Paul Goetsch on the colonial discourse in Beowulf

Reading Notes

Much of what Paul Goetsch argues in the following is inspired by David Quint's Epic and Empire, Princeton 1993, as Goetsch notes upfront [p.185], as well as the work of Edward Said, Orientalism, from 1978, which provided the first analysis of colonial discourse.

Goetsch takes his departure from the idea that epics discuss state formation, or the foundation of political power. As a result, the conquered are depicted as the demonic wilderness, or a native population. The main categories of discourse, taken from Said, are dichotomies, which are used to differentiate the powerful from the oppressed: civilized versus wild; Christian versus heathen; educated versus uneducated; rational versus irrational [p.186].

With this infrastructure, Goetsch identifies several patterns or roles that structure the way the colonially defeated is interpreted:

... die Verkörperung des Feindbildes, das bei der eigenen Gruppe unerwünschte Merkmale aufweist ... [p.186]
... die Rolle des Gegenbildes, auf das negative Aspekte der eigenen Gruppe projiziert werden ... [p.187]

... the embodiment of the enemy, which shows the features that the group itself rejects ... [p.186] ... the role of the counter-image, onto which the group can project its own negative aspects [p.187]

... die Repräsentation früherer Entwicklungsstufen der eigenen Identität, die entweder nostalgisch in die Erinnerung zurückgerufen (Primitivismus) oder als veraltet abgelehnt (Fortschrittsgläubigkeit) werden ... [p.186]

... the representation of earlier stages of development of the own identity, which is either recalled nostalgically (Primitivism) or rejected as old-fashioned (progress worship) ... [p.186]

... die Funktion des Doppelgängers, der überraschend zu Einsichten in die eigene Identität verhilft ... [p.186]

... the function of the doppelganger, who surprisingly facilitates insights into the own identity ... [p.186]

 ... die Angabe der Entwicklungsrichtung der eignen Gruppe (z.B. Dekadenz, Rückentwicklung) ... [p.187]

... the identification of the development trajectory of the own group (e.g. decadence, regression) ... [p.187)  

 ... eine alternative Identität (im Sinne der Konkurrenz, des Multikulturalismus oder der Utopie) ... [p.187]

... an alternate identity (in the sense of competition, of multi-culturalism or utopia) ... [p.187] 

Goetsch argues that Beowulf represents the other as an encounter with the monstrous and approvingly cites Robert W. Hanning, Beowulf in Heroic History, in: Medienalia et Humanistica, N.S.5, 1974, p77-102:

Beowulf is an epic in which a Christian author attempts to embody for his Christian audience the attraction and limits of their pre-Christian heritage. The poet communicates his complex attitude by focusing on crucial moments in the life of a noble hero--moments in which the hero's virtue and destiny are both faithfully intertwined with and isolated from the destiny of a nation. In this world the Gospel is unknown: the intensely public yet intensely private figure of Beowulf can become, for a brief interval, the instrument of providence, but at the moment of his death the sadness and impotence which grips the heroic world testifies that this is history as yet unillumined by the promise of redemption. [p.88 citing p.86f in Hanning]

Beowulf ist ein Epos in welchem ein christlicher Autor seiner christlichen Zuhörerschaft die Licht- und Schattenseiten ihres vor-christlichen Kulturerbes versinnbildlichen will. Der Dichter kommuniziert diese komplexe Anlage indem er die massgeblichen Momente im Leben eines adeligen Helden--Momente in denen des Helden Tugend und Schicksal treu verbunden und getrennt ist von dem Schicksal einer Nation--anvisiert. In dieser Welt ist die Gute Nachricht unbekannt: die überaus öffentliche und zugleich private Figur des Beowulf kann für kurze Zeit zum Instrument der Vorhersehung werden, aber just im Moment des Todes bezeugt die Traurigkeit und Machtlosigkeit welche die heroische Welt im Griffe hält, daß dies eine Geschichte ist in welche das Versprechen von Erlösung noch kein Licht getragen hat. [p.88 citing p.86f in Hanning] 

Because of this complex structure, Goetsch is uncomfortable with seeing Grendel and his mother as mere monsters:

[Diese] ... Komplexität des Werkes, ... hat die Komplizierung des Verhältnisses von Identität und Alterität zur Folge und läßt die übliche Gleichsetzung von Grendel und seiner Mutter mit 'Ungeheuern' als einseitig erscheinen. [p.188]

[This] ... complexity of the work ... complicates the relationship between identity and alterity and makes the usual equating of Grendel and his mother as 'monsters' appear as one-sided. [p.188] 

Reading Notes

Goetsch sees himself in good company here, because the status of the monsters has always been bothersome for the critics.

