Beowulf as Epic

Scholars debate almost everything about Beowulf, including the question of whether it should be considered an epic at all. An epic is a long narrative poem, composed in an elevated style, dealing with the trials and achievements of a great hero or heroes. The epic celebrates virtues of national, military, religious, cultural, political, or historical significance. Like all art, an epic may grow out of a limited context but achieves greatness in relation to its universality. Epics typically emphasize heroic action as well as the struggle between the hero's own ethos and his human failings or mortality.

All of these characteristics apply to Beowulf. The hero, Beowulf, is the title character. He represents the values of the heroic age, specifically the Germanic code of comitatus — the honor system that existed in Scandinavian countries in the fifth and sixth centuries between a king, or feudal lord, and his warriors (thanes). Thanes swore devotion to their leader and vowed to fight boldly, to the death if necessary, for him. If the leader should fall, his thanes must avenge his life. For his part, the leader rewarded his thanes with treasure, protection, and land. His generosity often was considered a virtue and a mark of character. Courage, loyalty, and reputation were other virtues for these warriors, and we can look for them as themes in the poem. The code of the comitatus is at the heart of the Beowulf epic.

Increasingly, scholars distinguish between two types of epic. The first, the primary epic, evolves from the mores, legends, or folk tales of a people and is initially developed in an oral tradition of storytelling. Secondary epics are literary. They are written from their inception and designed to appear as whole stories. Under this definition, Beowulf is a primary epic, the best evidence being that it first existed in the oral tradition. Furthermore, Beowulf does employ digressions, long speeches, journeys and quests, various trials or tests of the hero, and even divine intervention, as do classic epics.

Beowulf, however, differs from the classic epics of ancient Greece, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which were composed some 1,500 years before and set the standard for the epic tradition. It does not open with an invocation to a Muse, and it does not start in medias res ("in the middle of things"), although time is out of joint in the poem, especially in its last third.

Some of the devices employed by the Beowulf poet, such as frequent digressions, may seem tedious to the modern reader. To his audience, however, the list of heroes, villains, and battles were familiar. The stories of great achievements were cherished and intended to honor Beowulf's own accomplishments. Poems like this appealed to a wide audience and constituted a form of public entertainment. In Beowulf itself, we witness the captivating talents of performing storytellers; an example is the scop who sings of The Finnsburh Episode (1063–1159).

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