Beowulf and Grendel

The Actions: Beowulf and Grendel Battle in the Sky

The first action of the story is the sinking of the house of Aries, personified by Shield Sheafson (Heaney 2000-26ff)), and the designation of the Piscean age of Halfdane with the House of the Sun owned by Hrothgar. (Heaney 67ff) This takes place in the 303 BCE. (Santillana, 244) {1} The idea that it was necessary to remove Shiefson / Aries suggests that the poet came, or was called in, to bring the calendar for the people up to date. If the people had no previous story that gave them the time, the poet would not have seen the need to remove Shield before installing Halfdane. The necessity for removing Shield suggests that the people had a previous story, and that it might be recovered if we are careful in our evaluations of early myth tales. “Far and wide through the world, I have heard/ orders for work to adorn that wallstead/ were sent to many people." (Heaney, 2000,74/76) The poet is referring to the many constellations in the sky within the ecliptic, constellations from Greece, Rome, Egypt, just to name the ones he uses in this poem.

The time between that and the first attack by Grendel is indefinite. “So times were pleasant for the people there / until finally one, a fiend out of hell, / began to work his evil in the world.” (Heaney 2000, l. 99-101 Grendel can attack when the constellation is up, from June 10th until August 22nd when it goes down under the horizon; thus its full presence at the horizon at dawn tells the viewer that the time is around the summer solstice. Grendel takes the place of Heorot as the summer time keeper since The Stag is high in the sky and its relative position and movement would be hard to judge. The closer a constellation is to the horizon, the easier it is for the viewer to judge its daily movement. As the last star in Heorot leaves the horizon, the first stars in Grendel appear. The poet has managed to use constellations that reveal a continuous parade of stars at the horizon. (Show the sky scene March to October,550)

Grendel’s theft of thirty men is important; it is mentioned at least twice, once as thirty, once as fifteen and fifteen. (Heaney 2000, l. 122, 1581-83) Men are usually stars, so as an hypothesis we assume that the thirty men are the stars between Heorot on the equinox and Grendel below it. With the computer celestial program set to a brightness of 6, the normal naked eye astronomical limit, we see about thirty bright stars between the two constellations; Grendel is trying to “steal” the stars from Heorot. Since not all the stars were in one constellation or the other at that time, the theft of stars would be a logical act to gain size, power. The act of stealing the stars occurs night after night, but the number remains the same. This suggests that the identification of the stars with the men eaten, or taken over, is a valid one.

Why call attention to these particular stars? These stars form an easily found daily reminder of tasks to be done, a daily calendar. A similar array of stars, the Decans, occurs around the edge of the round Denderah zodiac. (cite) Small stars form a smaller, more particular calendar, more easily adapted to use by an individual or a small group of similarly occupied professionals.

Hrothgar, “staring aghast/ at the demon’s trail…” (Heaney 2000, l. 132-133) is a reminder that Grendel cannot just cross the ecliptic; he must use the trail, the ecliptic path. This path is more defined when it must be used by Beowulf and Hrothgar to get to the transfer point so Beowulf can descend under the waters.

The action shifts from Heorot to Beowulf; he is introduced and begins his preparations for his journey. He orders a ship that will make the journey, sail the “…swan’s road….”(Heaney 2000, l. 200). The ship already exists; he just must call it to his use. It is the constellation Argo, or Navis, close to Canopus. Since this constellation has not been used for some time, much of it has been dismantled, appropriated for different constellations, but Puppis, the stern, is still recognized. This constellation is far to the south so it is up for only a short time during the year. This constellation begins to come up August 22nd, is at its maximum exposure on September 22nd, and down by Samhain. (Show scene)

Beowulf gathers fourteen warriors, making fifteen in all. As Leigh suggests in Homer’s Secret Iliad, 149, that means there are fourteen stars in the proper constellation, and since one warrior is destined to die, one of the stars will be a variable. Such is the case with the constellation Perseus. It has fourteen generally recognized stars visible to the naked eye in it and one, beta perseii, Algol, is strongly variable. (Richard Hinckley. "Star Names" 1963.322)

Beowulf and his warriors arrive at their destination “… at the due hour, …” (Heaney, 2000, l. 220) The poet does not say daylight; this is daylight on the zodiac. The shields glitter, their coats of mail were obvious. That their arrival is a night one becomes evident when they are marching on “a paved track, a path that kept them / in marching order. Their chain mail glinted / hard and hand-linked; the high-gloss iron / of their armor rang.”(Heaney 1999, l. 320-323) The ship is docked at Canopus at the southern end of the Milky Way, and they are marching along the highway paved with stars. Katherine Hills declared that there were no stone roads in Denmark. She suggests England. (Bjork and Niles, 303) The poet is referring to the great cobbled stone road in the sky, the Milky Way. And it has mosaics, as one translator suggested. (Grummere, Francis B. 1910, footnote to sec.V) Alternate names for the Milky Way imply that it is the road of the Gods: Woden’s road, (Allen 1963, 479) or the path to Valhalla. (Olcott 2004, 397) The shortest way the guide indicates is along the ecliptic. Their arrival is timed by the constellation Puppis, which is at its maximum exposure on the fall equinox. But by September Heorot is going down under the horizon so they stack their spears and sit down outside and rest until spring when the principals are present in the House. (l.330) (Show sky September, 550)

