Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Jiří Burýšek
Beyond Beowulf: An Analysis of Beowulf’s Influence on Contemporary Epics Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph. D.
2016
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
…………………………………………….. Author’s signature
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I would like to thank my supervisor, Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D., for his acceptance of this unconventional approach.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ...... 5 2. Skyrim ...... 9 2.1 Powerful Voice ...... 10 2.2 Draugr and Grendel ...... 12 2.3 The Importance of Songs in Skyrim ...... 14 2.4 Dragons and Evil in Hiding ...... 18 3. Superheroes, Comic Books, and Cinema ...... 23 3.1 Beowulf, Batman, and Escapism ...... 23 3.2 The Incompetence of Law...... 27 3.3 The Importance of Community ...... 31 4. Conclusion ...... 40
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1. Introduction
This thesis owes a great deal to the escapist culture of the twentieth and the twenty-first century, and the youthful optimism that is own to many fans, readers and viewers of Beowulf’s modern companions. One could describe Beowulf, one of
Britain’s classics and possibly the oldest, as well as longest, surviving English text
(“Beowulf”), as a work largely responsible for many heroic tropes and themes present in contemporary epics. Its impact is vast and spreads across literary fields, different approaches to storytelling; and even interactive media exhibit significant resemblances, similarities, and correlations. In the story of Beowulf, the audience learns of Beowulf’s heroic deeds in a complementary fashion to how today’s audience is being shown the deeds of Gotham’s Dark Knight, The Dragonborn from The Elder Scrolls saga, or even
Spartacus - ironically a contemporary depiction of a character based on a real life
Roman slave who lived before Beowulf even began to take its shape. As one of the most essential examples stands Gotham’s Dark Knight, the Batman, who is parallel to
Beowulf in many shared themes. The themes connected to the hero’s character and further development of his surroundings affecting him, as followed by modern day heroes and other Beowulf’s companions, are one of the key topics of this thesis and arguably one of the most important aspects of the works that include said heroes. This thesis takes three different approaches to three different bodies of work significantly parallel to Beowulf in said themes – an analysis of Skyrim from the Elder Scrolls saga and DC’s Dark Knight, and considers Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books, as well as
Peter Jackson’s films.
There lies symbolism in the last century’s discovery of Beowulf and the fact that it survives only in one version – a manuscript in the British Library in London
5 which as the British Library website describes, was damaged during a fire and then in later years:
During the 18th century, the Cotton manuscripts were moved for safekeeping to
Ashburnham house at Westminster. On the night of 23 October 1731 a fire broke
out, in which many of the manuscripts were damaged, and a few completely
destroyed.
Beowulf escaped the fire relatively intact but it suffered greater loss by handling
in the following years, with letters crumbling away from the outer portions of its
pages. Placed in paper frames in 1845, the manuscript remains incredibly fragile,
and can be handled only with the utmost care. ("Beowulf")
The importance of this event is notable because of its timing. Beowulf being rediscovered fairly recently in nineteenth century has created an impact on contemporary fantastic and epic literary works, and audiovisual works, such as films and even video games – a genre that with its modern origin creates a link, which one might find interesting, to the original manuscript of Beowulf and its discovery. This set of events creates a curious analogy, worthy of mentioning, for the impact of Beowulf on fairly recent works of art; and for this thesis’ subject and focus. It further creates a contrast between Beowulf being possibly the oldest English text, more than a millennium old, and all the modern works that are of such young age some of their sequels have not even been written at the time of writing of this thesis; or their form could be considered an example of modern storytelling, for instance the already mentioned video games.
One of these games, and possibly the most important one – for its large audience and extensive content, is the fifth game from The Elder Scrolls series called Skyrim.
Skyrim is the name of the land in which the game takes place. There are many
6 similarities apparent to the player from the very beginning of the game. The land is objectively based on the Scandinavian lands in one of which, namely Denmark, the epic poem of Beowulf takes place. The name of the Danish king and Beowulf’s father’s friend, to whose help Beowulf comes, is Hrothgar (Beowulf); agreeably the most apparent and direct homage to Beowulf is the name which was given to a mountain towering above Skyrim – High Hrothgar (Skyrim). It is, most likely, the combination of
King Hrothgar’s name and the name of his mead hall – High Heorot, which is also the place of Beowulf’s fight against the monster Grendel and one of the most notable places of the poem (McConnell 56). This might be a nod from the creators to the old epic admitting holding it as one of the influences for the game and the game’s epic hero.
This is most undoubtedly a conscious decision, however, there are authors who may have drawn from Beowulf indirectly and unknowingly. One possible example is Frank
Miller, the author of The Dark Knight Returns.
The protagonist of Skyrim is a character chosen by the player. This is a fact which makes him unsuitable to compare to the character of Beowulf himself but can be compared to the epic hero prototype. One could even say the game is objectively designed to be played as a heroic epic with a Nordic character as the protagonist, since the legend of the Dovahkiin is of Nordic origin, but if the player chooses to play as a different character the story remains the same. The player can chose to play for several races, such as Elfs or Khajits (The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim). This links both works to another modern epic – J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, which is another major piece strongly influenced by Beowulf.
In this thesis J.R.R. Tolkien’s works are viewed as a metaphorical bridge between Beowulf and some of the recent works mentioned, since Tolkien, being an expert on Beowulf, aimed to recreate this world which now inspired other artists to do
7 the same (Sullivan 283). It is of great importance to mention J.R.R. Tolkien’s works in a paper on Beowulf, not only because Tolkien was a university professor, an expert on
Beowulf, an author of a translation of Beowulf, and the author of his 1936 lecture
‘Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics’, but also because the world he created in The
Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books is directly influenced by his knowledge of
Anglo-Saxon poetry and Beowulf. Therefore the authors directly influenced by Tolkien could be considered as influenced by Beowulf indirectly therefore one could consider
Tolkien as an important metaphorical bridge between Beowulf and modern heroic epics.
In The Hobbit, Tolkien makes one of his undeniable and apparent connections to
Beowulf as being his influence by, for instance, basing Smaug on the origin of the unnamed dragon that kills Beowulf at the end of the poem (Sullivan 283). To list the analogies aside each other – both dragons dwell on a treasure; both have unreal knowledge of their possessions, so when one item goes missing they both notice; both proceed to attack after they notice the stolen item; both attacks are airborne and involve fire; and both proceed to destroy their surroundings, homes and towns, by using said fire. By doing this, Tolkien has set an example for modern epic fantasy and was followed by authors ever since. One of the most prominent examples is the Elder
Scrolls saga which bares both Tolkien’s and Beowulf’s legacy in its own modern form.
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2. Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim can be described as a modern work not for its content but for its form. It creates a fitting metaphor and serves as a perfect example for the following argument of how are modern works enjoyable in twenty-first century while still bearing classic heroic motives; and why do works such as Skyrim, or J.R.R.
Tolkien’s The Hobbit recently cinematized by Peter Jackson fit this diagram while changing only its forms. When the manuscript of Beowulf was rediscovered it was unnamed, later in the nineteenth century the poem began to be called Beowulf – after its protagonist. This argument serves minor purpose in showing the importance of the hero to the entire work. In other words, if Beowulf is the main theme of the work – his surroundings, the time and place of the poem, or even its form seize to be as important as the heroic character. This argument supports the connection of Beowulf to the work of Skyrim because of the nature of the game, meaning the player is given a choice each time there is a story development. Games that are written in such fashion are called
Nonlinear and often consist of genres like RPGs – role playing games and story-driven games in general as opposed to action games where the character and storyline are secondary and the main focus is set to the portrayal of the action sequences (Rollings,
Adams).
