Beowulf: Run Fast for Your Mother, Run Fast for Your Father, Run for Your Children, For Your Sisters and Brothers

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Beowulf Run Fast for Your Mother, Run Fast for
Your Father, Run for Your Children, For Your
Sisters and Brothers

• Feraco
• Search for Human Potential
• 2 December 2013

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• Over the past few months, weve debated the
  importance of choice and free will.
• When we finished Siddharthas first chapter,
  we asked ourselves whether wed be OK without the
  freedom to make choices and whether our answer
  to that question depends on whether our
  outcomes are positive.
• When we discussed Macbeth and the Weïrd
  Sisters, we debated whether our control is
  limited (whether by deities or destiny), or
  whether choice and destiny can somehow coexist.

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• Macbeth also raised thorny questions about
  moralitys relationship to free will should an
  individual be held accountable or responsible for
  the consequences of an action he or she didnt
  mean to take?
• Can life be meaningful if our choices arent
  ours to make?
• Should we try to resist our human nature (if
  its even possible)?
• Is a talented artist still worthy of respect
  if a divine being guided her hand or even
  simply provided conditions that allowed her to
  take advantage of her talents?
• Should she be rewarded if her actions arent
  completely free?

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• These relationships between action and reward,
  between choice and consequence, provide a bunch
  of the courses framework because the Search for
  Human Potential requires a Searcher to consider
  the point of said Search before embarking on it.
• To look for human potential is to examine the
  possible, maybe even the probable, but not
  necessarily the actual its about figuring out
  what to want, then how to get it.
• Siddhartha, Tom, Macbeth, even Carl
  Frederickson from Up each have some idea of
  what theyre looking for, but each eventually
  discovers for good or for ill that they want
  something else.

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• And if you look closely enough, youll notice
  each character ends up hungering for two things
  the freedom to do what they want (personal
  satisfaction of desire) and the chance to connect
  with other humans (interpersonal satisfaction of
  desire).
• That combination of choice and connection
  gives them purpose, and removes it when one or
  both of those things go missing (Siddhartha turns
  to gambling and wine, Tom ambles downstairs to
  buy Twinkies and whiskey in his robe, Macbeth
  goes on a killing spree, and Carl sits miserably
  beside an empty chair in an empty house).

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• In many ways, Beowulf is no different he,
  too, seems to need freedom and people in equal
  measure.
• But the poem has a very interesting spin on a
  lot of things weve previously touched on this
  year.
• Take, for example, social hierarchies and
  societies.
• Weve already studied several, from
  Siddharthas village to Macbeths Scotland.

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• But weve really only looked at characters
  who, for one reason or another, end up as bad
  fits within those systems the elderly Carl being
  forced into a nursing home, or a younger Tom
  compromising his ambitions and getting stuck in a
  dead-end greeting card job, where he manufactures
  emotions he cant really feel anymore.
• With Beowulf, well study someone who embodies
  his cultures values instead of clashing with
  them, and who reaps a great deal of glory and
  renown as a result.

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• As an ancient warrior, Beowulf belongs to a
  patriarchal meritocracy. The men rule the state,
  fight to defend it, etc., and rise on the basis
  of their accomplishments (as well as those of
  their fathers). The principles behind a
  meritocracy are fairly simple
• All humans make choices.
• In most situations, human beings will make the
  right choices.
• In some situations, one or more right choices
  and one or more wrong choices will be available
  individuals will have reasons for making both
  correct and incorrect choices.
• Individuals who resist the temptations of bad
  choices and consistently make wise ones will be
  rewarded for their virtues which are, of
  course, demonstrated by their choices.

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• Now look closer.
• A meritocracy purports to reward one thing
  virtue.
• We may claim to care about the end result of
  something more than the motivation behind it, but
  we do value that motivation greatly.
• If someone gives you a genuine compliment, and
  another person gives you that same compliment
  later in order to manipulate you into liking them
  more, we could claim that theyve done the same
  thing.

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• But in your eyes, those actions certainly
  arent equivalent.
• The thing that distinguishes them motivation
  gives them meaning, because we believe that
  those motivations reflect the core of a person.
  
• In theory, meritocracies function the same
  way, and for the same reason to reward a man for
  his goodness.

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• But they cant function that way.
• Who walks around in todays society measuring
  virtue capabilities, capacity for goodness, or
  potential, really, since thats all
  undemonstrated virtue really is?
• We measure action, not virtue.
• As a culture (or a mishmash of different
  ones), weve learned to obsess over actions,
  deeds, results, even at the expense of caring
  about what someone could do.

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• Its why so many of my students, whether my
  freshmen in years past or my seniors from this
  year, list a desired grade as one of the primary
  things they want out of my class on their Great
  Expectations assignment the grade represents a
  tangible demonstration of their capabilities.
• An A isnt meant to just be some letter its
  a reaffirmation to the larger world that Student
  X is an exceptional Y.
• Its also why Kamala is less concerned with
  Siddharthas potential for greatness and more
  concerned with whether he can pull himself
  together and wear nice clothes like a proper
  gentleman.