Da die 'Ungeheuer' den Rank des Epos zu schmälern schienen, suchte die ältere Kritik nach mythischen Vorbildern, werte die Figuren zu Repräsentanten dämonischer Naturmächte auf und stilisierte die Auseinandersetzung zum "eternal struggle between chaos and order". [p.188]

Since the 'monsters' reduced the rank of the epic, the older critics searched for mythical models, upgraded the figures to representations of demonic natural powers and stylized the conflict as the "ewige Kampf zwischen Chaos und Ordnung". [p.188] 

This approach was revised by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Tolkien wies der Forschung einen anderen Weg, die 'Ungeheuer' zu rehabilitieren: Er erklärte sie zu wichtigen Gestalten in einer orthodoxen christlichen Dichtung. ... Mit anderen Worten: Tolkien und seine Nachfolger machen sich das Freund-Feind-Bild, [und] damit einen Aspekt des kolonialen Diskurses, der dem Epos zugrunde liegt, unkritisch zu eigen. [p.188]

Tolkien pointed researchers to a different approach for rehabilitating the 'monsters': He declared them to be important figures in an orthodox Christian composition. ... Put differently, Tolkien and his followers accepted the friend-enemy dichotomy, and thus an aspect of the colonial discourse, that forms a basis of the epic, uncritically. [p.188]  

Research since then has emphasized, via the notion of the descent from Cain, the humanity and human aspects of Grendel and his mother. Citing Walter Hanley, Grendel's Humanity again, in: Geardagum, 11, 1990, p.5-13:

Grendel's actions, names and ancestry all point to a 'man', not a 'monster'. [p.189, citing p.10 in Hanley] 

Grendels Handlungen, Namen und Herkunft weisen alle auf einen Mann, und nicht auf ein Monster, hin. [p.189, citing p.10 in Hanley]  

{Note: Although I am unfamiliar with this discourse on Grendel's humanity, I find this highly implausible and unconvincing. I find especially the ancestry unconvincing; see the descent of the giants as the children of angels and men in Genesis.}

For Goeltsch, the poet of Beowulf

... konstruierte einen Identitäts-/Alteritätsdiskurs, in dem die monströsen 'Anderen' unterschiedliche und zugleich widersprechende Funktionen für die Identität der Dänen und Gauten um Hrothgar beziehungsweise Beowulf übernehmen. [p.189]

... constructs a discourse of identity and alterity, in which the monstrous 'Others' take on different and at the same time contradictory functions for the identity of the Danes and Geates around Hrothgar or Beowulf. [p.189]  

Taking a leaf rom David Quint, Goeltsch argues that the epic of victors requires a tight connection between power and narrative

It [i.e. the epic of victors, RCK] tells of a power able to end the indeterminacy of war and to emerge victorious, showing that the struggle had all along been leading up to its victory and thus imposing upon it a narrative teleology -- the teleology that epic identifies with the very idea of narrative. Power, moreover, is defined by its capacity to maintain itself across time, and it therefore requires narrative in order to represent itself. [p.190, citing Quint (1993), Fn #1, p.645]

[Das Epos der Sieger, RCK] erzählt von einer Macht, die in der Lage ist, die Unentschiedenheit des Krieges zu beenden und siegreich daraus hervorzugehen, wodurch das Ringen als schon immer zum Sieg bestimmt erwiesen und eine narrative Teleologie erzeugt wird--eine Teleologie die das Epische mit der essentiellen Idee der Erzählung identifiziert. Darüber hinaus ist Macht bestimmt durch ihr Vermögen, sich über die Zeit hinweg zu erhalten, und braucht daher die Erzählung um sich selbst darstellen zu können. [p.190, citing Quint (1993), Fn #1, p.645]

This power is expressed in the initial conquest through the Danes and reaches its apex in Hrothgar's hall Heorot.

In der Regierungszeit Hrothgars findet diese [dänische Vormachtsstellung] in der grossen Halle Heorot, zu deren Bau mehrere besiegte Stämme herangezogen werden, ihren sichtbaren Ausdruck. [p.190]

During the reign of Hrothgar, the Danish supremacy finds its visual expression in the great Hall Heorot, for the construction of which several defeated tribes were impressed. [p.190] 

{Note RCK: Unfortunately, Goetsch does not say where in the epic it says that the defeated tribes contributed to the construction of Heorot.}

The last resistance to the Danish overlordship standing is Grendel and his mother:

