Last time on “Words About Words”, we discussed how Grendel’s appearance and behavior within “Beowulf” compared to the various ways in which his character has been adapted for public audiences over the years. In this post, I would like to touch upon how the female characters in “Beowulf” are described and depicted in the text, and I would like for us to utilize our findings in order to interpret what their roles are in the poem and the historical background.
Out of the seventy-five named persons who are mentioned in our thousand year old copy of the “Beowulf” poem, only five of those persons are female. Consequentially, there is a lot of textual evidence supporting how kings, warriors, and men in general are expected to act within this ancient Anglo-Saxon society. It is because there are so few women in this poem, and even fewer women with names, that it is difficult to generalize or at the very least definitively analyze their functional purposes in this tale. With these difficulties in mind, let us try our best to understand how women are perceived by others, and how they behave independently, within this Anglo-Saxon text.
Women Gender Roles Through Fitt 23 of Beowulf
Beowulf is a lengthy Anglo-Saxon poem that survives copied down in a single Old English manuscript, similarly named. And while there are many characters functioning within the multiple layers of narrative throughout the poem, the roles of female characters are discussed specifically here. Because there are a lot fewer women than men in Beowulf, and even fewer of those are granted individual names, how they are expected to behave in the world this poem creates is complicated when compared to how they actually behave within the narrative.
In Beowulf up through Fitt 23, only two of the women who are mentioned are actually mentioned by name. One of these is “Wealtheow” (line 612), “Hrothgar’s queen” (line 613), whose naming may indicate her importance as a speaking character within the predominating timeline of action in the poem. The other is “Hildeburh” (line 1071), Hnaef’s sister and Finn’s queen (lines 1152 - 1153), who functions as a sympathetic character in what is commonly known as ‘the Finn episode’: a story told within the main narrative during the interlude between Grendel’s defeat and his mother’s revenge.
The other women mentioned through Fitt 23 are not given individual names, but are simply referred to by their primary titles, such as “Ecgtheow’s wife” (line ), “Onela’s queen” (line 62), and “Grendel’s mother” (line 1258). This lack of individualization forces the audience to associate these characters primarily through their relationship with the male closest to them in their lives. This can either be as wife, mother, or even daughter when Hrothgar introduces Beowulf’s mother as the “only daughter” (line 375) of Hrethel. Sometimes, men are also similarly associated with those men closest to them, such as Hrothgar being described as “lord of the Scyldings” (line 147) and Beowulf being “a good man among the Geats” (line 195), but these titles are secondary to—not substitutes for—their individual names.
Men of high position are often praised with the phrase, “That was a good king!” (line 11), such as “Scyld Sheifing” (line 4), “Hrothgar” (line 61), or later on even “Beowulf” (line 343) himself, and groups of peoples such as “the Danes” (line 170) and “the Geats” (line 603) can be defined by the phrase, “that was a good troop” (line 1250). In contrast, however, when women such as Hildeburh are described using a similar sentence structure, they are defined with phrases like, “she was a sad lady” (line 1075). By characterizing Hildeburh in this way, is the poem saying that she is a sad woman instead of being a good woman, or that to be a sad woman is to be a good woman? Either way, this seems to be the most important aspect of Hildeburh’s character, which is justified as “not without cause did she mourn fate’s decrees” (line 1076); torn between a feud with her brother on one side and her son on the other, she therefore is unable to avenge their deaths because she is technically bound to and against both sides.
If expressions of grief are imperative to what it means to be a good woman in the world of Beowulf, then how do we reconcile these notions of womanhood when men grieve intensely? Hrethel, a king discussed later on in the poem and who was Beowulf’s foster-father, is consumed by his sorrow when his son Herebeald is shot dead in a hunting accident, and the kind king retreats into himself. “Then with the sorrow which befell him too sorely,/[Hrethel] gave up man’s joys” (lines 2468 - 2469), and as a consequence “there is no harp-music,/no laughter in the court, as there long had been before” (lines 2458 - 2459). The poem here appears to judge Hrethel’s leadership negatively because he lets his overwhelming grief disrupt his kingly duties, so much so that very soon after his own passing terrible “strife between Swedes and Geats” (line 2472) takes place. If grief and mourning is a stereotypically womanly role in the world of Beowulf—but one that can impair a man’s ability to behave properly—then what does this say about Hrothgar’s intense mourning over his men who are taken by Grendel and then Grendel’s mother? The poem’s hero offers advise on the matter when he says, “It is always better to avenge one’s friend than to mourn overmuch” (lines 1384 - 1385). Could this ‘grieving overmuch’ be a criticism of Hrothgar’s kingship, if he weeps womanly instead of fighting the creatures that have been threatening his hall? Beowulf shows more sympathy with Hrethel's case because he could not seek retribution for his son’s death, whereas Hrothgar seems to be choosing to mourn instead to trying to seek out Grendel’s mother in revenge.