When Beowulf arrives and meets Hrothgar according to the poem the principals who must be present at this time are Wulfgar/Mars, and Hrothgar/Jupiter. Mars is described as being between Jupiter and Perseus, slightly to the North of Jupiter. This is not a common position, but one that occurs infrequently. Unferth/Mercury, when he does appear, will be just below Jupiter and ahead of the sun for his disrespect of Beowulf (Heaney 2000, l. 499). Wealhtheow/Venus appears much later and has two distinct movements. (620, 640) Both planets, Wealhtheow/Venus, and Unferth/Mercury are between the earth and the sun so have an exaggerated retrograde motion; they appear to go forward up into the sky then to reverse their direction and go backward. In the first movement by Wealtheow, she comes in after everyone is settled down and moves from bench to bench. Venus moves in this manner when her retrograde motion has her above the plane of the ecliptic, moving toward the west faster than the background stars, then slowing down, reversing motion and moving between the two arms of Pisces, the benches. (The Sky, April 15th, 575, use record tracks) She continues her motion by meeting Hrothgar, Jupiter. This movement takes two months to complete.

Also, because of their positions relative to the earth, Mercury and Venus each appear as both an evening star and a morning star. Tradition stated that Mercury when it appeared before the sun was untrustworthy; when it appears after the sun it is a valued advisor. This explains Beowulf’s change in attitude toward Unferth in the hall, where he must appear before the sun, and when they are in the evening sky, where Mercury can appear after the sun is down. The author seems to have realized he did not treat that same belief about Venus; the poet takes time to elaborate on this situation in the section, Great Queen Modthryth. She is bad when she is observed “…directly during daylight.” (Heaney 2000, l. 1935) That is in the rising sun. But she is a good queen when she must follow her lord, be married to and follow the sun down. They did realize that Venus is the same star both as a morning star and an evening star.

Hrothgar, Jupiter, leaves Heorot for the “night.” (Heaney 2000, l. 645-651) This will be a night twelve years long. Jupiter has a period of twelve years, so it will be twelve years until the planet is once again in Pisces. Besides, Pisces must rotate to make room for Grendel/Cetus. Grendel does not appear fully in the sky until the summer solstice and goes down the last of August.

Grendel gets up on the ecliptic through the well at Gemini and travels to Heorot where he attacks the house and the people. He destroys one of Beowulf’s men, the variable star beta perseii, Algol. The poet is referring to the phenomenon of a variable star; it periodically grows dim, so dim it appears to disappear. Grendel has killed it. Then Grendel grabs Beowulf. Their fight destroys the benches of Heorot, that part of the Stag Hall below the ecliptic, and Beowulf pulls off Grendel’s arm and throws it on the roof, the sky inside the ecliptic. The arm, Ursa Major, is not astronomically important now, but it is when the poet needs to explain precession. Grendel must “ …take a roundabout road and flee.” (Heaney 2000, 762) Grendel cannot just fall off the ecliptic; there are regular portals to enter and to leave. These portals are the wells located at the places where the Milky Way crosses the ecliptic. One is between Gemini and Taurus; the other is between Scorpio and Sagittarius, the one that Grendel must use. (Olcott, 2004, 394) The poet makes much of the roiling and boiling of the waters in the well. He is saying that it is indeed High Summer and the star Sirius is up in the dawn sky. This star, the main star in Canis Major, is the Flag of Summer. (Allen 1963, 123) It was important to the Egyptians who believed that the helical rising of Sothis, Sirius, brought the Nile up in its annual flood. At this latitude Sirius rises the first of August and leaves the dawn sky on Samhain.

These figures in the sky are to help the viewer tell the time. When Heorot is at the horizon in the spring, it is useful to show the time. But if it is high in the sky, as it is from May on, the viewer finds it difficult to see how much it might have moved over several days. Something is needed close to the horizon, and the poet has brought in Grendel and the thirty stars, good for a month or so, then Gemini,( the men on horseback) then Canis minor,(Aschere) then Canis major and the great flag, Sirius, (The roiling of the well) then Puppis. He has set the dawn sky from March until Samhain, October 31st. He has also covered the sky from the southern horizon, Puppis, to the constellation Perseus. He has set a monthly calendar: Heorot/ Pisces, mid-March until early May; Grendel/ Cetus until mid- June; young men on horseback, Gemini until early July; Aschere/ Canis minor, until late July; the roiling waters, Sirius, until late August; Beowulf’s ship, Puppis, until late October, and a daily reminder made up of smaller constellations and stars close to the southern and eastern horizon.

I am aware that the poet skips two constellations on the zodiac: Aeries and Taurus. He had a choice to make, and he chose to stay with his audience and the purpose of the poem. The poem is to set a useful calendar to be used by the local farmers and fishermen, tradesmen, etc. Cetus/ Grendel is a main player in the poem, and he gives it to the viewer as it comes to the horizon. The next constellation to come up is Aeries, a very small constellation that is rather more above than on the zodiac. The poet stays with Grendel rather than introduce a new character. By the time Grendel begins to clear the horizon at dawn and the star Diphda, beta ceti, appears, the sun has moved on and is almost through the next house, Taurus. He chooses to go from Grendel to Geminii, the young men on horseback.