Skyrim, by its interactive narrative nature, fits in the nonlinear category – the game and the story revolve around the character of Dovahkiin, meaning The
Dragonborn, and consists of an open-world element. The player finds The Dragonborn being taken prisoner and on his way to execution; then after witnessing several events in complete cinematic style, the player suddenly takes control over The Dragonborn’s actions and is given the first choice, in fact unimportant, in the game – whether he will follow a rebel Nord or an Imperial soldier on his way of escape (Skyrim). This decision
9 is unimportant because whether the player choses to follow the rebel or the soldier, he will always arrive to the same destination later learning of his fate as The Dragonborn.
In this case The Dragonborn will always become the slayer of dragons without the importance or effect of the story and his surroundings, supporting the argument of the hero’s importance overshadowing the story. In other words the story is unimportant to the hero’s fate as the Dragonborn but rather serves as a tool for his development.
2.1 Powerful Voice In Robert Zemeckis’ 2007 adaptation of Beowulf, using the method of CGI
‘Performance Capture’, Beowulf was portrayed by Ray Winstone. However, the actual appearance of Beowulf in the film is completely different from Winstone’s. The filmmakers used all of Winstone’s performance – body movement, facial expressions, and most importantly voice. Then they changed Beowulf’s proportions and facial attributes to make him appear more as what, in their vision, Beowulf would have looked like. In Skyrim the original idea of the main character stays the same without his appearance being important to the storyline – the player, in fact, chooses to edit the main character’s physical attributes exactly to his own perception, and his own idea of what The Dragonborn should look like. Therefore one could find an existing connection to Zemeckis’ film and Skyrim not only in the CGI portrayal but more symbolic – the creation of the legendary leading characters of Beowulf and The Dragonborn.
Skyrim's trailers and concept art depict the Dragonborn as a male Nord with
light brown hair and light blue eyes. He wears a studded cuirass, an iron helmet,
gauntlets, and boots. In one trailer, the Dragonborn uses a steel sword and a
banded iron shield, while in a screenshot he dual wields a steel sword and a steel
dagger. In Skyrim, as with all Elder Scrolls games, race, gender, appearance, and
equipment are left to the player's discretion (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim).
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There is no reason to analyze the importance of Beowulf for Zemeckis’ adaptation because one is the original and the other is an adaptation; only several changes to the storyline are present. Zemeckis aimed to clearly capture the reason which drove Grendel to massacre the Danes and the importance of sound, and of the voice – shown specifically in the scene of the first seen massacre (Beowulf). The voice is a powerful device in Skyrim, in fact, the ‘power of the voice’ using Dragonspeak is a crucial aspect of the gameplay and the storyline. The Dragonborn, having dragon blood, is capable of using language of the dragons in order to generate magical spells while shouting words in said language. He can, in fact, tear a man apart just by shouting at him (The Elder
Scrolls V: Skyrim). In Beowulf, the loud noises from Heorot are what drives Grendel to attack the Danes. In Zemeckis’ depiction it is clearly shown, specifically in the scene before the first massacre, how Grendel physically suffers when he hears the loud noises and shouts of the Danes from High Heorot, and later while he is slaughtering them; therefore it was crucial to portray Beowulf as someone with an impressively powerful voice because when Grendel takes a hold of Beowulf’s arms, in the scene depicting
Beowulf’s fight against Grendel, Beowulf shouts at Grendel and the monster is forced to let him go thanks to the sheer power of Beowulf’s voice (Beowulf).
Hero’s voice is arguably an important aspect of his persona not only because the hero has to be heard among his men, and when he shouts orders and battle cries in battle, but also when he, just like Beowulf often does, boasts of his achievements. And since sound engine technology is rather a recent thing, it ironically serves as a tool for creating a powerful voice in order to portray one from times when this technology did not yet exist. That is where in Zemeckis’ Beowulf, Ray Winstone’s performance shows this aspect of Beowulf’s character. If one would compare Beowulf’s voice to the voice of The Dragonborn, one would find how it mirrors the character’s physical strength. In
11 fact, both have been capable of hurting a man, or a creature, during their journey just by the sheer strength of their voice (Beowulf) (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim).
The link from Skyrim to Anglo-Saxon poetry is provided by comparing Dragon
Shouts and the importance of a powerful voice in Skyrim to Old Norse chant Galdr.
These chants were believed to have powers so comparable to the Dragon shouts it is of considerable importance to mention them in this chapter. Galdr were believed to have the power to soften armors, blunt swords, raise storms or sink ships. The Dragon shouts almost identical powers – from softening armors to making an enemy go mad and attack his comrades - a trait own to old Galdr (Henrikson). This is further supported by the meaning of a modern Swedish word gallen – “mad” as one of the effects believed to be possible to create while chanting Galdr is bringing a person to madness. Furthermore, a
Dutch word gillen meaning “to yell, scream” links Galdr to Dragon shouts even more closely, since Dragon shouts are yelled at an enemy in order to, as mentioned, bring him to madness, soften his armor, or hurt him in a particular way decided by the person shouting (“Dragon Shouts”). “Although the Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse literary evidence suggests that galdor charms took the form of poetic verse, modern practitioners of rune-magic often use the term 'galdr' to refer to the act of chanting the names of runes” (Rabinovitch). The concept in Skyrim is comparable to ‘chanting the names of runes’, since the Dragonborn finds Dragon Shouts in the form of engraved runes.
2.2 Draugr and Grendel In the poem, Grendel is not described in a precise physical detail but rather as just a man-like creature with big proportions (Irving, 46). This might be a shot at creating an atmosphere using the reader’s imagination and, in fact, working as a horror device for scaring the reader as well with the work of his own mind, as he imagines
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Grendel in the worst ways possible. Hrothgar further describes Grendel as a
“misbegotten thing [that] roamed the paths of exile” (Beowulf). There is an analogy present – to undead creatures. Irving compares Grendel to Caribbean zombies (Irving,
47). This is further supported by the fact that in Grendel’s cave, Beowulf separates
Grendel’s head from his already lifeless body, which displays a shared abstraction between Grendel and the zombie creatures, as the separation of the head is seen as the final act of killing in both cases. In Skyrim the dwellers that roam the land are called
Draugr, undead Nordic warriors; they dwell in many crypts, caves, and catacombs; they are the most common foes of The Dragonborn (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim). Draugr share many affinities with zombies and one could look for their origin even in Norse mythology, as there are mentions of Draugr - undead creatures with magical abilities:
The mythological draugr can also arguably be considered much more terrifying
than the game version, as the land-draugar could change their size at will and
grow enormous, were somewhat intelligent, possessed superhuman strength,
could only be killed if burned completely to ash, and took great pleasure in
killing their victims. Most draugr would crush their victims to death by
increasing their size, but other methods included hacking them to bits with their
weapons or even eating them alive and drinking their blood. In Norse
mythology, Odin was the ruler of draugr, and could raise them using a secret,
magic song (“Amongst the Draugr”)
Apart from the similarities, such as the sole name, Draugr share with their Norse origin, they further share many parallels with Grendel. There is not much known to Grendel’s physical abilities from the original poem’s brief description, as opposed to Zemeckis’
Grendel who is very visual and gives complete image of his appearance. The state of
Draugr’s physical decay is comparable to Zemeckis’ decaying Grendel; both characters
13 are not affected by this kind of decomposition when it comes to their physical strength – since Zemeckis’ needed to show Grendel and his physical attributes, as film is an audiovisual piece of work, he had to improvise and had to create the horror elsewhere, as opposed to letting the audience imagine Grendel completely by themselves.
Therefore, he made Grendel’s appearance unpleasant to look at – in fact, the first look at
Grendel is only a part of Grendel’s head as he slices his skin with his claws while suffering from the loud noises he hears from High Herot (Beowulf 2007). The visual of
Draugr is distinctive as well, and the device for creating horror by making the player’s imagination work has also been dropped in this case, as Skyrim’s Draugr are visually comparable to Zemeckis’ Grendel – both decaying zombie-like creatures (The Elder
Scrolls V: Skyrim).