While the men in Beowulf typically act as rulers, warriors, protectors of their people, and distributors of treasure, women primarily function as wives or mothers. But there are some instances where they can also become cup-bearers at feasts and treasure-givers to successful warriors. Does Wealtheow take on a more kingly role when she distributes treasure to Beowulf and his men, or is Hrothgar more womanly by not fighting his own battles? If each of their functional shifts in character is equal within the Beowulf society, then perhaps they are made equals by these shifts. In other words, if Wealtheow increases in masculinity to the same extent as Hrothgar decreases in masculinity, then they would stabilize onto the same level of leadership.
However, Hrothgar engages in a lot more inaction than Wealtheow does in giving treasure. Hrothgar retires from his fighting career, builds Heorot, does not fight Grendel himself for twelve years, and then weeps over his dead men who are ripped apart by these monsters he has been unable to either appease or eradicate. And although technically Wealtheow could have been giving treasure to previous men during those twelve years before Beowulf arrives, within the narrative of the poem we only see her up through Fitt 23 distributing treasure during one feast when she awards Beowulf and his men for their defeat of Grendel.
As far as we can tell, Wealtheow decides to give out the treasure by herself, and thus expresses her own agency, an act which branches away from previously established gender norms. This is a shift from her prior function as cup-bearer during earlier feasts. In contrast, if this is instead Hrothgar outsourcing his duties as treasure-giver to his wife, as we have seen him do when outsourcing his fighting duties to foreign Geats, then this could be a further criticism of his rule. But because we have no contextual evidence of Hrothgar ordering Wealtheow to give out the treasure that he previously would have awarded, we must assume that she freely chooses to engage in such activities on her own.
And although none of the other characters object to her actions, it may be significant that this change occurs after Hrothgar’s authority is usurped not only by Grendel but then by Grendel’s mother as well. Wealtheow could be in a way essentially taking control of Heorot herself by taking on more of Hrothgar’s usual duties, or perhaps this could be Wealtheow recognizing Beowulf’s hold on Heorot as an heir as a result of his success against ‘the monsters’.
It is difficult to pinpoint Wealtheow’s exact role in the Beowulf society because we do not get many opinions regarding her bahavior from the other characters or even the poet himself. Whenever Hrothgar makes a speech, either Beowulf or another retainer always responds, even if they have nothing new to particularly add to the conversation aside from agreeing with what Hrothgar has already professed. And yet, whenever Wealtheow makes speeches before the hall, no one replies, not even once. Is this silence an indication that Wealtheow’s speeches are ignored, or are they taken more seriously than the other speeches? Because there is no commentary by either the poet or from other historical sources on whether or not subjects were allowed to speak directly to their lord’s wife, we cannot know exactly what their lack of responses is supposed to be interpreted.
While whether or not she is taken seriously as an orator is still under debate, it is clear by how Wealtheow’s person is described that her appearance is objectified more than those of her male counterparts are. She is imagined as being more “gold-adorned” (line 640) as opposed to wearing objects that happen to be gold. Although Beowulf and his men wear helmets decorated with gold and boar designs, they nonetheless seem more fluid in their outfits. Beowulf chooses to take off his armor when fighting Grendel, and then puts on more armor when going to fight Grendel’s mother. When preparing for bed on the night that Grendel’s mother attacks Heorot, the men have their armor, helmets, and weapons nearby, but they are not wearing them constantly. In contrast, Wealtheow is always clothed and “ring-adorned” (line 623). Her character as a result is associated more closely to her garments, and they thus seem to define her more so than armor does the men of the poem. Wealtheow is more objectified the more she is associated with the inanimate treasure within Hrothgar’s possession than any of the men are to their spoils of war. While it may be a stretch to conclude that she is objectified because she is a woman, these aspects of her character cannot be ignored. Because there are so few women in Beowulf, and even fewer that are named by or speak within the main narrative, every aspect of how these women appear and function here is imperative to our understanding of Anglo-Saxon femininity.
