Beowulf and The Spanish Tragedy

The Middle Ages

Beowulf. Reading it is reminding me of the Ancient Heros class with Mr. Rowe at Emma Willard. Heaney's translations starts with “So.” as if it’s the continuation of a former story, of a tradition of storytelling.

The New Yorker article about JRR Tolkien’s translation says that Beowulf is a solitary figure - no parents or siblings, never marrying or having kids himself. Unlike Anna Karenina or Oliver Twist, Beowulf has almost no psychology, which makes the poem “sparkle” with clarity.

The writing is so simple. It sounds like the poetry that Vikings would have used, at least based on my ideas of what Vikings were like. I like the idea that they were terrible foes in battle but thoughtful poets. In that way they are similar to the workmen in “Il Trovatore” who sing beautiful poetry in the beginning of the Anvil Chorus, then during the chorus return to their decidedly working class work as blacksmiths:

See how the clouds melt away

from the face of the sky when the sun shines, its brightness beaming;

just as a widow, discarding her black robes,

shows all her beauty in brilliance gleaming.

So, to work now!

Lift up your hammers!

These two images, of the Vikings telling poetry round the fire and the working men singing about the beauty of the morning sky, speak of the ability for beauty and poetry to appeal to everyone, not just the affluent and literate. All people need beauty!

Beowulf defeats Grendel by grasping his arm and ultimately ripping it off.

 

For the Shakespeare and Co. class we read the Spanish Tragedy today, by Thomas Kyd. The production I watched online while reading to keep the characters straight is dreadful, though it served its purpose. The themes that are similar to Hamlet are the delay of revenge, the presence of a ghost demanding revenge, and the play within the play as an essential element of the realization of revenge.

I also consulted the New Yorker on Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and found an article on the New Oxford Shakespeare which conveys collaborator status to several of S’s contemporaries, particularly Marlowe, who was remarkably capable but was killed young in a bar brawl. The editors of the Oxford Shakespeare say that Shakespeare’s telling of history had disproportionate influence on our understanding of history as monotheistic, monarchical, and monologue-based. He told history as a history of kings and their struggles, at the expense of, for example, Marlowe’s broader emphasis on commoners.

Think about the implications! If we had plays that were as wide-read as Shakespeare but told the story of the common people and their fight for justice, we might see a much more just world.

Beowulf is also the story of the single man, the monarch, saving his people and having his own struggle. You know, this is making me question the emphasis on individualism as modern. That implies that the importance of the individual didn’t arise until the enlightenment and the reformation, but Beowulf was the ultimate individual.