The argument of how Draugr from Skyrim may have roots in the character of
Grendel in Beowulf is further supported by the fact that ‘Draugr’ is a term for all the roaming undead that guard the catacombs in the land of Skyrim, and as Irving mentions, there are Several Anglo-Saxon legal documents that mention “a grendel” as it might be taken as a common noun (Irving 47). Norse mythology also uses a term “draugr” which supposedly means “a ghost”, supporting the zombie-like, or undead, nature of the
Draugr in Skyrim (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim) Therefore, it is imaginable that the
Draugr kin stand as a mirror image of the Grendel kin and might be directly taken from
Beowulf, as it is one of several cases where the developers of Skyrim took names and elements directly from the original poem.
2.3 The Importance of Songs in Skyrim In Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings from the beginning of the twenty-first century, the music used in the film plays an important role in depicting Tolkien’s world. It is surprisingly fitting – a difficult task considering
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Howard Shore, the author and composer of the original sound track, had to compose music based on literary work. This can be seen in the way Shore and Jackson blended visual and musical experience in scenes such as the one from the Fellowship of the Ring film, the first installment of the trilogy, where the whole Fellowship is seen as they travel through the Middle-Earth on their way to Mordor, shown together from great distance, in order to capture the very first image of the Fellowship as a united group with one goal (The Lord of the Rings). This was done in such way that this scene creates an illusion of their relative smallness – a large landscape and a small group in addition to an epic orchestral musical piece. The scene is shown at the very beginning of their journey in order to illustrate the distance they have to travel as well. Songs in Jackson’s
The Hobbit play an even more important role, one song in particular – Far Over The
Misty Mountains Cold, sung by Thorin Oakenshield and the other Dwarfs, tells the story of Smaug’s attack on The Lonely Mountain, otherwise known as Erebor. The
Dwarfs persuade Bilbo in joining them by singing this song. In Anglo-Saxon England songs about battle were often sang (Routh 429). In Tolkien’s world, there are parts of societies that are analogous to Anglo-Saxon England, apart from his said direct influence by Beowulf, the songs are a good example. As was Beowulf sung on various kinds of occasions, and as Anglo-Saxon songs were meant to be “work songs, hymns, prayers, [or] songs of joy or grief” (Routh 429), in The Hobbit, The Misty Mountains
Cold is sang on mournful occasions by the Dwarfs that survived Smaug’s attack. The viewer can hear the song in Jackson’s film during one of those occasions – when
Dwarfs tell the story in Shire (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey).
But even more fitting example can be found in Skyrim – another of Skyrim’s parallels to Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon poetry is the song named The Dragonborn Comes which is sang by numerous bards in feasting halls and taverns all across the land of
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Skyrim (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim). The fact that this song has even been covered and revisited by numerous artists, one mentionable example is Malukah, further supports the importance of this song in the content of the game. It creates a certain parallel between Skyrim and Anglo-Saxon poetry and furthermore Beowulf itself. The
Dragonborn Comes tells of the deeds of The Dragonborn:
Our Hero, our Hero, claims a warrior's heart
I tell you, I tell you, the Dragonborn comes
With a Voice wielding power of the ancient Nord arts
Believe, believe, the Dragonborn comes
It's an end to the evil of all Skyrim's foes
Beware, beware, the Dragonborn comes
For the darkness has passed, and the legend yet grows
You'll know, you'll know, the Dragonborn's come
Dovahkiin, Dovahkiin
Naal ok zin los vahriin
Wah dein vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal
Ahrk fin norok paal graan
Fod nust hon zindro zaan
Dovahkiin, fah hin kogaan mu draal (Skyrim).
Even though the song is in the present tense, it is foreshadowing Dragonborn’s coming to the land of Skyrim. The content of the song further shows even more resemblance to
Beowulf – both are coming to a land seized by terror which is inflicted by monsters only the hero can defeat. The fact that both heroes come to defeat the monsters and end a reign of evil in an entire land, creates a relevant parallel to both songs. Furthermore, both songs can be sang without an instrument but are often accompanied by one, and
16 just as Beowulf’s author, or possibly authors, are unknown, the composer of The
Dragonborn Comes’ remains anonymous throughout the entire game – the bards often introduce the song as about “the legend we all know and love” (The Elder Scrolls V:
Skyrim).
James Routh argues that the “Anglo-Saxon poetry could have been sung or chanted by a regular tune repeated over and over” or with a “regular rhythm with simple variations in the tune” (433) rather than being just a recited “noisy prose” (430). Taking in account that The Dragonborn Comes singer is in its official version accompanied by a ”regular rhythm and tune repeated over and over” further provides another evidence of its limited imitation of the Anglo-Saxon heroic epic.
In the song there is one sentence open for interpretation, it is the line “With a
Voice wielding power - Of the ancient Nord art” (The Dragonborn Comes). The transcription gives space for interpreting this sentence as written above – as a voice that wields power and can physically hurt the hero’s enemies, just as shown in the game.
The second interpretation may come with a slight adjustment to “a Voice-wielding power” so the sentence becomes not about a voice that wields power but about a power of wielding a voice instead. This line might also be considered a subtle link or a nod to the Old Norse bardic songs which were sang at feasts, as an “ancient Nord art” sang by bards with powerful voices, hence a “voice wielding power”. The line “It's an end to the evil - Of all Skyrim's foes” is important to mention as well. It suggests that the
Dragonborn’s come is an end to said evil but it does not suggest that Skyrim’s evil comes from lands surrounding it, therefore, the song does not talk about war aggressors from behind its borders. The geography here plays somewhat important role because whether the player chooses to play as a Nord coming back to Skyrim or other, possibly mythological character, he is an outsider – a parallel to Beowulf coming to Denmark as
17 an outsider as well. The character comes to Skyrim to end evil that is already dwelling there. May it be the mythological Norse creatures Draugr or legendary Dragons, all are already the citizens of Skyrim, just as, in Beowulf, Grendel’s home lies in Denmark.
Additionally, there is another song present in Skyrim very much resembling the original poem of Beowulf – The Tale of Tongues. It is parallel to Beowulf for a reason that is not own to The Dragonborn Comes: bards in the game will sing this song only after the player completes the main storyline, as it sings about the Dragonborn’s deeds done during the game:
And so the Tongues freed us from Alduin's rage,
Gave the gift of the Voice, ushered in a new Age!
And if Alduin's eternal, then eternity's done,
For his story is over and the dragons are gone (Tale of The Tongues)
2.4 Dragons and Evil in Hiding Both Beowulf and Dovahkiin are epic heroes counted among the dragon slayers, including Perseus, Marduk, Apollo, Siegfried, Saint Michael, or Saint George (Garry,
El-Shamy 74). “The last creature faced by Beowulf is referred to as a dragon” (Garry,
El-Shamy 75). The Dragons in the fifth installment of the Elder Scrolls series, Skyrim, have been considered just a legend by the Nords inhabiting the lands of Skyrim (The
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim). There is a parallel present to a certain symbolism to both
Beowulf and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Patrick Callahan compares
Beowulf’s dragon to a course driven place from the first Lord of the Rings book where the Hobbits are almost robbed of their spirits when they find a cursed treasure, and later are saved by Frodo’s heroism and Tom Bombadil:
Just as ancient evil has served to create wights out of dead kings, the dragon in
BEOWULF awakens with new stirring of evil, a new act of greed, the theft of a
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golden chalice from the dragon’s hoard. This deed stirs the dragon to become the
bane of Beowulf's kindred. In the moral universe of both the BEOWULF poet
and Tolkien, evil has a power undimmed by time. Men cannot expect that if they
wait long enough, evil will go away. Evil bred of selfishness can only be
destroyed by selflessness; evil wrought of wicked deeds can only be destroyed
by a contrary and positive act of good. (Callahan 7)
In Skyrim, the dragons have been almost extinct, therefore, they have become a legend.
