Beowulf text, Grendel, his mother, and the dragon. While the dragon proves to be the most fatale of foes for Beowulf, Grendel and his mother do not simply pose physical threats to the Germanic society; their roles in Beowulf are manifold. They challenge the perceptions of heroism, a sense of unrivalled perfection and superiority. Moreover, they allow the reader to reconsider the gender constructs upheld within the text; one cannot help but feel that the threat that these monsters present is directed towards the prevalent flaws in Beowulf’s world. Moreover, what makes these monsters is not their physical appearance; it is what they embody. Both Grendel and his mother have humanlike qualities yet their monstrous appearance arises from what their features and mannerisms represent. The challenge they pose to societal paradigms makes them far more terrifying to our heroes than any scaled flesh or clawing hand. These monsters provide the ‘most authoritative general criticism […] of the structure and conduct of the poem’. Their presence provides contrast and criticism of the brave society (Heaney 103).
The women in Beowulf are barely discussed and seem to exist solely for the use of the men. They are weak and portray none of the legendary qualities that the men display. Wealhtheow, the Queen of Danes and Hrothgar's wife, is the only female character in the epic that talks. In a speech to her husband, we are able to see that she is a strong woman, who is able to speak her mind. She tells the king that it is good that he adopted Beowulf, but reminds him that he already has two sons. However, her speech is made while she carries the drinking goblet to all of the men in the room, "Wealhtheow came in,/ Hrothgar's queen, observing the courtesies./ Adorned in her gold, she graciously handed the cup first to Hrothgar, their homeland's guardian,/ urging him to drink deep and enjoy it because he was dear to them" (612-618). When she is given the opportunity to talk, she only praises the men and plays a role defined by their society.
Historically, men have always been seen as superior to women. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia is the perfect example of a female character that is weak, passive and overly reliant on men. However, The Wife of Bath, from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, does not adhere to the misogynistic mindset of her time. Despite the numerous female characters in literature similar to Ophelia, Chaucer’s creation of the Wife of Bath proves that not all authors depicted women as inferior.
The epic poem, Beowulf, a work of fiction, offers more insight into Ancient Anglo-Saxon English culture than the work of Bede, who wrote, A History of the English Church and People. The epic poem Beowulf gives an enhanced illustration and clearer understanding of the culture of the Ancient Anglo-Saxon’s. The epic poem gives the audience a picture of what the Ancient Anglo-Saxon English valued; seafaring, warriors, heroes, and paganism.
The middle English poem Beowulf also defines the important ways in which the feminist heroine is part of an ancient poetic tradition in the depiction of empowered women in patriarchal society. For instance, the plot of the story revolves around Beowulf’s indoctrination into the court of King Hrothgar, since he has been chosen to destroy to the monster Grendel. However, an unusual break with patriarchal tradition finds Wealhtheow, the wife of King Hrothgar, passing the mead cup to Beowulf as part of this indoctrination. In this ceremony, the tradition of the king passing the mead cup has been disavowed due to the power of the Wealhtheow in the royal court: “Wealhtheow came in,/ Hrothgar’s queen, observing the courtesies./ Adorned in gold, she
Revenge is presented both as an honest motive and a rhetorical tactic in Beowulf. For Beowulf himself, reprisal of monsters’ misdeeds is his path to the top: worldwide fame, endless wealth, and universal respect. Grendel’s violence is caused less by revenge than by complete frustration with his situation. Other characters’ actions are fueled directly by a sincere desire for a settling of scores. Grendel’s mother kills Aeschere solely because Beowulf killed Grendel. The last monster that the Hero of the Geats ever faces has only one goal: to guard his hoard of treasure. When his fortune is pilfered, revenge is the dragon’s only way to react. While revenge is a common façade in Beowulf, some characters feel an honest need for retribution and seek it to their life’s end.
In history, evil men have reigned supreme across many cultures. Some people say that being evil is inherent in every human. If this is true, then writing may be the ultimate way of releasing hatred of the world without hurting anyone. In Beowulf, all of society's evil men can be personified within the demons of Cain. The main demon presented in Beowulf is Grendel. Grendel personifies the exact opposite of what the Anglo-Saxons held dear. Beowulf, the story's hero, is the embodiment of what every Anglo-Saxon strove to become in their lifetime. Grendel is constantly angry, afraid and unsure of himself; while Beowulf is fearless and loyal to his king.
On the surface, the poem Beowulf seems to be a simple tale of a brave hero who triumphs over three monsters and who engages in several other battles in order to preserve what is just and right. A more thorough reading, however, reveals that the epic poem is filled with events that symbolize historical and social conditions that prevailed during the European reign of the Scandinavians in the seventh century to around the ninth century, following the Danish invasion of England (Sisson 1996).
As a man fascinated with the role of women during the 14th Century, or most commonly known as the Middle Ages, Chaucer makes conclusive evaluations and remarks concerning how women were viewed during this time period. Determined to show that women were not weak and humble because of the male dominance surrounding them, Chaucer sets out to prove that women were a powerful and strong-willed gender. In order to defend this argument, the following characters and their tales will be examined: Griselda from the Clerk's Tale, and the Wife of Bath, narrator to the Wife of Bath's Tale. Using the role of gender within the genres of the Canterbury Tales, exploring each woman's participation in the outcomes of their tales, and comparing and contrasting these two heroines, we will find out how Chaucer broke the mold on medievalist attitudes toward women.
Beowulf is a well-known Anglo-Saxon poem that has been in English classes around the United States for almost as long as there have been schools around. Beowulf is not an actual picture of historic Denmark, Geatland, or Sweden around 500 A.D., yet it is on a general view, a self-consistent picture, a construction bearing clearly the marks of design and thought. Beowulf to us can only truly be enjoyed if one reads it in the old English version. The effects of the poem are not the same, although the sense of the heroic beast is very true. The story of Beowulf is still relevant to today’s society and relates to problems faced in current everyday life. In our society we face simple problems and difficult problems and all problems have a good and bad about them. It all depends on the person’s outlook for the course of action that they will take.