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• And thats all well and good, really.
• I care less about whether youre intelligent
  than about whether you a) actually learned
  something and b) were able to use what you
  learned.
• On the other hand, if I made it impossible for
  you to learn, its not exactly fair for me to
  condemn you for your failure.
• This is why Gladwell spends the bulk of
  Outliers savaging what he sees as deeply flawed
  excuses for modern meritocracies.
• By his arguments, we shouldnt spend our time
  reflexively praising the advantaged or condemning
  the handicapped doing either presupposes we live
  in a society that provides people with equal
  opportunities, and Gladwells able to show
  fairly convincing that on a lot of levels, we
  really dont.

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• Beowulfs meritocracy, on the other hand, is
  somewhat purer.
• True, its not always fun to be held
  responsible for choices you never made Im not
  sure how many of you would enjoy being
  accountable for actions your fathers took.
• But the system we see in Beowulf not only
  follows the aforementioned meritocracy
  principles, but makes the distinction between
  good and bad choices exceptionally clear.
• You almost always know exactly what to do in
  order to earn a reward, and almost always know
  how you be punished if you choose unwisely.

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• Gladwell doesnt like that we deny people
  opportunities for arbitrary reasons, and neither
  do Ibut honestly, Beowulfs society doesnt
  really have that problem.
• They dont have the equivalent of our college
  admissions system, where you can spend a
  childhood working towards a goal, fulfilling
  every prerequisite thats asked of you, only to
  be denied a rightful place at the table because
  the school doesnt have the money to make room
  for you.
• In Beowulfs time, if you thought you could
  fight, trust me youd be given the chance to
  prove it.
• And Beowulfs entire involvement in the
  business that goes down at Heorot Hall is a
  combination of repaying societal/familial
  obligations and the satisfaction of personal
  desires the combination of interpersonal
  connections and personal choice, in other words.

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• When it comes to those personal choices, were
  taught and we teach some very basic lessons.
• For the most part, we teach our children that
  our choices determine our actions that most
  things dont just happen, or happen by mistake.
  
• After we make it clear to our kids that they
  can decide, and that their decisions determine
  what they do, we also make it clear that the
  things they do have consequences the easy
  follow-up lesson, of course, is for them to
  consider the consequences of their actions before
  deciding to act.
• Ultimately, we urge our children to make
  choices that improve their lives, that improve
  the lives of friends and family members, and that
  benefit our society and environment.

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• We teach these things because weve been
  taught theyre valuable.
• But you can see that these teachings rest on
  the assumption that we live in a universe in
  which choices matter, in which free will reigns
  supreme.
• That doesnt go for all things, as we act
  instinctually or automatically in many ways.
• Obviously, you dont have to choose to
  breathe, or to make your heart beat at a certain
  rate those things are just unconscious responses
  to stimuli.

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• Yet those silly examples perfectly illustrate
  why we think choices should have value we dont
  much like the idea that were pawns, that were
  carrying out actions like automatons.
• Choice is what allows the actor (i.e., the
  person making the decision) to do something that
  exceeds/differs from an automatic response we
  believe were superior to other animals because
  we can govern our instincts.
• Butwell, theres always a but. Well
  examine this more in January.

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• When most people crack Beowulf open for the
  first time, theyre arrested by the plot.
• Its not a complicated one, but its pretty
  thrilling in its own right, with several battles
  against demons and dragons that (thanks to
  Heaney) translate extremely well to standard
  English.
• On some level, its easy to recognize the
  whole chronicle as one long struggle of good
  against evil.
• But that, I feel, misses the point somewhat.

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• Beowulf is a tale that greatly rewards moral
  examinations, particularly if youre aware of the
  values and traditions of the time.
• The first two lines set the tone for the
  entire poem planting us in the distant past,
  remembering courage and greatness (note this
  carefully).
• We also know that we have heard of their
  heroic campaigns, a quick nod to the oral
  traditions of the dominant culture and a reminder
  that ones reputation was of paramount
  importance.
• After all, what are legends but stories of men
  with larger-than-life reputations?

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• Our first figure, Shield Sheafson, is a god
  cyning a good king.
• One of the things that marks him as such is
  his practice of making people pay tribute, and
  if youre wondering why this is a good thing,
  know that this was an expected part of the social
  contract.
• The king provided leadership, protection, and
  stability for his people the population could
  trust that he knew what he was doing (he sat on a
  throne because God chose him), and that he
  wouldnt involve them in dangerous conflicts
  rashly or unnecessarily.

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• The people provided the king with the forces
  necessary to defend the kingdom if necessary, and
  gave him the wealth necessary to keep its economy
  humming (which, in turn, removed some of the
  incentive to wage war for resources it was
  easier to trade regularly for what you needed
  than to storm the borders of a strong rival).
• This wasnt just true of the tributes the king
  collected, either.
• During wars, the losing army would (at a
  minimum) need to pay substantially in defeat.

