Unnatural Humans: The Misbegotten Monsters of Beowulf
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Fidel Fajardo-Acosta
Abstract
This essay claims that the medieval Anglo-Saxon epic poem, Beowulf, is centrally concerned with the problem of the unnatural and the monstrous as a perversion of nature - most visible in the killings and destructive behavior of monsters like Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. Such creatures are characterized as enemies of God and threats to both the natural world and human society. The unnatural in Beowulf, however, is not limited to these monsters. The inspiration of the poet is profoundly biblical and critical of ancient and medieval Germanic values and ways of life, namely, violence and intemperance, battles and weapons, looting and pillaging, boastful pride and the cult of personal honor, incest, bestiality and other sexual perversions, as well as the hoarding of gold, silver, and other treasures. Looking at Beowulf and its Scandinavian parallels through the lens of their biblical sources - particularly apocryphal and pseudepigraphical works like the Book of Jubilees and the Book of Enoch, as well as ancient and medieval rabbinical commentaries like the Pirkê de Rabbi Eliezer - it can be argued that the Anglo-Saxon epic and its Scandinavian counterparts were meant by their authors to expose Germanic warrior-culture as contrary to nature and the order of God’s creation. Drawing from biblical stories about giants, “the heroes of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:4), and their near extermination in the Great Flood, Beowulf and other medieval heroic narratives unequivocally predict the dark future of martial heroes and monsters alike, all doomed to perish in the great battles at the end of the world, Ragnarok, Armageddon, and other forms of fiery apocalypses manifesting God’s wrath. The biblical texts and their medieval offshoots further suggest that, after those great catastrophes, the proud and the strong will be eliminated, but life will go on for the meek and the humble, as nature, including human life, is set free from the exploiters and the predators that endanger it.
Abstract
This essay claims that the medieval Anglo-Saxon epic poem, Beowulf, is centrally concerned with the problem of the unnatural and the monstrous as a perversion of nature - most visible in the killings and destructive behavior of monsters like Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. Such creatures are characterized as enemies of God and threats to both the natural world and human society. The unnatural in Beowulf, however, is not limited to these monsters. The inspiration of the poet is profoundly biblical and critical of ancient and medieval Germanic values and ways of life, namely, violence and intemperance, battles and weapons, looting and pillaging, boastful pride and the cult of personal honor, incest, bestiality and other sexual perversions, as well as the hoarding of gold, silver, and other treasures. Looking at Beowulf and its Scandinavian parallels through the lens of their biblical sources - particularly apocryphal and pseudepigraphical works like the Book of Jubilees and the Book of Enoch, as well as ancient and medieval rabbinical commentaries like the Pirkê de Rabbi Eliezer - it can be argued that the Anglo-Saxon epic and its Scandinavian counterparts were meant by their authors to expose Germanic warrior-culture as contrary to nature and the order of God’s creation. Drawing from biblical stories about giants, “the heroes of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:4), and their near extermination in the Great Flood, Beowulf and other medieval heroic narratives unequivocally predict the dark future of martial heroes and monsters alike, all doomed to perish in the great battles at the end of the world, Ragnarok, Armageddon, and other forms of fiery apocalypses manifesting God’s wrath. The biblical texts and their medieval offshoots further suggest that, after those great catastrophes, the proud and the strong will be eliminated, but life will go on for the meek and the humble, as nature, including human life, is set free from the exploiters and the predators that endanger it.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Introduction 1
- Nature and Human Society in the Pre-Modern World 29
- Unnatural Humans: The Misbegotten Monsters of Beowulf 97
- Natural Environment in the Old English Orosius: Ohthere’s Travel Accounts in Norway 135
- When Is a Good Time? Health Advice and the Months of the Year 153
- Humans Serving Nature: Beekeeping and Bee Products in Piero de Crescenzi’s Ruralia commoda 169
- Medieval Epistemology and the Perception of Nature: From the Physiologus to John of Garland and the Niederrheinische Orientbericht. Bestiaries and the ‘Book of Nature’ 189
- Waste, Excess, and Profligacy as Critiques of Authority in Fourteenth-Century English Literature 217
- “A New Flood Was Released from the Heavens”: The Literary Responses to the Disaster of 1333 253
- The Environmental Causes of the Plague and their Terminology in the German Pestbücher of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 301
- Island, Grove, Bark, and Pith: Nature Metaphors in Teresa de Cartagena 331
- Nature, Art, and Human Perception in Giulio Romano’s Room of the Giants at the Palazzo del Te, Mantua (1532–1535) 353
- Human Body, Natural Causes, and Aging of the World in Czech-Language Sources of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period 383
- Perception of Air Quality in the Czech Lands of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 415
- Johann Arndt’s Book of Nature: Medieval Ideas During the German Reformation 435
- Imitation vs. Allegorization: Martin Opitz’s Influential Proposal Concerning Poetic Reflections on Nature 459
- François Bernier and Nature in Kashmir: Belonging in Paradise? 485
- Cosmology and Pre-Modern Anthropology 505
- Praising Perchta as the Embodiment of Nature’s Cycles: Worship and Demonization of Perchta and Holda in Medieval and Early Modern Culture 549
- List of Illustrations 581
- Biographies of the Contributors 583
- Index 589
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Introduction 1
- Nature and Human Society in the Pre-Modern World 29
- Unnatural Humans: The Misbegotten Monsters of Beowulf 97
- Natural Environment in the Old English Orosius: Ohthere’s Travel Accounts in Norway 135
- When Is a Good Time? Health Advice and the Months of the Year 153
- Humans Serving Nature: Beekeeping and Bee Products in Piero de Crescenzi’s Ruralia commoda 169
- Medieval Epistemology and the Perception of Nature: From the Physiologus to John of Garland and the Niederrheinische Orientbericht. Bestiaries and the ‘Book of Nature’ 189
- Waste, Excess, and Profligacy as Critiques of Authority in Fourteenth-Century English Literature 217
- “A New Flood Was Released from the Heavens”: The Literary Responses to the Disaster of 1333 253
- The Environmental Causes of the Plague and their Terminology in the German Pestbücher of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 301
- Island, Grove, Bark, and Pith: Nature Metaphors in Teresa de Cartagena 331
- Nature, Art, and Human Perception in Giulio Romano’s Room of the Giants at the Palazzo del Te, Mantua (1532–1535) 353
- Human Body, Natural Causes, and Aging of the World in Czech-Language Sources of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period 383
- Perception of Air Quality in the Czech Lands of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 415
- Johann Arndt’s Book of Nature: Medieval Ideas During the German Reformation 435
- Imitation vs. Allegorization: Martin Opitz’s Influential Proposal Concerning Poetic Reflections on Nature 459
- François Bernier and Nature in Kashmir: Belonging in Paradise? 485
- Cosmology and Pre-Modern Anthropology 505
- Praising Perchta as the Embodiment of Nature’s Cycles: Worship and Demonization of Perchta and Holda in Medieval and Early Modern Culture 549
- List of Illustrations 581
- Biographies of the Contributors 583
- Index 589