There was no need for a person to go out of their way to learn about dragons, or yet alone fight one, until Alduin – a dragon – started resurrecting them. The Dragonborn shares his dragon-killing nature with Beowulf; and altogether with Tolkien’s Lord of the
Rings the three works stand in a triangle with one message that is shared by all of them:
“Men cannot expect that if they wait long enough, evil will go away”. In Beowulf and
Skyrim, this evil is portrayed with the use of dragons – Beowulf’s dragon is being awaken by another act of greed (Callahan 7): “That place was entered by some soul or other who penetrated far in towards the pagan hoard; his hand seized a treasure shimmering with jewels; the dragon then avenged it” (Beowulf 60); the curse dwelling on the treasure is broken by Beowulf’s selfless sacrifice, and even though Wiglaf is the one actually piercing the dragon’s skin, arguably, the victory is Beowulf’s because of said sacrifice (Callahan 9).
The dragons’ disappearance in Skyrim, which eventually led to the common belief of how they were just legends, parallels with Tolkien and Beowulf in a specific way: all consist of longer periods of time, decades at least, and all resulted in other characters becoming complacent due to said evil being hidden, therefore, its striking was damaging to all three examples – Hobbits got their souls almost stolen:
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He turned, and there in the cold glow he saw lying beside him, Sam, Pippin, and
Merry. They were on their backs, and their faces looked deathly pale; and they
were clad in white. About them lay many treasures, of gold maybe. . . . On their
heads were circlets, gold chains were about their waists, and on their fingers
were many rings. Swords lay by their sides, and shields were at their feet. But
across their three necks lay one long naked sword (qtd. in Callahan 8)
The old king Beowulf laid his life in his fight with the dragon. But before this happens the dragon lays waste to the Geatland:
The serpent’s attack was seen far and wide,
Both at hand and by rumour the enemy’s malicework,
How the lawless war-bringer hated and humiliated
The folk of the Geats. He sped back to the hoard,
To his great hidden hall before the light of day.
He had lapped the inhabitants of the land in fire,
In flame, in blaze, he put faith in his cave […]
The best of buildings, the Geats‘ Royal Throne
Was dissolving in waves of flame…“ (Beowulf 63)
And in Skyrim the dragons’ attacks are devastating to all simply because people ceased to believe they existed. The evil they represent has been forgotten by the people of
Skyrim, therefore, when it returned, the outcomes were crushing. Alduin’s first attack comes very early in the storyline, just as the Imperial soldiers are about to – wrongfully
– execute The Dragonbron (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim). Nobody is prepared for an attack of this velocity so the distinctively crushing result is an entire village – Helgen – on fire and all the prisoners escaping. This is further shown by the development in the storyline, where the seriousness of the situation is represented in the short term alliance
20 made by The Dragonborn – a former prisoner about to be executed – and an Imperial officer, as they try to escape Alduin’s wrath together, if the player choses to do so (The
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim).
However, there is one difference between Beowulf’s dragon’s representation of evil and Tolkien’s depiction of evil. As Patrick Callahan states:
Tolkien's wights differ from the dragon in an important respect: they are
vampire- like as BEOWULF'S dragon is not. This quality of the wights adds a
suggestiveness that is uniquely Tolkien's. Tolkien's evil beings must suck their
substance from the good. The most evil creatures in LORD OF THE RINGS --
the ringwraiths, the barrow- wights, and Sauron himself - are described as
garments walking without substance, as voices in the wind, or as disembodied
eyes. (Callahan 8)
This, however, creates yet another symbolic parallel with the storyline of Skyrim from which one important event must be mentioned with utter emphasis – Alduin’s actions in
Sovngarde. Sovngarde is a place of Nordic mythological afterlife:
Sovngarde has many similarities to Asgard, the home of the gods in real world
Norse mythology. However, other aspects of it are more similar to Valhalla […]
created by Shor that exists in Aetherius. Warriors who have proven their mettle
in battle arrive in Sovngarde after death. Fleshly pain and maladies evaporate
upon entering its Hall of Valor. Spirits here enjoy mead-drinking and contests of
physical prowess. It should be noted that this is only for Nordic and Atmoran
warriors - other groups have their own afterlives. For example, when Nordic
Werewolves die, Hircine claims their soul for his Great Hunt just as he would
with any other Werewolf, thus preventing them from reaching Sovngarde. There
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are some exceptions, such as members of a different race can enter Sovngarde by
proving themselves worthy. (“Sovngarde”)
Alduin has set his task to gain strength from the souls inhabiting Sovengarde. It is important to mention this because of the parallel with Tolkien’s work. Alduin feeds on the souls in Sovngarde in a comparable manner in which Tolkien creates his antagonists as a vampire-like creatures. “Once inside Sovngarde, the Dragonborn discovers that
Alduin laid a mist where he hides and feeds upon trapped souls to gain strength.”
(“Sovngarde”). This has most likely been done in an order of certain theme manipulation starting with Beowulf, through Tolkien where the theme of vampirism was added, to Skyrim, which has been influenced by both. Furthermore all three are connected by themes of selflessness and sacrifice. This theme is present in several of other mentioned works, namely The Dark Knight Rises and other comic book and adaptations. In these three cases one can observe it as a symbol of redemption – the curse is being broken by an act of selflessness, as opposed to, for example, “the act of greed” in Beowulf.
Beowulf attacked the dragon because it was a slayer of his people, not because it
guarded riches; Frodo stayed to face the wight, not to win gold, but to save his
comrades. It was courage and selflessness that proved the undoing of Tolkien's
barrow-wight, not magic, for in THE LORD OF THE RINGS magic is only a
reflex of moral decision. (Callahan 12)
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3. Superheroes, Comic Books, and Cinema
When comic books and Scandinavia are a topic of discussion an average reader might first think of Thor, the God of Thunder, who is the son of Odin and wields the mighty hammer called Mjolnir. Thor has been amongst Marvel’s most important characters ever since his creation. The combination of comic book heroism and
Scandinavian mythology has led Thor on a long pathway from being a dull warrior with hints of Old English in his speech, and who doesn’t understand a lot from modern Earth, being considered just a crazy person with powers obtained through technology, to becoming a wise ruler and a member of the Avengers, the heroic elite of the World. One might ask: how is Thor parallel to Beowulf when his most apparent origin is in the mythology of his namesake Thor – the Norse God of Thunder. As this thesis illustrates,
Beowulf’s influence creates several paradoxes across its vast spread; one of them being the portrayal of several characters whose origins date even before Beowulf’s first mention in the tenth century. One good example is Marvel’s Thor; but one might find more in popular literature and film – King Leonidas from Miller’s 300 comic loosely based on the Battle of Thermopylae, Steven DeKnight’s TV series Spartacus, or DC
Comic’s Batman himself.
3.1 Beowulf, Batman, and Escapism Each of the mentioned contemporary works could be characterized as Escapist.
This characterization is profoundly based on the understanding of popular culture in the context of its modern form. As Roger Rollin acknowledges, escapism of popular romance might reside in the security it generates (Rollin 432). The viewer might see the hero’s struggles as overwhelming and impossible to overcome, but his perception always revolves around the assurance of good being triumphant over evil. Therefore, an
23 average viewer might even be sure of the hero’s success even when he is not consciously admitting it and the content is not showing any signs of said success – one good example is when Bane breaks Batman’s back in Batman issue 497 from July 1993 and then later in Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation (The Dark Knight Rises). In this case, the hero is broken, both figuratively and literally; the viewer has virtually no reason to believe that he will ever recover or yet even be triumphant over his nemesis.
