English 220 Blog post – Beowulf

This is really really late, but it’s been a while since I have been able to sit and reflect about Beowulf.  Given my essay on Beowulf is coming out… tomorrow or within a week, I best get this down before I reword my response.

Surprisingly enough, when writing the Beowulf essay, I honestly didn’t expect it to be easy to get to 1200 words.  I mean 8 lines, on Hrunting’s description, what could I possibly get out of that?

Welllp I ended up having to severely reduce my word count.  It was quite hilarious towards the end where I ended up squeezing words out as tightly as possible.   And I must say, my respect for Seamus Heaney and the poet (Skols?  Poets?  gets confusing since its been recomposed so many times) has gone up.  the deliberation that is in the poem to create just a weapon… astounds me.  Its almost as if Hrunting was an actual character in the story.  Not to mention I really found myself taken back into the moment, the time and the period, as I read the text closely.

All in all, I quite liked Beowulf.  Although I had some issues with it, it was nice to re-read this epic even closer and write another essay on it.