The Heroic Code and the Challenge of Time in Beowulf

Abstract

In this study we endeavor to explain significance by viewing the hypothetical statements. Recurring syntactic units in a text, such as "if clauses," allow us to decipher meaning by relying on rhetorical semantics. We combine the social, religious and political roles of the Homeric Zeus with basic notions for evaluating behavior in primitive warring societies. The roles of Zeus as protector of guests, suppliants, and those laboring under the sworn word, yield as paradigms the categories of boast, prayer, and oath. Opposing binary structures generate from these categories as challenge, curse, and betrayal respectively. We may classify as a heroic code the combined non-truth conditional statements that define or approximate equivalence to each one of the mentioned categories. Oscillation between positive and negative correspondence leads to character motivation and plot development in Beowulf. The reader is left to interpret conceptually the relevant symbolism, drawn from the hypothetical expressions, which commit the decision to act to a narrative dimension. We close our study with a suggestion that eager attempts to extend the will in time may inevitably fail, even in a predetermined heroic context.