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
Available at 5 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
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
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