The Absence of Women in Beowulf, The Wife's Lament, and the Battle of Maldon
It could be argued that women are indeed present in the minority in surviving Anglo-Saxon poetry, and that therefore, they are made conspicuous through their absence. The fact they may appear less frequently in Old English Literature does not necessarily mean that women were any less significant in society at this time, although this is the conclusion reached by some. It is assumed that women did, in general, have less important and prominent social roles than men at the time, and the power that they did possess tended to be dictated to them by males. This essay will discuss and examine the social roles and position of the women who did appear in Old English Literature, and will look particularly at The Wife's Lament, Beowulf, and The
Battle of Maldon.
The Wife's Lament is rather unusual in the way its primary subject is female. It is considered to be one of the few surviving Old English poems thought to be narrated by a woman, concerning a woman's thoughts and feelings, although it has been suggested that the poem was not in fact narrated or written by a woman, meaning it could actually be masculine in it's authorship.[1] This, some have argued, is not likely though, considering the nature of the grammatical endings in words such as 'geomorre' which make it clear that the speaker is feminine.[2]
The poem itself speaks of a woman exiled as a result of secret plotting by her lord's relatives, who subsequently lives confined to an 'earth cave' under an oak tree, within a grove, surrounded by thorny branches. The poem describes her despair at this situation, and concludes by describing the terrible fate of those who depend too wholly on a loved one.
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..., R.M.ed. Old English Literature: Critical Essays. United
States, 2002.
[2] Mitchell, Bruce & Robinson, Fred. A Guide to Old English.
Oxford:Blackwell,1992. p.264
[3] Chance, J. Women as heroes on Old English Literature. New York:
Syracuse University Press, 1986, p.110.
[4] Bjork, Robert E. and Niles, John, D, eds. A Beowulf Handbook.
Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1998, p. 311
[5] Ibid, p. 313
[6] Ibid, p. 313
[7] Ibid, p. 313
[8] Ibid, p. 312
[9] Damico, Helen and Hennessey-Olsen, Alexandra, eds. New readings on women in old English Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1990.
[10] Godden, Malcolm and Lapidge, Michael, eds. Old English Literature.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, p.117.
[11] Chance, J. Women as heroes on Old English Literature. New York:
Syracuse University Press, 1986, p. 142.
Marie de France’s “Lanval” is a brilliantly witty and captivating narrative poem—one illustrating a knight’s unyielding honor and loyalty to his king as well as his enduring chivalric devotion to the woman he loves. Written in the twelfth century, amidst a time when women were looked down upon and considered useless and unnecessary, Marie’s portrayal of a knight needing to be rescued by his female lover breathes comic irony into this otherwise misogynistic and antifeminist world. In addition to this cleverly depicted romance, a further literary work, Geoffrey Chaucer’s early fifteenth century “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” extends its own explicitly satirical outlook
As the poems of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight show, women have always had power, yet not as overt a power as wielded by their masculine counterparts. The only dynamic of women’s power that has changed in the later centuries is that the confines and conditions in which women have wielded their power has become more lax, thus yielding to women more freedom in the expression of their power. The structure, imagery, and theme in the excerpts from Beowulf (lines 744-71) and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (lines 2309-30) support the concept of more power in the later centuries, by contrasting the restriction of Wealhtheow and the power she practices in Beowulf with the Lady’s more direct assertion of power in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight five centuries later.
Raffel, Burton. and Alexandra H. Olsen Poems and Prose from the Old English, (Yale University Press)Robert Bjork and John Niles,
Was the story of Beowulf’s battle between good and evil a reflection of Christ battling Satan? There are 3 major battles within Seamus Heaney's edition of the epic poem Beowulf all of which earn Beowulf some heroic status for saving the town from the evil antagonists that lurk, but is there a deeper meaning behind these battles than just an old tale? Is there some metaphor we are supposed to perceive? Throughout Beowulf there are a lot of different themes to pick and choose from, some interesting and more prevailing ones are that of pride vs. humility and sacrifice vs. selfishness. Beowulf for example is very proud but at the same time humbles himself and offers his credit to the Lord. The bible states in Jeremiah 29:11 ‘“I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”’ Seamus Heaney portrays Beowulf as a Christ-like figure to spread the ideals and values of Christianity and God’s Love to the audience.
