Beowulf as a Pacifist Poem :: Social Phenomena Literature Art Essays

Beowulf as a Pacifist Poem Social phenomena have always been narrated by artists. Art is a cathartic way to express one’s negative feelings; poems help poets and their readers or listeners to deal with people's frustrations. War, man's tendency to wage aggression upon each other, is the most criticized issue among intellectuals in the society. An artist's opinions, especially when conflicting with the established social norm of the dominant society, may be disguised and hidden beneath metaphors and complex analogies. Beowulf, a pacifist poem, was written as an expression of frustrations with the wars that constantly occurred during the Anglo-Saxon period. It illustrates, in a cynical, grim light, how people futily die in battle, represented by the speech of a messenger and by Hildeburh’s story. Beowulf also describes cowardly soldiers and a deceitful world that collaborate to invalidate the naive ideals of war. Every war has its reasons, but it is not necessarily right to go into one. Wars have not solved many conflicts nor did they teach anyone anything about pride, country, or loyalty. In Beowulf, Wiglaf’s speech to the warriors after Beowulf’s death, criticizing them for not going out and fighting the dragon after all the treasures that they received from Beowulf, portrays the inefficacy of war and therefore, that of the warriors themselves: Yes, he who will speak the truth may say that the liege lord who gave you treasure, the war-gear you stand in there, when he used often to hand out to hall-sitters on the mead-benches, a prince to his thanes, helmets and war-shirts such as he could find mightiest anywhere, both far and near – that he quite threw away the war-gear, to his distress when war came upon him. (Howe 48) This quotation realistically depicts the instability of people, therefore the instability of war. Beowulf’s warriors don’t follow comitatus, an Anglo-Saxon term that describes a lord-warrior relationship as loyalty for protection. The lord gives treasures and all the amenities to the warriors to ensure that he is going to have loyal warriors to protect his kingdom when wars come. Beowulf pays his warriors treasures to assure his protection, and they still leave and run into the woods. The very fact that they must be bribed to defend Beowulf at all serves to effectively underscore their loyalty. The author of Beowulf uses this episode to paint a picture of deceit, hate, and fear that describes people involved in wars.