1 - The Beowulf-poet and his metrical grammar

Summary

Beowulf is a poem of infinite variety. If we cannot know precisely what it may have meant to its original, probably monastic, audience, it certainly speaks to modern audiences in many modes and moods. It has been called a heroic epic, a wondertale, an elegy for a bygone age, a mirror for princes, a celebration of pagan Germanic values, an allegory of Christian virtues, an exploration of the moral ambiguities of life and so on.

The style and structure of the poem are as rich and complex as the matter which they embody. So intertwined and mutually reinforcing are content, style and structure that J. R. R. Tolkien compared the shape of its narrative to the form of the alliterative long line, and John Leyerle pointed out the resemblance of its structure to the intricate interlace designs of the Anglo-Saxon art of the seventh and eighth centuries.

The Beowulf-poet was fascinated by the ways and means of oral composition. He incorporated several narratives of storytelling into his own narrative. Hrothgar builds the great hall Heorot, and his scop sings a song of creation, the substance of which the poet summarizes (90b–98). This recitation is part of the joyful noise of celebration which angers Grendel and incites his attack on the hall. When Beowulf arrives at Heorot, bringing an offer of help against Grendel, the Danes celebrate again, and the scop from time to time sings with his clear voice (496b–97a).