And yet The Dark Knight sets his mind to recovery and furthermore does recover;
Nolan makes sure to show the viewer the hero’s unbreakable willpower, pain tolerance, and the ever so needed ability to fail and not break, as he recovers from his injury and escapes the dungeon he was left in to die (The Dark Knight Rises).
Victories, such as these, hardly happen in reality, but the viewer wants them to occur even there. Therefore, his longing for the hero’s triumph is completely understandable. But he also seeks the struggle because the victory is much greater when it is earned, just as epic poets clearly realized because, as Rollin states, “an easy victory not only lacks dramatic force but paradoxically cheapens the value system of the victory is to affirm by making it almost irrelevant” (Rollin 432). As W. R. Robinson claims in his defense of films, an “escape” can be seen as a function of all forms of art:
The most persistent and unjust criticism leveled at the movies has been that they
are sui generis "escapist." But this critical term, the nastiest epithet conceivable
within a very narrow-minded aesthetic of truth which sprung up alongside
realism, absurdly distorts our sense of what art is or should be. It implies that
only an art as grim and dour as the realist thought life to be under the aegis of
materialism can qualify as serious aesthetic achievement. .... Yet even in the
dourest realistic view truth is a human triumph; through it man transcends
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suffering and determinism. Nikolai Berdyaev saw this clearly when he argued
that all art is a victory over heaviness. It is always escape (qtd. in Rollin 432).
To sort Beowulf among comic books and superheroes might be considered bold but taking in account its contemporary adaptations and depictions, in twenty-first century
Beowulf could be considered escapist. After all his fight with Grendel does fall among
Roger Rollin’s argument about an “easy victory” – it is clearly stated Hrothgar’s
“warriors would await Grendel’s attack with dread blades” (Anglo-Saxon Poetry 12), but Grendel cannot be harmed by any blade – that is why Beowulf decides to fight unarmed (Anglo-Saxon Poetry 15), A victory seemingly impossible, making it greater in relevance, according to Rollin’s explanation (432).
During Beowulf’s last battle, Wiglaf takes upon himself a role of a leader, symbolically succeeding Beowulf before his departure, and tries to rally the men who flee in fear:
Not one stood by him, of the children of men,
Of his band of comrades, with battle-efforts
And acts of valour, but they fled into the forest
And looked after their lives. The mind of one of them
Was moved with anxieties; nothing can ever
Dissolve kin’s duty in right-thinking soul.
His name was Wiglag, he was Weohstan’s son,
A treasured shieldsman, a Scylding man
And a relative of Aelfhere. His liege lord saw,
His war-masked face in the pain and heat (Beowulf 2056-2065)
In this text, translated by Edwin Morgan, Wiglaf, proving his loyalty, stayed and proceeded to give a speech to his companions. He appealed to their debt to Beowulf,
25 their honor, and sentiment. This is the turning point of Wiglaf becoming a true leader and mirroring Beowulf, symbolically at the end of Beowulf’s life.
The theme of a successor is not an alien theme to heroic epics – Wiglaf’s speech is an essential milestone in the evolution of his character, much repeated in modern popular fiction. Its mention is of great importance for the sake of this argument because it creates a parallel between Beowulf and Wiglaf, and contemporary comic book heroes, such as Batman; and most importantly his follower, and later successor, Robin. Both
Wiglaf and Robin are younger than their heroes and both come to their symbolic maturity by becoming heroes themselves – Robin turns to Nightwing, first appearing in
Superman #158 in 1963, and later takes on the role of Batman himself. In his work,
Rollin lists three types of epic heroes from the list of five of Herman Northrop Frye’s
Anatomy of Criticism:
Type 1 – If superior in kind both to other men and to the environment of other
men, the hero is a divine being, and the story about him will be a myth in the
common sense of a story about a god; Type 2 – If superior in degree to other
men and to his environment, the hero is the typical hero of romance, whose
actions are marvellous but who is himself identified as a human being. The hero
moves in a world in which the ordinary laws of nature are slightly suspended;
Type 3 – If superior in degree to other men but not to his natural environment,
the hero is a leader. He has authority, passions, and powers of expression far
greater than ours but [...] is subject both to social criticism and to the order of
nature (qtd. in Rollin 434-435).
With this being said, one might sort mentioned heroes into all of the three categories.
Beowulf falls into the Type two – he is described as stronger than any man (Beowulf), yet he is a mere human and his mortality is well exploited in the poem, as well as his
26 ability to age. Another hero that falls into this category is Batman. The Type two creates another fitting analogy between Batman and Beowulf since both are mortal humans; their powers being very arguably special, since both Beowulf and The Dark Knight are both mentally and physically strong but their powers do not come from sources that could be considered supernatural or fantastic; both are vulnerable to physical injuries, capable of error, and in summary carry more human virtues than the Type one, but are more fantastic than the Type three. This argument is supported by Frank Miller’s 2002 work The Dark Knight Returns, as he exploits Batman’s ability to age and weaken. He relies on this for the sake of portraying an older Batman who very much resembles the old king Beowulf in his selfless leadership, as he fakes his own death to lead his companions in secret (Miller). This Batman is much more mature and watchful, and as a leader or a king would be, he is interested in politics and the direction the world is taking (Miller). In The Dark Knight Returns, Miller uses plot devices in a parallel manner to how they are used in Beowulf. Batman’s Grendel is the Mutant gang, or its leader. Batman’s later confrontation with the Joker which happens to take place in a water filled sewer-like “tunnel” (Miller), parallels to Beowulf’s confrontation with
Grendel’s mother. In the final act, Batman battles his own dragon in the form of another powerful creature – the Man of Steel.
3.2 The Incompetence of Law Beowulf and Batman both share a particular role they play inside their own communities. This role is ironically not based on their own competence but more on the incompetence of the community (Rollin 436). The Danes in Beowulf are incapable of posing a threat or even a challenge to Grendel and they are incompetent in dealing with him. Beowulf finds the ruler, Hrothgar, powerless in dealing, let alone defeating,
Grendel. At first he offers counsel (Anglo-Saxon Poetry 8), and later defeats Grendel
27 himself. Beowulf comes from outside the community therefore has an advantage of not being bound by its rules and customs, just as The Dark Knight is not bound by common law. Beowulf decides to fight Grendel unarmed, as “no choicest of swords on the earth, no war spear would pierce the evil monster” (Anglo-Saxon Poetry 18). Hrothgar later acknowledges that none of the Danes could have done this (Anglo-Saxon Poetry 19), but Beowulf, being outside of this community, was able to. In Batman’s case the entire
Gotham cannot do anything about the havoc Batman’s foes – The Joker, Bane, and
Scarecrow – wreak on it; not even the people in charge. Therefore, both Beowulf and
Batman step into the position of a person in charge, in order to compensate the incompetence of the ones governing, and who might have been competent once, namely
Hrothgar’s case, but now lack the ability to deal with their Grendels.
In Gotham, as Rollin writes, the particular part of Gotham community stricken by incompetence is the law enforcement, because “the law frequently appears to be too complex or too cumbersome to deal with crises, so the hero, whether he is real titular king or not, becomes a law unto himself” (Rollin 437). If one takes in account the fact how Grendel is described as outside of the community, the descendant of the exiled race of Cain (Beowulf), the influence of the Danes’ community has no reach on him, therefore, he could stand an analogy for Batman’s foes who are outside the law – J.R.R.
Tolkien and W.P. Ker both agree on the fact that “the monsters [in Beowulf] mythologically [sic] embody [...] the forces of ‘Chaos’ and ‘Unreason’ eternally pitted against the gods and men” (qtd. in Acker 702). This is further supported by the poet’s mention of how Grendel’s victims and their families cannot get any material compensation for his ravage (Beowulf).
