Heroic identity in the world of Beowulf
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Heroic identity in the world of Beowulf
（Medieval and Renaissance authors and texts, v. 2）
Brill, 2008
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Note
Bibliography: p. [375]-396
Includes indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Readers of Beowulf have noted inconsistencies in Beowulf's depiction, as either heroic or reckless. Heroic Identity in the World of Beowulf resolves this tension by emphasizing Beowulf's identity as a foreign fighter seeking glory abroad. Such men resemble wreccan, "exiles" compelled to leave their homelands due to excessive violence. Beowulf may be potentially arrogant, therefore, but he learns prudence. This native wisdom highlights a king's duty to his warband, in expectation of Beowulf's future rule. The dragon fight later raises the same question of incompatible identities, hero versus king. In frequent reference to Greek epic and Icelandic saga, this revisionist approach to Beowulf offers new interpretations of flyting rhetoric, the custom of "men dying with their lord," and the poem's digressions.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Author's note
Abbreviations
Introduction: A contested Beowulf
1. The Wisdom context of the Sigemund Heremod and Hunferd Digression
2. The Foreign Beowulf and the 'fight at Finssburch'
3. The Rhetoric of Oferhygd in Hrodgar's "Sermon"
4. Beowulf's Dargon fight and the Appraisal of Oferhygd
5. King Beowulf and Ealdormonn Byrhtnod
Conclusion
Bibliography
Indices
by "Nielsen BookData"