The Narrative Pulse of "Beowulf": Arrivals and Departures

Description

One of the most consistent critiques levelled against "Beowulf" is that it lacks a steady narrative advance and that its numerous digressions tend to complicate if not halt the poem's movement. As those passages often look backward or far ahead in narrative time, they seem to transform the poem into a meditative pastiche. "The Narrative Pulse of Beowulf" counters this assertion, examining "Beowulf" as a social drama with a strong, forward-moving narrative momentum. John M. Hill discerns a distinctive 'narrative pulse' arising out of the poem's many scenes of arrival and departure. He argues that such scenes, far from being fixed or 'type' scenes, are socially dramatic and a key to understanding the structural density of the poem. Bolstering his analysis with a strong understanding of the epic, Hill looks at "Beowulf" in relation to other stories such as "The Odyssey" and "The Iliad," epics that, though they may appear to have a certain narrative elasticity, use scenes of arrival and departure to create a cohesive social world in which stories unfold. As a new and comprehensive study of one of the most important Old English texts, "The Narrative Pulse of Beowulf" sheds new light on this famous poem and the epic tradition itself. 1. The Narrative Pulse of 'Beowulf': Arrivals and Departures 3 2. Beowulf's Sudden Arrival and Danish Challenges: Nothing Said Is Merely a Formality 21 3. The Arrival of Joy after Grendel's Departure, and a Momentous Question: Succession or Not? 43 4. Beowulf's Homecoming with 'Celeritas' and Loyalty 65 5. The Dragon’s Arrival and Beowulf's Two Departures: Deep Luck Runs Out 75 Conclusion 91 Notes 97 Works Cited 111 Index 117