First, let me get the
cat picture out of the way:
The
dragon (as well as Grendel and his mother, but even more so) in Beowulf is a symbol of senseless violence,
which stereotypically ends in everyone important dying sooner or later, even for
the mighty and superhuman Beowulf. Throughout the poem, Beowulf stresses the
very real danger he faces of dying a violent and horrific death just about
every time he goes off to fight. There are no subtleties when it comes to the
consequences of violence in this poem.
There is some explanation as to why Grendel
and his mother attack: because Hrothgar’s hall Heorot is built on Grendel’s
territory, he is an outcast, and his mother simply is motivated by her grief to
avenge her son’s death. They are also described as having human-like forms, but
descendants of Cain, so ya know, obviously considered evil beasts. At the very
least, there is some evidence for Grendel and his mother as simply being two
very misunderstood human beings, who due to strange circumstances started a
killing spree. But Beowulf has been keeping busy on a killing spree too…
The
dragon lacks human attributes and the poem doesn’t give us anything to go off
of to defend him. The dragon’s only goal is to keep the entire pile of booty,
down to every goblet, from getting taken and used for any human’s monetary benefit.
The dragon is a stand-in for anything that gets in the way of building wealth
and power, so any country that stands against building kingdoms.
Beowulf
has a very “Rule, Britannia,” attack now, ask questions never attitude. Beowulf
never questions his violent lifestyle, but I have to wonder if his life really
meant what he thought it meant, just playing the part of the superhuman whose
aim is to merely fight the apparently evil creatures? Or maybe he is the
monster?
I
still haven’t decided, but here is a funny Disney comparison:
