“‘If more of us valued food, cheer and song above hoarded gold it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!'”
Thorin’s last words from The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien
While the writer of Beowulf, a classic epic poem, intertwines heroic values and Christian values, the tension that these often contradictory values create does not threaten the overall integrity of the story. Although the Christian writer illustrates heroic values of glory, treasure and pride, he equally illustrates the ephemeral nature of life and thus questions the significance of these values.
The last three lines of the poem glorify Beowulf as a “man most gracious and fair-minded kindest to his people and keenest to win fame” (lines 3180-2). Beowulf had generously given to his subjects both kindness and riches which is clearly a Christian value. On the other hand, the later trait, his hunger for fame, taints the first. Humility would be the more Christian of traits for a king, but Beowulf does not appear to have a humble bone in his body.
Well, even if he did have one, all his bones were burned on his funeral pyre. Every battle in Beowulf’s past had climaxed to the final one with the dragon, a symbol of Beowulf’s burning hunger for glory.
Beowulf and the Dragon (J.R. Skelton, 1908)
Perhaps this hunger, this greed, points to something bigger. Perhaps, like all humans, Beowulf longs for the eternal. To quote C.S. Lewis, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” Yet, Beowulf would die without the satisfaction of the knowledge of Christ. Beowulf would sacrifice his life for earthly treasure and afterward would be consumed by fire. What use to man is a pile of gold and a chorus of exaltations once he is dead? Can riches and respect defer the judgement of the Almighty? All the ashes that were left were buried with the treasure “as useless to men now as it ever was” (line 3167). With these words, the writer laments that the treasure was unworthy of Beowulf’s life.
Which brings us to another character from familiar story of a rich fool. Jesus tells us about him in the 12th chapter of Luke. The man can be commended for his shrewdness. How many people could benefit from storing up treasure for many years to “relax, eat, drink and be merry”? But God calls this man out, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20). In the same way, Beowulf faces death on an empty stomach. “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (12:21).
Similar to The Hobbit’s hero Thorin, Beowulf is a noble character with both admirable qualities and tragic vices. The integrity of the writer of Beowulf lies in the fact that he neither undermines the importance of heroic values to the protagonist nor does he neglect the futility behind the objects of his pursuit. Let these men be like parables to all of us. That we (myself included) may learn to give our lives for true gold that doesn’t perish.
Hope and Yearning 