This is not to say that an individual’s importance is necessarily tied to the specificity by which one is named, however. Far from it, because although Grendel’s mother is not awarded an individual name, she is a key figure within the narrative, so much so that some would say she is even more important to Beowulf than the dragon our hero perishes by in the end.
Even though she is not named, she is a more formidable opponent for Beowulf than Grendel ever was. Instead of being caught in the hall (though Beowulf’s absence from said hall at the time of her attack may have had something to do with that), she escapes from Heorot unharmed, thus forcing our hero to leave Hrothgar’s community to travel into the terrifying mere in order to fight her. In addition to having the home field advantage when encountering the Geat, she also seems to be stronger than Grendel because of how she is able to drag Beowulf further into her lair swiftly enough in order to prevent him from using his weapons properly. And even in close combat, we the audience get the sense that if the giant-sword among her treasure horde had not been within reach of Beowulf’s arm, he would have been done for and the subsequent Beowulf poem would have been a lot shorter.
Grendel’s mother seeks revenge, thereby engaging in the societal conventions of a feud, which places herself on the same level as Hrothgar, and Grendel on the same level as Hrothgar’s man Aeschere. This, in addition to her possession of treasure and a weapon when fighting Beowulf, humanizes her more than Grendel ever is. We do not know what she has been doing for the past twelve years, but this is not saying much because we also do not know what Hrothgar has been doing for the past twelve years (apart from not fighting Grendel himself, that is). Presumably, Grendel’s mother has been living in her lair in the mere, ruling over the sea monsters living around her, and only engages in the feud when the Danes mortally injure Grendel. Indeed, the Danes appear to completely forget her existence until she attacks Heorot, and only then do they deem her important enough to mention to Beowulf.
When our hero succeeds in killing Grendel’s mother by chopping off her head in one fell swoop, he seems more enraged by the presence of Grendel’s corpse than by the presence of Grendel’s mother’s corpse. Although Grendel’s mother was more of an immediate threat to his life, Beowulf is more preoccupied with getting Grendel’s head back to Heorot. Is this due to the fact that Grendel was the monster to get away from his grasp, and returning his severed head to the hall completes his previous boast? Or is Grendel’s mother so unimportant and overlooked by him as an adversary, that as soon as she is eliminated, she is forgotten?
Grendel’s mother is not only forgotten by Beowulf, but by the poet as well by not being mentioned ever again after her death. This could be a slight against her monstrosity, her gender, or perhaps even her lineage, for whenever Cain’s sires are described, they are said to have been born “forth by him”. However, his sexual partners are never mentioned. And so, either Cain begins his damned line through asexual reproduction such as fission or budding, or his sexual partners are not worth mentioning. Although Grendel’s mother appears to be human, or at least more obviously a humanoid female than not to the men in Heorot, we do not know the type of creatures Cain and his heirs bred with to give rise to giants, ogres, Grendel’s mother, and Grendel.
The roles that women play in the Beowulf poem and Anglo-Saxon society at large has only begun to be studied. With each new case, the functions women have in this Anglo-Saxon poem grows increasingly complicated. Because women are few and far between, although they are important characters within the narrative of the poem, it is difficult to generalize how they are expected to behave in this society in comparison with how they actually behave within the poem. They continue to be a fascinating aspect of Beowulf’s character arch and the world of Beowulf.
References:
Black, J. et al. (Editors). 2009. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Volume I: The Medieval Period, Second Edition. Broadview Press. Print.
Fulk, R. D. et al. (Editors). 2008. Klaeber’s Beowulf: Fourth Edition. University of Toronto Press. Print.
Because the original assignment for this piece was to study women gender roles in “Beowulf” through only Fitt 23, I have not analyzed how women function throughout the poem’s entirety. If any of you are interested in reading what I discover about the other women featured in the text, just let me know, and I will write a follow-up post.
Next time, we will discuss how perhaps “Beowulf”’s hero is not as great as his poem professes, and then later on we will think about who we should praise and who we should blame for the events that occur within the narrative. Until then, keep reading & writing!
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