I actually wrote this post at the end of September but it just sat in a rather lonely folder on my desktop screen because I never got around to making the actual blog. But here it is. FINALLY. So behold, the musing of a two month younger Grace.

An idea that came up in lecture the past few days really resonated with me, the idea of impatience while reading. When I first read Beowulf during first-year, I remember not loving it at all because the plot dragged too much and I didn’t find the fights/quests very interesting. I never once considered the text as having a slow pace on purpose to emphasize the importance of speech on equal terms with (or perhaps even more than) action.

Our recent discussions on the way how the Geat’s society centers on not just masculine feats of strength but also on community bonding through tales has changed my opinion of this text for the better. As Beowulf demonstrates, words have a binding power. The action seems to take a supporting role here, its purpose being to exist so that there is something to “tell” about. Words become what are inherited. Take the swords that are passed down for example, they are only significant in correlation with their stories. Being a firm believer in the necessity of literature and language in the world, I cannot help but appreciate the ideas presented in this text.

I think that I am a reader who unfortunately has been influenced by the 21^st century to read quickly, without properly digesting the material that is streaming into my head, which is why I underestimated Beowulf’s merit. One would think that after studying literature for all my high school years and devouring countless books I would have already learned to be an attentive reader. My recent epiphany (I really do think I had a light bulb moment during class when this came up) just shows how much more my brain needs to work.

(From the present Grace: I definitely still need to work on this attentive reading thing. Maybe it was good that I posted this late because it just reminded me of this epiphany.)