Aufgrund dieser Geschichtsdeutung aus dänischer Perspektive erscheinen Grendel und seine Mutter als die einzigen übrig gebliebenen Feinde der nach vielen Kriegen hergestellten politisch-gesellschaftlichen Ordnung. Entsprechend heißt es, Grendel wolle weder Frieden mit irgendeinem Dänen schliessen noch vom Morden ablassen und weigere sich, Wergeld oder Bußgeld für begangene Morde zu entrichten (154b-158). Da Grendel und seine Mutter sich nicht in das politische und rechtliche System der Dänen einfügen, werden sie ausgegrenzt. Wie Grendels Wut auf den lauten Jubel in der Halle anzeigt, lebt er außerhalb der Gesellschaft als Einzelgänger. [p.190]

In light of this historical interpretation from a Danish perspective, Grendel and his mother become the last remaining enemies of the socio-political order established through many wars. Accordingly we read that Grendel wanted neither peace with any Dane, nor stop his murdering, and refused to pay any compensation or fines for committed murders (154b-158). Since Grendel and his mother will not integrate into the Danish political and judicial system, they are excluded. As Grendel's angry reaction to the loud celebrations in the hall indicates, he lives outside of society as an outcast. [p.190] 

Goeltsch points [p.191] to the antithetical descriptions well known from the colonial literature that the poet uses to characterize Grendel, who uses howling instead of language, cannibalism instead of table manners, and the monstrous black arts, such as the treasure, the magic sword that will kill Grendel's mother, and the bag of dragon skin for carrying off victims.

Equally [p.192], the amazing Hall of Heorot is counter-balanced by the lair of Grendel and its anti-hall pattern (nith-sele, the horrible hall), with demonic light, situated underwater, with hoarding of treasure instead giving and cannibalistic banquets.

Goeltsch claims that Beowulf allowing his comrade Hondscio to be killed somehow makes Grendel his double [p.195]; I find that claim unconvincing and a fundamental misunderstanding about the role of the guard (see the whipping of the sleeping guard in Lewis & Clarke) and the dramatic reason for differentiating Beowulf from his compatriots.

But Goeltsch is on to something when he emphasizes the precarious role of human society and the descent of Grendel from Cain.

[Grendel und seine Mutter] ... verkörpern die Blutrünstigkeit und die Racheverlangen der Krieger sowie ihre Neigung, gegen die Gesetze der Gefolgschaft und Zivilisation zu verstossen und sich so selbst zu einer Aussenseiterexistenz zu verurteilen. Vor allem aber repräsentieren sie, wie die mehrmals erwähnte Abstammung von dem Geschlecht Kain anzeigt, die Bereitschaft des Menschen zum Brudermord: "All fraternity, Beowulf seems to say, is potentially fratricidal, and brothers in the fallen world are brothers to dragons." [p.197, citing Allen H. Lee, The Guest Hall of Eden, New Haven-London (1972), Fn 24, p.194]

[Grendel and his mother] ... represent the blood-thirstiness and desire for revenge of the warriors as well as their tendency, to act against the laws of fellowship and civilization and thus make themselves outcasts. But even more so they represent, as their repeatedly mention descent from Cain indicates, the readiness of Man to kill brothers: "Alle Bruderschaft, suggeriert der Beowulf, ist potentiell zum Brudermord bereit, und in der gefallenen Welt sind die Brüder den Brüdern Drachen." [p.197, citing Allen H. Lee, The Guest Hall of Eden, New Haven-London (1972), Fn 24, p.194] 

Of course this claim only makes sense when one buys into the humanistic line of interpretation of Grendel and his mother, as Goeltsch does and as I do not yet. And the effect is seriously undermined by the problem that the poem nowhere knows of any brotherhood, suggested or implied, other than the biological one, between the various groups; clearly Grendel has no brother in the poem, and thus his slaughter of thanes of Hrothgar is no exemplar of fratricide.

The poet of Beowulf would agree with Goeltsch that

Der Kampf gegen das Böse -- das ist auch den Reden Beowulfs zu entnehmen -- hört nie auf, denn die menschliche Natur und der Tod stellen die menschlichen Bemühungen um Ordnung immer von neuem in Frage. [p.198]

The Fight against Evil -- that much is clear from the speeches in Beowulf -- never ends, because human nature and death continuously imperil the human efforts for order. [p.198] 

But neither the colonial interpretation in the style of Said or Quint, or the focus on the humanized Grendel, or the analysis of the identity and the alterity of the relationship between Beowulf and Grendel, nor the descent of Grendel from Cain, are necessary to reach the above conclusion of Goeltsch.

Colophon

From: Paul Goetsch, Der koloniale Diskurs in Beowulf, p.185-200, in: Hildegard L.C. Tristram, Neue Methoden in der Epenforschung -- New Methods in the Research of Epic [sic], ScriptOralia 107, Tübingen (G. Narr), 1998; Sigl. OeNB 1,567.381-B Neu.
Purple translations from German to English are my own.
Die grün gehaltene Übersetzungen vom Englischen ins Deutsche sind meine eigenen.