Literature
of people springs directly out of its life. Beowulf which is
considered to be the oldest surviving epic of the Teutonic people affords us a glimpse into the customs
and traditions, philosophy and life-style of the heroic age of Germania which
is also known as the Age of National
Migrations.
The
scenic background is well-suited for the men. The people who are tillers and
hunters were also compelled by circumstances to become fierce sea-rovers.
Outwardly their life was a constant hardship, a perpetual struggle against
savage Nature and savage men. Behind them were gloomy forests inhabited by wild
beasts and still wilder men, and peopled in their imagination with dragons an
evil shapes. In front of them, thundering at very dikes for entrance, was the
treacherous North Sea, with its fogs and storms and ice. Yet, they love sea;
and because they love it they hear and answer its call.
Beowulf is heroic in spirit,
chivalrous in content and humanistic in appeal. The poem celebrates of Beowulf,
a Teutonic tribal lord who devotes himself to the worthy cause of protecting
the weak against the wicked. Beowulf fights and saves the weak and innocent
people against the monsters and the dragon of his land: ‘Death is better for
all earls than a shameful life.’
People wore
clothes made from woollen cloth or animal skins. Men wore tunics, with tight
trousers or leggings, wrapped around with strips of cloth or leather. Women
wore long
dresses. Women spun the wool from sheep and goats to make thread.
They used a loom to weave the thread into cloth. Clothing styles varied from
region to region. For instance, an Anglican woman fastened her dress with a
long brooch.
Fighting,
banqueting, and carousing are everyday occurrences. The warriors are devoted
to, as a critic puts it, “glee in the hall and glory in the field”, and their
possessions are gold cups and gold armour.
A man’s life is
more than his work; his dream is ever greater than his achievements; and
literature not only scans his deeds but also the splendid things that he ever
hopes to do. Those early sea kings were mixture of savagery and sentiment,
rough living and deep feeling, chivalry and melancholy. They knew their
limitations well and answered their problems accordingly.
Ancient Teutonic
literature usually suffers from a paucity of feminine interest. But in
Beowulf,
the graceful presence of Wealthow indicates the happy position enjoyed by women
in society.
The men described
in Anglo-Saxon literature are men of few words. They are brave and loyal,
valorous and implacable. They were highly conscious of their heritage- hence
the bloody feuds. Honour gives them the staff of their life, and this honour is
chiefly won by physical valour.
The philosophy of
life expressed by the poem is powerful but not rejuvenating. Beowulf knows the
day will come when fate will be stronger than himself. His Pre-Christian faith
does not offer him consolations of heaven. But still he carries of the violent
fight with the evil. For the life is not the bed of roses, rather the bed of
thorns.
Though
full of Christian interpolations and Biblical references like the ‘Song of
Creation’, ‘the Race of Cain, the dominating spirit of the poem is pagan one.
The funeral described towards the end is also definitely pagan. Pagan element is also evident in the descriptions of
feats and halls and in the belief in the inscrutable fate. The dead are
cremated, omens are observed, sacrifices are vowed at the temple of idols.
Though containing
splendid pictures of the glorious life of the Heroic age, the poem gives the
impression of having come out of ‘a cold cell in Northumbrian cloister’.
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