5 March 2009
We get a pair of speeches in this fit, one from Hrothgar and the other from Beowulf. Not much else happens here. There are two things of note here, however.
The first is the question of whether Beowulf is a legitimate successor to Hrothgar. There is quite a bit of scholarly commentary on the question of kingship and succession in the poem and one particular passage draws attention, lines 946b-48a, where Hrothgar says: “nū iċ, Bēowulf, þeċ, secg bet[e]sta, mē for sunu wylle freoġan on ferhþe” (Now I will love you, Beowulf, the best of men, as a son in my heart ). Is Hrothgar adopting Beowulf here? It’s not an important point as far as the plot of the poem goes, but how you interpret the lines colors how you read the actions and words of Wealhtheow and the courtiers. For my part, I don’t think it’s meant as a formal adoption. Hrothgar is simply expressing affection for the man who rid him of the problem of Grendel.
The second thing of note is in line 973a, where Beowulf is describing his fight with Grendel. He refers to Grendel as fēasceaft guma (wretched man). The use of guma, man, is very interesting and highly unusual. Grendel has been described in all sorts of monstrous terms up to this point, but never referred to as a man. The line alliterates of / f /, so guma wasn’t chosen for metrical purposes. We’ll come back to this in the next fit, where there is an expansion of this and a discussion of Grendel, death, and salvation.
