Essay on A Comparison of the Sea in Beowulf and The Seafarer

The Sea in Beowulf and The Seafarer The characters in the Old English poem Beowulf certainly delighted in the seas. This essay seeks to compare their attitude toward the sea with that expressed in another Old English poem, The Seafarer. In Beowulf there is one reference after another to the sea. When Scyld died, â€Å"his people caried him to the sea, which was his last request,† where he drifted out into the beyond on a â€Å"death ship.† In the Geat land Beowulf, a â€Å"crafty sailor,† and his men â€Å"shoved the well-braced ship out on the journey they’d dreamed of,† to rescue the Danes from Grendel. â€Å"From far over the sea’s expanse,† the Geats came, â€Å"brave men who come over the sea swells.† In his welcoming speech Hrothgar†¦show more content†¦Such references are almost countless in this poem, and many of them imply, if not state, a great emotional appreciation which the characters had for the sea. Over half a century later, when the hero is dying from wounds suffered in battle against the fire-dragon, his final wish is for the raising of â€Å" a splendid mound† which â€Å"seafarers shall afterward call it Beowulf’s Mou nd when they pilot their ships far over the ocean’s mists.† Another Old English poem, The Seafarer, has a deep connection with the sea. Though the latter poem is considerably shorter than Beowulf, nevertheless the sentiments expressed therein about the sea reflect some of the same found in Beowulf. The poet begins by reflecting on the miseries which he has endured when travelling by sea in winter–miseries of which the landsman in his comfortable castle knows nothing: This tale I frame shall be found to tally: the history is ofShow MoreRelatedAnglo-Saxon Heroic Poetry5673 Words   |  23 Pagesliterary artist from historical and legendary materials which had developed out of the oral traditions of his nation during a period of expansion and warfare. To this group are ascribed the Iliad and Odyssey of the Greek Homer, and the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf . The literary or secondary epics were composed by sophisticated craftsmen in deliberate imitation of the traditional form. One such example is Virgils Latin poem the Aeneid, which later served as the chief model for Miltons literary epic ParadiseRead MoreThe Pessimism of Beowulf in the Epic Poem, Beowulf Essay2837 Words   |  12 Pages  Ã‚  Ã‚   Anticipation of catastrophe, doom, gloom are present in Beowulf rom beginning to end, even in the better half of the poem, Part I. Perhaps this is part of what makes it an elegy – the repeated injection of sorrow and lamentation into every episode. In his essay, â€Å"The Pessimism of Many Germanic Stories,† A. Kent Hieatt says of the poem Beowulf: The ethical life of the poem, then, depends upon the propositions that evil. . . that is part of this life is too much for the preeminent manRead MoreLiterary Group in British Poetry5631 Words   |  23 Pagespoetry The first page of Beowulf The earliest known English poem is a hymn on the creation; Bede attributes this to Cà ¦dmon (fl. 658–680), who was, according to legend, an illiterate herdsman who produced extemporaneous poetry at a monastery at Whitby.[1] This is generally taken as marking the beginning of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Much of the poetry of the period is difficult to date, or even to arrange chronologically; for example, estimates for the date of the great epic Beowulf range from AD 608 right