From all DC Comics antagonists one has mastered the ability to spread chaos like no other – Batman’s nemesis The Joker, recently portrayed in 2008 by late
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Australian actor Heath Ledger in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. The Joker’s main motivation is to “corrupt” Batman; he demonstrates this by rather killing people close to Batman than Batman himself, and shows the inability to be bought by the mafia when he burns the money they pay him (The Dark Knight). The Joker’s past is a complete mystery to the readers and viewers. His origin, parents, or family are all unknown. Harvey Dent characterizes him as a “mad dog” that was unleashed (The Dark
Knight), placing Joker among animals or monsters rather than among men; and The
Joker further demonstrates his animalism, or simply being outside civilization and community, by symbolically sticking his head out of a speeding car, while he is being taken to a police station, in the same manner dogs tend to. Frank McConnell puts emphasis on the word “outside”, as he speaks about “representatives of the savage world outside the hall, populated by creatures who are not the children of men”
(McConnell 58). Additionally, McConnell describes Grendel as “the primal monster of chaos” (57). Beowulf, on the other hand is described as the outright opposite. As he is described as a king, the poem mentions he is not violent towards his friends even when drunk. McConnell argues this is a praise worthy of a king, as it implies the idea of a
“highly sophisticated society”, as opposed to “primitive” (McConnell 59). Beowulf, therefore, shows sophistication and calmness even when drunk, as opposed to chaos portrayed by Grendel when he earlier attacks the mead hall, conveniently full of drunk men.
Just as mentioned arguments put The Joker outside the community, so does
Scarecrow’s failure at his psychiatric practice (Batman Begins); and Bane’s criminal past (The Dark Knight Rises). All three mentioned antagonists cast chaos in their specific manner: The Joker is chaotic in his nature but his chaos is systematic, as it is intentional; Scarecrow casts his opponents into fear; and Bane is destructive. They all
29 have Grendel’s main traits as he casts chaos around as he attacks the sleeping Danes, and later Geats, and his monstrous nature is horrific from the very beginning when
Hrothgar describes his home:
Within the compass of twenty lines the poet has drawn an impressive picture of a
scene so gloomy and dismal, so invested with horror, […] He has achieved his
effect partly by his skillful selection of detail - the fire on the water, the wintry
trees overhanging it, the miser able stag shuddering on the brink - and partly by a
certain vagueness of phraseology - the weeping skies, the windy promontories,
the wolf-haunted hills. "It is not a pleasant place,'' concludes Hrothgar, and no
one will disagree with this characteristic understatement. (Mackie)
And arguably Grendel’s main ability – his violence, shown in his attacks on
High Heorot: “A soldier from his sleep, tore him unopposed, Gnashed flesh from bone, at veins drank blood,” (Beowulf 20). Arguably Grendel stands a violent fearful chaos maker, just as Batman’s foes do. Ward Parks sorts Grendel into an animal kingdom as a predator:
The fundamental ambivalence that Grendel embodies and that Beowulf must
resolve relates to the distinction between predatorial and agonistic aggression. In
brief, Grendel wants to ravage like a predator, whereas Beowulf insists on
contesting with him like a con specific adversary (that is, as a member of the
same biological species). The association between the poem's horrific imagery
and mood - especially in its early movements - and the theme of predation is
very clear. (Parks)
As an animalistic predator and chaos maker, Grendel prays on the community just like
The Joker does; both Hrothgar and Gotham law enforcements are powerless against
30 them and, as is later further analyzed in this paper, both Beowulf and The Dark Knight come to step in as law enforcements themselves.
3.3 The Importance of Community The evolution, or development, of the hero’s character is displayed in focus on his community, given the fact that it was not always so in his life. There are numerous examples in Beowulf’s speeches, where he talks about, addresses, or lectures his community, aside from his last one. His early speeches in the poem, up until the one about his swimming match with Brecca, stress the importance of social order and when he finally boasts about his achievements, the reader sees Beowulf as the sole hero of his deeds (Shaw 87). If one is to examine Beowulf’s early and his later speeches, one would find a relationship pointing at the development of the character shifting his focus from
“I” to “We” – parallel evolution to the aging Dark Knight. Beowulf’s young self tends to use the pronoun “I” in his third speech, using it twenty eight times, while “We” does not occur at all. But later Beowulf’s speeches change its tone – in his last speech, he uses “We” four times and “I” only seven times, talking not only of himself, but about his men, as well (Shaw 88).
The aging Dark Knight becomes less consumed by his parents’ death, as this is the sole initial reason he becomes the crime fighting vigilante, and is more driven by wanting for a peaceful and just community as is shown in Miller’s comic The Dark
Knight Returns. One minor example from the comic book form can be found among the
Marvel Comics, namely the teenage boy Spider-man, who similarly shifts from a young powerful individual who is reckless and naive, to a hero who places his community before his own life and derives his actions based on this formula. He places himself among the regular members of the community, by frequently introducing himself as the
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“friendly neighborhood Spider-man”, as one would, for example, with “your friendly neighborhood policeman” (Spider-Man).
DC comic books, as Bradford W. Wright writes, “emphasized responsibility to the community over individualism, and the creators minimized the importance of the latter, perhaps unintentionally, by giving all of their superheroes essentially the same personality” (Wright 185). This personality may parallel Beowulf in many aspects, one of them being the way he carefully chooses his approach to the subject of his help with dealing with Grendel, as he arrives to Denmark and meets the Danish coast guard:
‘We are men belonging to the nation of the Geats,
We are hearth-companions of Hygelac.
Well-known was my father among the peoples,
A princely battle-chief, Ecgtheow his name;
Many many years he lived before he left us,
Went old from our courts; hhim every counsellor
Happily remembers far and wide.
With friendly purpose we have come to seek
Your own overlord, the son of Healfadene,
Protector of his people; give us fair forwarding!
[...]
A mysterious destroying-force in the deep of night,
Unveils to dread a malignity unfathomable,
Murderousness, humiliation. I might in magnanimity
Give Hrothar advising for the remedy of that,
How he, old and trusted, could overcome this fiend (Beowulf 8)
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In this translation by Edwin Morgan, Beowulf speaks in a comparably cautious and measured manner as he reveals he is in Denmark “to advise” Hrothgar in his dealing with Grendel and speaks highly about Hrothgar and Denmark. Only later proceeds to offer his services in getting rid of Grendel himself. DC heroes tend to speak in very similar “carefully measured sentences” (Wright 185). As Wight continues:
Each reacted to situations in the same predictable manner. They were always in
control, rarely impulsive, and never irrational. Most importantly, all of the DC
superheroes were impossibly altruistic. Helping humanity was their only
motivation. Individualism and nonconformity were, by the same token, equated
with criminal activity. In one Flash story, the hero investigates a “fabulous
individualist” who “defies the government” by refusing to pay taxes despite his
enormous personal wealth. The villain turns out to be an alien invader posing as
a wealthy tax-evader in order to cause mischief.” (Wright 185)
To list specific parallels with Beowulf in Denmark, one has to look at this DC storyline as rather simply ‘community versus individual’ struggle. Just as DC Comics’ character The Flash represents the interest of the community by investigating an individual who willingly chose to distance himself from it, so does Beowulf when he comes to answer Hrothgar’s calling, to deal with Grendel – again an individual outside the community. This parallel is taken even further by the fact that the ”fabulous individualist” is alien himself, therefore, just as Grendel does, he does not possess the ability to belong to the community by being a descendant of a different one, making him an individual outside of Flash’s not only by choice of his actions but by his origin as well. He is not of the “children of men.”
