Milk, Funerals, and Murder

Today during the seminar, we talked about Beowulf.  What will happen now that Beowulf is no longer living? Is Wiglaf going to be the next hero? Is it possible for the society to be peaceful again? Is there a new dragon? As I said in the seminar, I believe that Wiglaf will be the next ruler. Beowulf set forth a good blueprint for how things should go in the future. Everyone honored him. He was trusted keen, kind, and brave. They valued that. At the end of the poem, Wiglaf is leading Beowulfs funeral. He is saying all of the nice words and the powerful phrases about him. This is significant because it foreshadows the possibility of Wiglaf leading the Geats in the future. Woah! I am watching White Oleander and I just realized that Allison Lohman plays Ursula in Beowulf the movie! How strange. White Oleander is a beautiful novel by Janet fitch. You would be proud pf me. I go on youtube and tell people to stop watching the movie and go read the book because it is so much better as the book. It is so incredible because it is worded so beautifully. I have read it several times and each time I just casn not put it down. It never fails to leave me wonderstruck alone in my room. It always takes me away and I get so lost in the story. Oh wow. I am thinking about it again. Crap. Anyway, What I am trying to say is that Beowulf has well trained his people to survive. They have everything they need. They just have to follow in his example.

What got me most about the poem was the biblical references to the story of Cain and Abel. It was an interesting connection in my opinion because Cain is compared to Grendel. In Genesis 4:1-16 Cain kills Abel and tries to say he did not but Grendel kills everyone. Cain was the first murderer but Grendel is not. I think it was a good connection and thought, but I just think that it was not completely suiting. Cain says to the lord “My punishment is greater than I can bear.” I am positive that Grendel does not feel that way until .5 seconds before Beowulf grasps him just a little too tightly. Cain regrets his actions really quickly and he is not a a threat to others. The main thing the two had in common was that it was not acceptable to kill in their societies. In Cain’s society, it had not really been thought of and in Grendels society; they had a strict culture with rules and ways of doing things. In both of these people’s cases, they started something terrible, murder, war, and disorder.