Week 3: Liza (Elizabeth) Duncan

In the modern era, texts that were originally spoken have all now (thanks to the technology our era possesses) been recorded. Ancient works such as The Aeneid or The Odyssey, having once been performed, are now read as a simple text on a page. However, certain passages of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf change dramatically because of how they are now read instead of spoken. It is difficult as a modern reader to make these distinctions between performance and literacy, for we have never seen these poems performed. It is possible, however, to read certain passages and make an argument for how they were meant to be performed, and in turn, how we are meant to read them.

When the monster Grendel wreaks havoc on the nation of Heorot, the people of the nation flee. They hope for a hero to come and fight the monster, yearning for release from his terrifying reign. Beowulf hears of this trouble, and leaves his homeland for Heorot to fight Grendel. Beowulf eventually wins, however, the section of text I would like to focus on is when Beowulf first introduces himself to Hrothgar, the king of Heorot. This is often known as Beowulf’s “boast.”

 As Beowulf strives to make the Danes trust him with the job of defeating Grendel, he brags of how he was “boltered in the blood of enemies” and how he “raided a troll-nest and bound five brutes,” then “slaughtered sea-brutes” (Lines 419-422). He says “Now I mean to be a match for Grendel/ Settle the outcome in a single combat” (Lines 425-426).

 As we read this passage, it is simply text on a page or screen. Yes, it makes sense and we can understand it, but it is not how the creator meant for the receiving audience to derive meaning from it. A person on a stage saying these words is a much more powerful tool than the text lying lifeless on a page, however, because epics are hardly performed anymore, simply reading them is our only option. It is possible to use the knowledge that it was once meant to be performed as a basis for how to go about reading it. In this passage, Beowulf is striving to convince the Danes to trust him, to let him be the one to defeat their dictator. This performance must now not be the responsibility of the one actually performing the poem, but the one reading it on a page. We must actually envision the “brutes” that were “bound” and the “sea-brutes” that were “slaughtered.” No one is standing in front of us acting it out in his or her reading, so we must do the “acting,” per se. In Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, Jonathan Culler makes the argument that “We must pay attention to what literature does as much as what it says” (Culler 96). This passage is not only made up of words, it is made up of actions, and it not only says something, it does something, and as readers of this piece of literature, we must recognize that.