Both, this individual and Grendel, “defy the government” by their own means – the individual refuses to pay taxes, depriving the community of the money they have a
33 legitimate claim on; Grendel, by being outside the community is unable to pay his victims the compensation they should receive for his violence, as an Anglo-Saxon and
Nordic custom; again a legitimate claim:
Many years he bore bitter hatred, violence, and malice, an unflagging feud;
peace he would not have with any man of Danish race, nor lay aside murderous
death, nor consent to be bought off. Nor did any of the councilors make bold to
expect fairer conditions from the hands of the slayer (Anglo-Saxon Poetry 6).
He wanted no peace with any of the men of the Danish host, would not withdraw
his deadly rancor, or pay compensation: no counselor there had any reason to
expect splendid repayment at the hands of the slayer. For the monster was
relentless, the dark death-shadow, against warriors old and young, lay in wait
and ambushed them (Abrams 29).
Wright lists another example of a villain purposely excluding himself from the community, from the Flash comic books: “...a group of nonconforming ‘beatniks’ as a criminal gang. Common villains included renegade scientists who leave government service in order to pursue personal, and always criminal, ambitions” (Wright 185).
In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises Batman’s ultimate sacrifice is being foreshadowed in a scene with Catwoman as she tries to persuade him to leave
Gotham to its destruction because he doesn’t “owe these people anything, [and he has] given them everything”, to which he replies “Not everything” (The Dark Knight Rises).
He then proceeds to lead on the community, the entire Gotham, to believe he has sacrificed himself in order to save the city from a nuclear blast and leaves Gotham, the city he loves, forever. This has an impact on strengthening the unity of Gotham’s community after its struggles with its role models, such as Harvey Dent – the Two-Face
– who went from Gotham’s White Knight to becoming its destroyer, again by leaving
34 the community and joining the Joker – a person already dwelling outside of it (The Dark
Knight).
Batman has left the community he embraced, and has been a part of his entire life, as well, in order to save it and make it stronger. The scene of Batman’s apparent death leaves one possibility open, it shows him only meters away from the bomb seconds before the explosion (The Dark Knight Rises); therefore, a possibility of his actual death is present, since the only person seeing him alive is his old former butler
Alfred Pennyworth, who made it clear he is desperate to see Bruce Wayne happy, and completely illogically comes to only one place each year where he hopes to see him – and he finally does. So the possible explanation of this scene might be Alfred’s sole imagination as a coping mechanism with the death of his loved one. Both scenarios support the initial argument.
In Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel where, in the climax of the film, General Zod is giving Superman a chance to decide whether he will let a family of four die or will kill
General Zod instead. The Man of Steel makes his sacrifice by denying his principles and kills him, immediately falling into deep grief and sorrow (Man of Steel). Zod,
Superman’s kinsman, places himself between Superman and a family of four, creating a choice whether Superman kills him or lets him kill the family, symbolically allowing
Zod to wreak havoc on the human race as he states before, saying “I will take them all from you one by one” (Man of Steel). Superman here chooses to kill Zod in favor of his earthly community. This choice mirrors the position of community in Beowulf – “The community bond has overpowered that of the family; men and the doings of men, nations and the affairs of nations, are the interests of this literature, rank and the duties of rank are the pillars of this society” (Dixon, 70-71).
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Just as Batman often does, Superman chooses his community over the bond of kinship he shares with Zod. Their relationship is arguably close to family ties, symbolically speaking, since they are the last Kryptonians living. But there is yet an even more crucial example in Snyder’s Man of Steel, when during the hurricane scene
Superman decides to let his father die in the storm because his father believed “the world wasn’t ready [to gain knowledge of Superman]” (Man of Steel). Clark Kent let his father die for the sake of his community. Superman, being virtually invulnerable, has to make his sacrifice psychological or emotional – both with Zod and Jonathan Kent
– as opposed to Batman sacrificing his health in his fight with Bane. This theme of community over individualism connects all mentioned works to Beowulf’s fight with the dragon, and ultimately his death, precisely to the moment of Beowulf’s last words which he dedicates to his community as he sees the dragon’s treasure:
Beowulf spoke,
The old man from his sorrow gazed over the gold:
‘For these precious things let my words voice thanks
To the King of glory and the Lord of all,
The everlasting God – for what feasts my sight,
That here I have been able to win for my people
A gift such as this before the day of my death (Beowulf 76)
Here the reader witnesses Beowulf killing the monster that is endangering his community, but also Beowulf dedicating his death to his community – very much like said comic book heroes.
Furthermore both Batman and Beowulf enjoy the spoils of war and their wealth during their life, while also being remembered for saving their communities from utter destruction. The most common illustration of this from the DC universe is the recent
36 cinematic portrayal of Frank Miller’s comic Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice where the theme of community over individualism is presented in Superman’s struggle to be a part of it but later in the film trading his life for the survival of the community as he uses a spear made out of alien radioactive material which kills his nemesis
Doomsday, Superman’s own dragon, by piercing his heart; but as the material weakens
Superman as well, Doomsday is able to gravely injure him. The Man of Steel was aware of this risk and willingly took it for the sake of his community (Batman v Superman:
Dawn of Justice). Further examples can be found in another of Frank Miller’s comics
300, a loose depiction of the Battle of Thermopylae, in 2007 cinematized by Zack
Snyder; or Steven DeKnight’s TV series Spartacus – a paradoxical product of
Beowulf’s impact on contemporary popular culture. A character dated more than thousand years before the approximate origin of Beowulf but in its modern portrayal parallel to the old poem. In both cases the main protagonist, a military leader, sacrifices himself and even his entire army for the well-being of his civil community (Spartacus)
(300). Additionally the theme of boasting is frequent in Spartacus as well – virtually every single gladiator is more than proud to boast of his achievements in and outside of the arena.
Vaunting one’s own powers and feats was also considered an effective
psychological weapon against adversaries in such cultures as the Anglo-
Saxon, in which the gab or boast was part of a verbal display intended to
intimidate the hero’s opponent. Beowulf’s account of the numerous monsters
he slew during the days of his swimming match with Breca silences his
detractor, Unferth. (Garry, El-Shamy 297)
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This establishes additional, one could say minor, parallel between Beowulf and
Spartacus beside the mentioned ‘importance of community’ which is superior in priority in this thesis.
In the show Spartacus begins as a young boastful man with no regard for his slave community, as he plans to kill his master even when faced with a possible outcome of him doing so, resulting in all other slaves being executed (“Delicate
Things”). In the end, Spartacus battles his dragon in the form of Marcus Crassus’ legions and is hopelessly outnumbered. He then suffers severe injuries and, just as
Beowulf, dedicates his last words to the community he tried to save from Roman slavery (“Victory”). A small portion of the community eventually succeeds in escaping
Roman grasp making Spartacus’ sacrifice to his community relevant not in numbers but in principle.
The same theme can be found in 300. In this comic by Frank Miller, the Spartan soldiers decide to stay at the Hot Gates not only because a “glorious death” is something they seek as warriors, a theme common to both 300 and Spartacus, but because they are familiar with the knowledge that their small force is the last pinnacle of resistance that lies between Sparta and the Persian army (300).
All of these distributional and integrative elements occur repeatedly because
of the way our culture has decided, collectively, over several millennia, that
certain stories must be told. If a warrior is to be heroic and held in esteem . . .
he cannot have led a larger force to its defeat at the hands of a small but
skillfully superior enemy. And so on; all the elements in this narrative type
reflect the way our culture believes that heroes are defeated and the way their
defeat must be related—if they are to be considered heroes (qtd. in Garry, El-
Shamy 15)
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This theme is very well known to the viewer and is mentioned numerous times in the film – one fitting example is King Leonidas’ speech after Ephialtes’ betrayal at the Hot
Gates where he says “Let all know that three hundred Spartans gave their last breath to defend [freedom]” and decided to stay at the Gates despite their impending death (300).
