Are You Calling Me Crazy?

At first glance of reading Beowulf in old English, I wondered how our language could’ve changed so much over time and if maybe the way we think about things and handle situations has changed too. Conveniently, Beowulf has sentences written in the margins summarizing the modern English into a rather unsophisticated level of reading, such as that for a fifth grade reading assignment. Although the text has now been broken down twice for us, the messages in the story are still controversial. On page 97, Beowulf says, “It is always better to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.” This may be a simple concept to understand but many people, including myself would argue this isn’t true. In one of my favorite books “The Fault In Our Stars,” the main character Augustus Waters says, “pain is meant to be felt.” Like Augustus, I think it is okay to express when you are in pain, to come to terms with it, and for an allotted amount of time it is okay to be sad. Beowulf seems to be suggesting that rather than the Geats or Danes being upset, they should seek avenge on Grendel’s mother since she and her son have caused so much pain on the people. But what good would this do? Grendel is a perfect example of a modern day sociopath. This monster doesn’t feel guilty about anything he does or anyone he causes pain to, because he simply doesn’t have the ability to feel. Grendel is said to be “malignant by nature, (he) never showed remorse” (11) and Beowulf explains that if Grendel were to kill him, then Grendel would be “gloating with my raw corpse and feeding on it alone” (31). Although this text has been broken down for us numerous times and hundreds of years have passed since the story was originated, the messages are still clear and the situations are very much relevant to today’s society. There are still people today who are unable to feel emotions properly, but there are still many people with the morals that they should not inflict pain onto someone else because they wouldn’t want someone to do that to them. So if this is true, why does Beowulf seek to kill both Grendel and his mother? Was it really necessary for him to cut off Grendel’s mother’s head after killing her or was that simply for his own pleasure? If that ‘s the case, that he did it for his own gain, then perhaps I’ve been reading the story all wrong; perhaps Beowulf is the crazy one.