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• Rather than hoard the treasure for his own
  use, the king shared the spoils of victory and
  tribute with his subjects.
• In fact, kings were called ring-givers
  because of the rewards and titles they shared and
  bestowed on loyal subjects.
• If you fought bravely, the kingdom would
  prosper and youd receive what was your due and
  because youd receive what was your due, youd
  fight to the death to defend the one who ruled
  you so justly and fairly.

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• As you can see, both subjects and rulers
  entered into complicated relationships, both
  giving and receiving simultaneously.
• A bad king hoards treasure, or spends it
  wildly and poorly, or endangers his people
  needlessly or dishonestly.
• In rare cases, a king could fail the way
  Macbeth would have failed not through moral
  compromise, but through his inability to sire a
  son.
• When this happened, the king would need to
  establish a clear line of succession outside of
  his family neighboring nations would surely test
  the new ruler, who wouldnt have had time to
  establish a familial dynasty of his own, so the
  king needed to choose very wisely.

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• In Beowulf, well see all kinds of kings the
  good, the bad, the doomed, the dead and with
  every one, we find ourselves looking at our own
  leadership.
• Regardless of your political persuasion, no
  one can argue that we havent abandoned this
  compact.
• These societies functioned on the basis of
  trust, courage, and selflessness.
• How many years has it been since weve been
  able to apply those terms to our upper political
  class?
• We have lost, perhaps, more than we readily
  realize.

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• Before Shield passes on, he sires a single son
  Beow, who has no relation to Beowulf.
• We see Beows birth as the reward for a
  suffering people, as the Danes hardships had
  stemmed from a lack of leadership before Shield
  began filling the void. (Remember this!)
• Shield and Beow also provide us with the
  beginning of our family tree a source for the
  texts twin fixations on lineage and reputation.

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• Finally, we see why good behavior is
  important, and not just because kings could earn
  tribute that way Behaviour thats admired/is
  the path to power among people everywhere.
• We begin the poem in earnest, however, with
  Shields funeral the death of the good king
  (Foreshadowing!).
• Afterwards, we see his people thrive under the
  rule of his descendants
• And Beow, like his father, sires a single son,
  Halfdane, who then fathers four children of his
  own (Heorogar, Hrothgar, Halga, and an unnamed
  daughter).
• Thus we see that by having a single son,
  Shields ultimately stabilized his nation and
  done the last thing a good king has to do.

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• This takes us to the present day, when
  Hrothgar (whose name means a combination of
  spear and glory), Halfdanes second son, has
  taken the throne.
• He is a good king, and the fortunes of war
  favor him with the spoils of successful
  warfare, Hrothgar builds Heorot Hall the
  greatest hall around!
• He marries Wealhtheow, an intelligent and
  virtuous woman who serves as an excellent queen,
  and the two of them have three children.

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• By building a hall, continuing his family
  line, and ruling judiciously, Hrothgar has done
  everything he can to provide his nation with a
  future.
• But nothing can come so easily to the
  Shieldings.
• Heorot is soon besieged by a terrifying
  creature named Grendel, which attacks by night
  and murders Hrothgrars men.
• The king proves unable to stop the attacks,
  and as the killings continue for the next twelve
  years, his citizens grow demoralized and fearful.

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• Grendel is quite the interesting villain, and
  not only because books showing these events from
  his perspective have popped up over the years.
• Careful readers notice that the residents of
  Heorot Hall dont do anything to intentionally
  antagonize him the sound of music and
  celebration that emanate from the hall infuriate
  him until he snaps and attacks.
• That seems like pretty flimsy justification
  for slaughtering warriors and striking fear in
  the hearts of all who survive, and the OEP uses
  Grendel to symbolize sin and wickedness
  Beowulfs victory over him is supposed to
  represent the triumph of Gods will over evil.

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• But the question of whether Grendel is evil or
  not is a little thornier.
• He commits some truly horrific murders when he
  storms Heorot, and torments its citizens for
  twelve years before Beowulf defeats him.
• However, its worth noting as the OEP
  ever-so-slightly does that Grendel was cursed
  by God because of his familys legacy, not
  because of his own actions.
• In fact, Grendel was punished long before he
  even had the chance to do anything wrong.

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• His distant ancestor, Cain, killed his own
  brother and his descendants have paid for that
  original sin through continued banishment.
• Hes even been twisted into something inhuman
  a symbol of his familys past, but not of his
  actions.
• So Grendel, who had done nothing wrong, was
  born as something warped and removed from any
  semblance of society, then forced to listen over
  and over again to sounds of happiness and
  togetherness the very things hed been unfairly
  denied.

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• Note that this isnt to excuse his actions
  murder is murder.
• But just as we did with Macbeths killings,
  its important to explain and give context to why
  they happen.
• And if were going to demand free will in
  order to be justly rewarded for our actions, if
  were going to stand with Gladwell in condemning
  flawed systems that place people in positions
  where theyre destined to turn out worse than
  they should, if were going to demand that we be
  judged on our own merits and not those of our
  fathers, mothers, sisters, or brothers
• then perhaps, as with Macbeth, its useful to
  have a little sympathy for the devil here.