Beowulf: The Tragedy of a Hero A Reading

Beowulf takes place in Denmark! Beowulf may be the most important work in Old English literature, but the poem takes place in Denmark and southern Sweden. And it is Denmark where the poem was first published, and where some of the earliest literary criticism of the work saw the light of day. Amalgamation of pagan and Christian thinking Beowulf is an archetypal Germanic hero who, though redeemed by the Christian author to a godly life, insists on being buried in a pagan burial mound. Depicted as a glorious hero, he carries with him a childhood trauma -- a result of the humiliation inflicted on him by the warriors of the great hall -- that he seeks to compensate for by steadily enhancing his heroic reputation. The tragic element of Beowulf's life story is twofold: the golden treasure he wins by risking his life battling a dragon is of no use to anyone when it is buried with him; and upon his death he has neither queen nor heir, leaving his land open to enemies.