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Beowulf:
A Dramatic Translation |
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. . . Grendel
presents a new definition of the monstrous. Outwardly indistinguishable
from other bogeymen, his is a spiritual portrait: His isolation
and envy embody evil in its purest form. Equally compelling is the
poet’s response to the joyless moor-stalker, the object of
a compassion no Cyclops ever received. Here is a man standing always
outside the circle of joy and kinship. Nor is the poet’s compassion
mere contrivance; but it derives fully rooted from a theology that
accommodates the purest innocence of humanity with its most sordid
aspects. Theology is anything but auxiliary in Beowulf: It
is the wellspring of the poem’s power to arouse—the source
of its humanity, and also of its macabre, nearly slapstick humor.
Read this section aloud to feel the “jump” element and
the humor of the comic asides. |