Several differences exist in the Modern day movie Beowulf and Grendel (Gunnarsson) and the Old English Epic Beowulf (Heaney). These differences can largely be attributed to the discrepancies in cultural values that exist between the medieval mind and that of the modern man. One of the main differences between them involves the characters’ personalities and attitudes. We can see this characteristic, particularly in Beowulf himself, mainly because in the epic his perspective reflects his limited understanding regarding the relationship between evil and good. Likewise, in the movie Beowulf and Grendel, the viewer sees a Beowulf who learns to possess an outlook on life that suggests a more complex
Beowulf begins with a history of the Danish kings. Hrothgar is the present king of the Danes. He builds a hall, called Heorot, to house his army. The Danish soldiers gather under its roof to celebrate and have fellowship with each other. Grendel, who lives at the bottom of a nearby swamp, is awakened and disgusted by the singing of Hrothgar's men. He comes to the hall late one night and kills thirty of the warriors in their sleep. For the next twelve years Grendel stalks the mead hall known as Heorot.
Throughout the story, Beowulf fights three battles against frightening monsters. Beowulf, the prince of the Geats, was a well known warrior with extreme strength who makes a promise to protect his people under any circumstance. In the poem, his strength is tested, but he uses it to save many people in battles against: Grendel, Grendel 's mother, and a dragon. Before, during, and after each of these battles Beowulf shows many similarities and differences in his actions.
You may have heard people say things like“Who needs English class, there 's not much to it, all you can do is read it.” “ Writing is like math, some people are just born with the talent.” There are now innumerable jobs requiring a writing paper off any source to confirm that one is set for the company. If a customer service company were to have unprofessional representatives, the company will lose more than half of its customers. Throughout my educational years, I’ve been assigned many papers; some examples are research papers, lab reports, summary papers, and analyzing papers. During my last year of high school, I was introduced to a new type of writing, named “Analyze with Reflection”. In class, the teacher would hand out articles, to read through; which then followed with by analyzing the summary and reflecting it on everyday life. I understood the assignment very well, maybe because most of the assignments were about
Traditional female characteristics and female unrest are underscored in literary works of the Middle Ages. Although patriarchal views were firmly established back then, traces of female contempt for such beliefs could be found in several popular literary works. Female characters’ opposition to societal norms serves to create humor and wish- fulfillment for female and male audiences to enjoy. “Lanval” by Marie De France and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer both show subversion of patriarchal attitudes by displaying the women in the text as superior or equal to the men. However, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” also incorporates conventional societal ideas by including degradation of women and mistreatment of a wife by her husband.
In the Middle Ages, the roles of women became less restricted and confined and women became more opinionated and vocal. Sir Gawain and The Green Knight presents Lady Bertilak, the wife of Sir Bertilak, as a woman who seems to possess some supernatural powers who seduces Sir Gawain, and Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale, present women who are determined to have power and gain sovereignty over the men in their lives. The female characters are very openly sensual and honest about their wants and desires. It is true that it is Morgan the Fay who is pulling the strings in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; nevertheless the Gawain poet still gives her a role that empowers her. Alison in The Wife if Bath Prologue represents the voice of feminism and paves the way for a discourse in the relationships between husbands and wives and the role of the woman in society.
22 of Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Rpt. in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag.
Throughout time and across many cultures, women have had the lowest status in society. In a patriarchal world, women have consistently been viewed as weaker and inferior to men. As a result, it is no surprise that men have found themselves in places of power and admiration. However, this does not mean that society completely neglects the impact of women; in Greek lore, women take on passive yet important roles, weaving the destinies and doom of many men and earning themselves a reputation as banes of manipulation and deception. Negative as that portrayal may seem, other societies have defined the roles of their women differently. Anglo-Saxons also flaunted the heroics of their men, as exemplified
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.
Women were often subjects of intense focus in ancient literary works. In Sarah Pomeroy’s introduction of her text Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, she writes, “Women pervade nearly every genre of classical literature, yet often the bias of the author distorts the information” (x). It is evident in literature that the social roles of women were more restricted than the roles of men. And since the majority of early literature was written by men, misogyny tends to taint much of it. The female characters are usually given negative traits of deception, temptation, selfishness, and seduction. Women were controlled, contained, and exploited. In early literature, women are seen as objects of possession, forces deadly to men, cunning, passive, shameful, and often less honorable than men. Literature reflects the societal beliefs and attitudes of an era and the consistency of these beliefs and attitudes toward women and the roles women play has endured through the centuries in literature. Women begin at a disadvantage according to these societal definitions. In a world run by competing men, women were viewed as property—prizes of contests, booty of battle and the more power men had over these possessions the more prestigious the man. When reading ancient literature one finds that women are often not only prizes, but they were responsible for luring or seducing men into damnation by using their feminine traits.
Throughout literature’s history, female authors have been hardly recognized for their groundbreaking and eye-opening accounts of what it means to be a woman of society. In most cases of early literature, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent characters who rely solely on their male counterparts. Also during this time period, it would be shocking to have women character in some stories, especially since their purpose is only secondary to that of the male protagonist. But, in the late 17th to early 18th century, a crop of courageous women began publishing their works, beginning the literary feminist movement. Together, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Smith, Fanny Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenge the status quo of what it means to be a