Additionally the theme of ‘law incompetence’ is present in 300 as well, as King
Leonidas faces an apathy from Sparta’s corrupt government against the Persian invasion. He can be counted among the other heroes together with Beowulf, Batman, or the Dovahkiin, in this aspect.
Arguments provided in this chapter support the existence of a parallel between
Beowulf and, mostly, DC comic book heroes who share the same sense of community over individualism. The importance of community is shown by their willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of said communities, namely Gotham in Batman’s case,
Metropolis or the entire World in Superman’s case, and Beowulf’s kingdom Geatland, in the original poem. Another important parallel is apparent in the Flash comics and supports the importance of community over individualism by exposing individuals outside the community, who willingly and repeatedly try to destroy said community, and stopping them from doing so. The third parallel between modern comic book heroes and Beowulf is their shared role as guardians of their communities, even at times where their titles do not require them to be – Beowulf in Denmark as he takes on the role of the protector and defeats Grendel; Batman in Gotham as he takes on the role of law enforcement and defeats Joker who casts chaos on the community. In both cases the titular protectors are incompetent of delivering their protection and, therefore, said heroes step in to do so themselves. Good triumphs over evil in all the said works and arguably their most important common treat is their escapist nature, which makes them all connected via the readers’, or viewers’ perception and understanding as well.
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4. Conclusion
In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim the player takes on the role of a classic epic hero, in a world largely inspired by the Anglo-Saxon poetry pillar Beowulf. The creators were not only inspired by Beowulf, but took entire concepts and themes from the poem and later acknowledged this in the game, in a sentimental and symbolical manner, by, for example, naming a mountain High Hrothgar. Skyrim emphasizes the importance of community over individualism, a strong theme shared by countless contemporary works, including the DC Comics characters, such as the Dark Knight, and other minor works, such as Frank Miller’s comic 300. There is no evidence, in this thesis that Frank
Miller has been knowingly writing his comic books specifically based on Beowulf.
However the number of parallels, shared themes, and plot devices is too great to dismiss the argument of his works being affected by the poem.
Beowulf, in this thesis, stands as the prototype of a heroic epic. Since the thesis takes the contemporary work as a basis and finds parallels and themes in each of them, linking them back to Beowulf, it is important to look at the argument from the perspective where the main factors are the themes, not the works, as well, for the purpose of clarity.
The Importance of Songs theme ties Beowulf with J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, namely The Hobbit, as The Misty Mountain song plays somewhat important role in the story, and Skyrim by including songs about the Dragonborn arguably representing, or one could even say imitating in its limited form, the original poem of Beowulf.
‘Old Norse Themes’ are present in Beowulf and Skyrim as well, and practically provide an explanation of the decision to include the Draugr and use the theme of ‘The
Voice’ in Skyrim. It is based on an Old Norse chant and potentially links Skyrim to
Beowulf via his depiction of a hero with a powerful voice, and by the image of an epic
40 hero whose voice is his instrument used for boasting and commanding, therefore, must be powerful. This is further supported by another usage of a powerful voice in Robert
Zemeckis’ depiction of Beowulf, similar to the one of Skyrim, where the hero’s voice is also his literal weapon.
Furthermore there is a shared theme of ‘Evil in Hiding’ between Tolkien and
Skyrim: characters became complacent and by their apathy let the attacks be even more destructive, when their evil came back to surface again. In these works this hidden evil is represented mainly by Dragons, but in Tolkien’s case by wights, the dead kings, as well. He brought this theme to completion by adding a theme of ‘Vampirism’, as the hidden evil must feed on the good. This theme is also shared by the creators of Skyrim, potentially inspiring themselves with Tolkien’s work. J.R.R. Tolkien plays significant role in this ‘chain of parallels’, simply because he largely exploited the impact of
Beowulf on his work. He himself reimagined many of Beowulf’s literary elements.
‘The Development of a Hero’ is particularly shown in the shifting of his focus from personal heroic deeds to his community and is viewed as such in this thesis. This one aspect of the character evolution is own to many comic book, cinematic, and television characters, including The Dark Knight or Spartacus.
The theme of ‘The Incompetence of Law’ resides in how the executives and lawmakers are helpless against threats of evil which inhabit their city, or land, and threaten their communities. In the original poem of Beowulf, this is represented by
Hrothgar’s inability to defeat, or even deal with Grendel. Beowulf then comes to a land where law cannot deal with its threats, and holding the advantage of not being bound by its customs and boundaries, defeats Grendel. Similarly to how The Dark Knight, The
Flash, the Dragonborn, and others deal with their own Grendels. In Beowulf soldiers who are helpless against Grendel’s vicious attacks parallel Gotham’s police forces who
41 are similarly helpless against its villains. Each of The Dark Knight’s villains possesses a different main trait which makes him unique in this company. The Joker is a chaos maker, Bane is violent, and Scarecrow casts fear. Their traits combined are all present in
Grendel’s actions.
The understanding of Beowulf’s impact lies in realizing the fact that many, minor or major, contemporary pop-culture works, with themes of heroism, extended beyond epic poetry to novels, films, and interactive media, consist of themes originating in the Anglo-Saxon heroic epic. May it be only one or two themes, or entire concepts in
Tolkien’s case, it often plays an important role as a plot device – examples being: the hero placing his community before his life and later sacrificing himself; or the intervention he has to make due to the ‘incompetence of law. Many other popular culture epic heroic works not included in this thesis can be linked back to Beowulf through certain themes, symbols, and other literary elements. The spread of Beowulf’s impact is vast and reaches works one would not necessarily consider among these before analyzing them. Many other contemporary works can be linked to Beowulf. This thesis navigates relationships between mentioned works and Beowulf, which can be applied to many other contemporary heroic epics, fantasy epics, historical epics, and other genres and subgenres.
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Works Cited
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Summary
This thesis aims to map Beowulf’s potential relationships with several contemporary works of different forms, such as The Dark Knight comics, or Skyrim, the fifth game of the Elder Scrolls series. The focus is on themes that connect said works with the original Anglo-Saxon poem and mainly its protagonist; also on the revelation of parallels that, in some cases, may exist without the initial knowledge of the authors themselves, and in other cases may even be acknowledged in a symbolical manner.
These themes include dragons, evil in hiding, songs, Old Norse themes, importance of community over individualism, the incompetence of law, and the theme of a powerful voice. J.R.R. Tolkien is mentioned, most importantly, as a metaphorical bridge that sometimes connects certain themes from Beowulf to other contemporary works. Minor focus is on Beowulf’s foes as well, as they are parallel to many contemporary fantasy epic and comic book villains.
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Resumé
Tato práce se zaměřuje na zmapování potenciálního vztahu, jenž má Beowulf se současnou tvorbou různých forem, jako jsou The Dark Knight komiksy nebo Skyrim, pátá hra ze série Elder Scrolls. Práce se soustředí na leitmotivy, které spojují jednotlivá díla s původní Anglosaskou básní a jejím protagonistou. Také na odhalení paralel, které, v některých případech, existují i bez případného vědomí autora a v jiných případech, jsou naopak autorem potvrzeny v samotném díle, často symbolicky. Mezi tyto motivy patří draci, skryté zlo, písně, staré Skandinávské motivy, důležitost komunity oproti individualismu, inkompetence zákona a motiv silného hlasu. J.R.R. Tolkien je zmíněn převážně jako metaforický most, spojující některá díla a báseň o Beowulfovi. Práce se také soustředí na Beowulfovi záporné postavy, které tvoří paralely s mnoha zápornými postavami ze současné komiksové a filmové tvorby, převážně ze žánru fantastických epik.
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