The tale of Beowulf

The tale of Beowulf begins and ends with the funeral of great tycoons. The funerals poseed in this tale are decorate with rites that derive from the cultural traditions of the kings being laid to rest. Scyld Scefing is entombed within a lighter decorated with signs of his accomplish ments, while com/beowulf-as-an-epic-hero/Beowulf is enshrined within a barrow filled with relics of his rule. merely within these traditional burials one can find traces of the men themselves as each makes requests that lead to the distinctiveness of their burials.This allows the funerals to deform particularly distinctive as the author makes use of the elements, such as public, fire, and pee (Smith). Each funeral defines the typic ideas of move versus grounded-ness represented in the lives of these two men, and the method in which each is carried out emphasizes the glacial ways in which they entered their prop ups and mounted their thrones. The funerals of both men are representative of their personalities as shown through their deeds and the ways in which they lived their lives. Though both men were valiant warriors and kings, their lives as youths and kings appear to be very different.The movement characteristic of Scyld Scefings funeral represents a continuation of the organisation and vigor with which he sailed through life. His life was continually one of fore question from low to high estate, and he does not cease this motion in his death. The poem continues, Forth he fared at the fated moment, hard Scyld to the shelter of God (lines 26-27). His clansmen and subjects seem determined that their king should keep travel though he has been cut off from life, as they immediately poor fish him over to oceans billow (line 28).He is purportd on a barge that is taken by the floods to an even higher and more famed place, and the words utilize by the author to describe this continue this stem of motion to an even higher estate. Such words and phrases as outward hig hlight this motion, and as No man is able to say in sooth who harbored that freight, his burial demonstrates that his resting place could mean yet another promotion for this king who had risen from foundling to royalty. The funeral given Beowulf differs greatly from that granted Scyld Scefing.Beowulfs rites represent that of a more grounded king who had been home grown and bred specifically to become royalty. His funeral demonstrates no great motion, as his lineage is anchored and steeped in royalty. The rites take place within the land of his deliver, and his tomb is laid upon a foundation of the lubricating oil upon which his ancestors walked. The writer establishes this in his recounting of the events They fashioned for him the folk of Geats firm on the earth a funeral-pile (line 2821). The firmness with which this tomb is established upon the earth means the volume of Beowulfs roots within his homeland.Around this is erected a wall, and this further strengthens Beowulfs pos ition as a foundational leader of his land. The monuments given to hearth this leader are built into the ground of the kingdom and given foundations same to the roots that one finds in Beowulfs lineage. His burial is akin to sepulture care for (gold and precious stones), trusting the ground with values of earls, gold in the earth (2850), and this is in essence an act of giving back to the earth the treasure it has afforded. The funerals of Scefing and Beowulf in any case differ in the elements that attend each.According to critic George Clark in his hear Beowulfs Armor, Each funeral places the final offering of arms and armor and treasure in the context of one of the elements, pissing, fire, or earth (429). While water is the dominant element in Scefings funeral, fire is used to proclaim the burial of Beowulf. The significance of the water for Scefing derives mainly from his history, as he was borne to the Danes on a small vessel as an abandoned infant. The water represent s the deep, the debase from which the king came and to which he is allowed to return.The story comes full circle for this king, as he is again borne away at the end of his life, given back to the water that offered him to the Danes. This is done on purpose by his clansmen, and highlighted by the narrator who writes, No less these loaded the lordly gifts, thanes huge treasure, than those had done who in former time forth had sent him sole on the seas, a suckling child (lines 43-46). He is again sent by himself on the seas into the recondite belly of the flood which had offered him up as a child.The fire for Beowulf is the opposite of this water, and this might also be seen as a reference to difference of opinion in his birth and youth. However, the narrative continues, Wood-smoke rose black over blaze, and blent was the re earpiece of flame with weeping (the wind was still), till the fire had broken the frame up of bones (2827-30). While the water takes Scefing away from the la nd, Beowulfs fire offers up incense that rises and, as the ashes fall, remains forever mingled with the soil in the land of his birth.The narrator mentions that the wind was still, emphasizing the idea that no part of Beowulfs abbreviatet body or ashes is allowed to fly beyond the land of his birth and rule. He utterly belongs to this land, and the roaring of the fire becomes a dirge that rises and mingles with the sound of his subjects weeping. Yet the reader gets the feeling that Beowulf is not lost to his people. This fire is allowed to burn beyond Beowulfs bones, consuming his flesh and, as the smoke was by the sky devoured (2838), the fire sends up Beowulfs essence as a protection and covering for his land and people.Though the lives of Scefing and Beowulf were similar in many ways, they also differed in some very significant areas that have to do with how they came to be king. While Scefing begins life as a foundling and sustains upward motion that raises him to the estate of ruler, Beowulf is born a prince whose roots are grounded in his homeland. The elements used to represent these two men are also representative of their origins. pissing is used to symbolize the rootless Scefing, while fire and earth symbolize Beowulfs grounded ancestry.Both men are treasured by their people, yet allowed to fill their destinies by drifting or remaining rooted as has been their custom. whole shebang Cited Beowulf. The Harvard Classics, Volume 49. Frances B. Grummere (Trans. ) 1910. P. F. Collier & Son, 1993. Clark, George. Beowulfs Armor. ELH. Vol. 32. No. 4. Dec. 1965. pp. 409-441. Smith, Jennifer. Paradise lose and Beowulf The Christian/Pagan Hybrids of the Epic Tradition. Department of English. Long Beach calcium State University. http//www. csulb. edu/jsmith10/miltbeow. htm