The Manly Men of Myth and Middle-Earth - Page 2
© Michael Martinez
Beowulf is an unusual man. He has the grip of thirty men, and he vows to fight the monster without weapons and armor. Unferth, one of Hrothgar's men, challenges Beowulf and accuses him of having lost a contest of strength and endurance to a man named Breca. Beowulf scoffs at the accusation, "What a deal hast uttered, dear my Unferth, drunken with beer, of Breca now, told of his triumph!" He goes on to tell how he and Breca, as mere boys, swam through the sea in full armor (chain shirts), carrying swords with which to defend themselves against whales. They swam for five days and nights, and Beowulf ended up fighting one of the whales.
The best athletes in the world today can't wear a heavy chain shirt, carry a sword, and swim for five days, let alone fight a whale (and kill it). Clearly, Beowulf is a highly unusual man, a hero of epic proportions. He is to the northern world what Samson was to Israel and Judah, what Herakles was to Greece. Beowulf performs impossible feats and men sing his praises. To say he had great P/R is an understatement.
Many people claim (with some justification) that Tolkien was strongly influenced by "Beowulf". The poem's stylistic boasting doesn't carry over to Middle-earth, but something of the imagery does. And yet, there is a distinct difference between the world of Beowulf and the world of Middle-earth. Beowulf, like people today, cannot help but talk about himself. It is not that he is self-absorbed. If anything, he is extremely polite and quite self-sacrificing. But he does ask Hrothgar for a special favor Beowulf wants to be the man who kills Grendel. No one else may have that honor. And Beowulf establishes his claim by reminding all present -- thanks to an opportunity provided by Unferth -- that he is a man capable of achieving great deeds.
Beowulf's boasts are not born of pride so much as of custom. The Roman historian Tacitus (circa 56 CE - 116 CE) notes with some scorn that the ancient Germans loved to boast about their deeds and valor. Tacitus and other Roman writers considered such boasting to be immodest a man's bravery is best celebrated by others. But Beowulf's tales of valor are his resume. A resume is, in fact, the modern world's version of the old barbaric boasts. In a resume, anyone who has written a "Hello, world" program becomes a systems engineer. Anyone who has held the door open for customers is a customer service manager. Anyone who has used a hammer is a certified technician for a manually operated high impact delivery system.
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