Of Men and Monsters

in their establishment as the dominant power. Beowulf from the very beginning emphasises that the story is being told about a setting theoretically displaced from the one in which the story is being told. This is demonstrated in the early emphasis placed on the Scandinavian location. “Beowulf, the son of Scyld, was renowned, / his fame spread wide in Scandinavian lands” (18-19). Though the lands are distant from Britain, the pride associated with these people, as the recognized ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons, remains obvious and full of legitimizing rationales as to why they are fit to lead.

“Then success in war was given to Hrothgar, / honor in battle, so that his beloved kinsmen / eagerly served him, until the young soldiers grew / into a mighty troop of men” (I. 64-67). By calling upon the strength and worth of the ancestor, fictitious though said ancestor may be, there is established a sense of a heroic past and lineage that directly equates to and reinforces the idea of superiority within this group of people living in a land not native to them. The natives of Britain, therefore, become a threat to power and Other in that they do not share a familiar lineage. Within Beowulf, this is idea of Other (a cultural other) is embodied in Grendel, begot from “Cain’s race” (I. 107).

Within the context of conquest, creating a monster becomes the ideal way in which to contextualize the hostile natives who don’t conform to an Anglo-Saxon idea of social norms. Heide Estes describes a sense of insecurity the Anglo-Saxons have with their own geography in that they are trying to firmly establish themselves as members of the Christian world, yet are geographically separated from the hotbed of Christendom (Estes 371). While Estes focuses on Anglo-Saxon texts relating to the monstrosities described in the East, this theory can also be applied to the native Britons and Celts living in what the Anglo-Saxons have claimed as their land. The texts fundamental Christianity or paganism may be contested there are many instances in which Beowulf is described in Christ-like terms. “Thus should a 110 Of Men & Monsters