The Influence Of Weapons In The Epic Of Beowulf

All throughout Scandinavian history and mythology, the prominence of weapons has not gone unnoticed by historians and scholars. The vikings, who were sea raiders, valued weaponry because of their positions as raiders. To the vikings, weapons were a part of everyday life, and every person had to have knowledge on how to use them. One could tell how much the Vikings valued their weapons by looking to the gods they worshipped and the stories they told. Tyr, Odin, and Thor were all gods of war; Beowulf, Sigurd, and Helgi were all great warriors. In fact, much of Scandinavian mythology and literature includes weapons all throughout its stories. To begin, the most notable weapon in the mythology of the Vikings belongs to the god of thunder and

Epic poetry, such as Beowulf, possess many notable weapons throughout its lines. In Beowulf, the titular hero is given a sword, Hrunting, by Unferth, a Danish warrior, to defeat the mother of the monster, Grendel, and save King Hrothgar’s kingdom. Beowulf struck Grendel’s mother with Unferth’s mighty sword, but found that he could not harm her because no man-made weapon could kill her. Many scholars argue that Unferth intentionally gave Beowulf his sword, knowing that it would fail him in his fight against Grendel’s monstrous mother due to Unferth’s initial dislike of Beowulf. In his fight with Grendel’s mother, Beowulf discovers a gigantic sword with an engraved hilt created by giants. With the giant-made sword, Beowulf swings and hits Grendel’s mother in the neck, fatally wounding her. Beowulf finds Grendel’s body in the monster’s cave and decapitates him to bring his head as a prize. The blood of Grendel is so poisonous and acidic that it melts the blade of Beowulf’s new sword, leaving only the jeweled hilt. Beowulf returns victoriously and presents King Hrothgar the hilt of the sword he used to slay Grendel’s mother. Later in the poem when Beowulf is fifty years older and now King of the Geats, he is called on to slay a dragon that has been terrorizing his kingdom. Beowulf finds the dragon’s liar and fights it. Beowulf manages to cut the dragon with his sword, Nægling, only making

The name Gram translates to “wrath” in Old Norse. The naming of Gram could be due to the fact that Fafnir had taken Otter’s wergild for himself instead of giving it to his father, Regin, causing Sigurd to use Gram for revenge. Regin and Sigurd originally struggled to create a sword strong enough to cut into Fafnir’s hide. In their first attempt at creating the sword, Sigurd hit Regin’s anvil with the sword, causing the weapon to shatter on contact. The second sword that Regin makes also shatters when it makes contact with the anvil. Sigurd asks Regin to make a sword using the sword fragments of his biological father, Sigmund. Regin forged the sword, Gram, which was so sharp that it “cut Regin’s anvil in two” (149). Sigurd buried a ditch and hid in it, waiting for Fafnir to pass over it, where he stabbed him in his stomach, killing him. Before aiding Sigurd in killing Fafnir, Gram belonged to the father of Sigurd, Sigmund. During the wedding of Sigmund’s sister, Signy, Odin, disguised himself as a strange man and stuck the sword into a tree in the center of the hall. He stated that whoever removes the sword from the tree will be given a gift. All the men attempt to take the sword out of the tree, but Sigmund is the only one to succeed. The sword brings out the greed in his enemies who covet the great sword. Sigmund’s sword is broken by Odin during his last battle. His wife took the pieces of the