Beowulf Unit Study

It's Coming. It's Under Way. And It's Going to be Great!

Meaning of Beowulf's Name

Beowulf, The Bear Man

It sounds like a wolf, but it's a bear!

Beowulf comes from the two old Saxon words "beo" or "bee" and "wulf" which is "hunter." The word literally means "bee hunter."

And one can readily see how a bear is a bee-hunter. A child need only think of their toddler friend, Pooh Bear, to recognize the literary connection. Of course the hero in this story, the Beowulf of old, is much stronger and tougher than the cuddly character of 100 Acre Woods.

Challenges of Reading Beowulf

Imagine standing at a window and watching a dramatic scene outside. That’s what happens when you read a story. The window is the book and the action of the characters is seen in your mind and not your eyes.

Step back from the window a few feet. The glass blurs your vision, and you see less of the scenery. That’s what happens when we read Beowulf. We want to see the story like the men, women, and kids that first it - the people it was written for. Beowulf the Bear Man! They trembled with excitement to hear another tale about their hero.

But what’s this? Another window appears between us and the legend. It’s the window of history. All those Hrth and Ecg and Whth names were actually real people from a real period in history. Our original audience knew something we don’t see as they stood looking out the window. The Danes, the Goths, and the Swedes were in a conflict. And tragedy born of traitors was about to strike the royal families.

We can compare that to a modern American reading a narrative about Abraham Lincoln the day before he was assassinated. The reader knows what is about to happen, but the characters in the tale do not.

The author of Beowulf doesn’t bother to write about the tragedy about to unfold. He assumes his readers already know it. How much of the story are we missing?

It turns out that the original audience had a third window from which they were watching. The distance between the second and third window is 300 years and 500 miles. The action, you see, took place about 600 A.D. in Denmark. The surviving story of Beowulf was written about 900 A.D. in England.

That leaves us with a question. What did that audience who lived 300 years and 500 miles from the action, believe was history and what was legend? What part of this story was new to them and what was familiar? That is our fourth window.

In this unit, we will call the author Poe X, for sadly his name is unknown. We know the names of Homer and Aesop who were far older, but not the minstrel who preserved Beowulf for the ages. But those who study ancient literature have described some of the unique aspects to this version of the tale woven by our poet-writing minstrel. Sometimes it is obvious. Sometimes it’s a guess. And sometimes the experts argue with each other. Imagine that.

If our author is hard to read, the error of scribes makes it even more difficult. This story was copied and copied again. By hand. With a feather pen dipped in ink by tired scribes writing foreign names and Old English words when they spoke Middle English. (Of course, they didn’t call their language Middle English. They thought it was modern English. How silly of them; because we know WE speak Modern English.) They dropped some words, and mispelled some words, and got some of those Hrth and Ecth names mixed up. Squinting by candlelight, no spell checkers on their computers, no reading glasses as they aged, these scribes certainly deserve our forgiveness. But their mistakes give our scholars who translate the text plenty of extra work to do. And something else to debate.

The effect of time on language can readily be seen by anyone who attempts to read the original. One thousand years can wreck havoc on a language. I mean, just imagine that someone dressed like a viking came to your door shouting, “Beowulf! Beowulf!” (Pronounced “bayo wulf”) Would you think he was talking about a bear? (And who would you be more scared of? Him? Or the bear?

While professors of Old English know the origin of most of the archaic words, they encounter some words written no where else. So then what do they do? They take a stab at it. And disagree some more.

And then, sadly, we and the professors must stand behind a seventh window: the ruination of time. The manuscript itself has been damaged. Some parts are lost for good. Even the learned professors with magical wardrobes in their backrooms cannot tell us what once was written.v So yes, reading Beowulf is a bit of a challenge. But it is a challenge worthy of the effort.

Beowulf: 3 Parts of the Tale from 3 Different Eras

Maps of Beowulf

A map and it's people are inseparable. Our maps of Beowulf include countries, regions, and people groups mentioned in the story.

Beowulf Character List

We know! It's hard to keep all those Hrethels and Hrothgars and Hrothulfs straight. And let's not even get started on Wealhtheow!

While I don't necessarily recommend Beowulf for a list of modern baby names, you will find our Geneology and Dynasty Chart helpful for reading the book.

Especially when they start marrying and then attacking each other. Thankfully, the modern royal families don't act like that. (Well....anyway...)