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    The Warrior King

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    The song "The Warrior King" adapts the first part of Beowulf where Beowulf defeats Grendel and Grendel's mother. Written like a medieval bard's tale, it recounts in verse Beowulf's arrival in Heorot to aid King Hrothgar against the monster Grendel, his tearing of Grendel's arm, and later his battle under the lake with Grendel's mother. The summary provides background on how the original Beowulf text integrated Christianity into the story of a pagan past and on common trends in medieval literature like combining history with fiction and depicting heroes in a Christ-like manner.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    The Warrior King

    Uploaded by

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    152 views4 pages
    The song "The Warrior King" adapts the first part of Beowulf where Beowulf defeats Grendel and Grendel's mother. Written like a medieval bard's tale, it recounts in verse Beowulf's arrival in Heorot to aid King Hrothgar against the monster Grendel, his tearing of Grendel's arm, and later his battle under the lake with Grendel's mother. The summary provides background on how the original Beowulf text integrated Christianity into the story of a pagan past and on common trends in medieval literature like combining history with fiction and depicting heroes in a Christ-like manner.

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    The song "The Warrior King" adapts the first part of Beowulf where Beowulf defeats Grendel and Grendel's mother. Written like a medieval bard's tale, it recounts in verse Beowulf's arrival in Heorot to aid King Hrothgar against the monster Grendel, his tearing of Grendel's arm, and later his battle under the lake with Grendel's mother. The summary provides background on how the original Beowulf text integrated Christianity into the story of a pagan past and on common trends in medieval literature like combining history with fiction and depicting heroes in a Christ-like manner.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    152 views4 pages

    The Warrior King

    Uploaded by

    api-478277457
    The song "The Warrior King" adapts the first part of Beowulf where Beowulf defeats Grendel and Grendel's mother. Written like a medieval bard's tale, it recounts in verse Beowulf's arrival in Heorot to aid King Hrothgar against the monster Grendel, his tearing of Grendel's arm, and later his battle under the lake with Grendel's mother. The summary provides background on how the original Beowulf text integrated Christianity into the story of a pagan past and on common trends in medieval literature like combining history with fiction and depicting heroes in a Christ-like manner.

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    Modern Adaptation and Report

    Sam Peterson

    ENG 235

    Song Adaptation of Beowulf :

    The Warrior King

    Verse 1:
    There once was a man named Beowulf,
    A king with a warrior’s past.
    Slaying old dragons and demons, yes,
    His memory forever will last.

    I sing you a tale of this old legend’s youth,


    A tale of this man, this great.
    There was terror in Heorot, a terror inherited
    By Beowulf’s team of Geats.

    Pre-chorus:
    The giant beast Grendel
    Had proved quite a handful,
    Killing thirty men a night,
    Then came brave Beowulf
    Without shred of armor
    Hoping for one hell of a fight!

    Chorus:
    Beowulf got what he wanted!
    A glorious fight in Heorot Hall,
    With one great pull, Grendrel’s arm was nulled
    And Beowulf’s reputation unspotted.

    Verse 2:
    Searching in vengeance for her son’s killer,
    A new threat had appeared.
    The demon’s own mother had found her way upward
    And stole Hrothgar’s old friend Aeschere.

    Her prey in her palm and mens’ blades at her back,


    She fled for her home, the lake,
    Beowulf was awoken, a new oath is spoken,
    And the warrior began his chase.

    Pre-chorus 2:
    The giant beast’s mother
    Had gone back down under
    The wicked and unholy lake.
    Beowulf pursued her
    And wished to destroy her
    So downward and downward he sank.

    Chorus:
    Beowulf got what he wanted!
    A fight with the mother to death!
    By a giant-forged blade, the mother was slain,
    And Beowulf arose from the depths.

    Outro (Verse 3):


    Beowulf returns with his men at his side
    And Grendel’s head in his hand.
    The giant-forged hilt and demon skull gifts
    Are proof of a secure land.

    The morning arrives and the Danes provide


    Beowulf with a savior’s pay.
    The Geats sail off for their homeland adventures
    But that’s a tale for another day.

    Summary of Adaptation

    “The Warrior King” is a recount of the first half of Beowulf, when Beowulf came to the

    Danes’ aid to defeat Grendel and his mother. I wanted to write this song like a medieval minstrel

    piece, like a bard telling the story in a tavern. This piece is titled “The Warrior King,” but it does

    not speak of Beowulf’s time as king. I wrote this title with the thought process that it would be

    multiple songs under the name. If we have another project like this and we can choose any of the

    pieces we read, I will probably do the story of Beowulf and the dragon in song form.
    Background Information

    Beowulf was written by a Christian author, likely a clergyman, between the 8th and 10th

    century. This timeframe is significant because it was after the establishment of Christianity in the

    previously pagan England, and the author wrote of a time before that conversion. Therefore, this

    is a story about pagan times told through the Christian lens.

    My song does not represent the Christian aspect of the literature at all; medieval churches

    were very strict on what sort of music was deemed Christian and what was not. The scenes I

    drew from, though, loosely relate to Christianity. Authors of this time faced a unique issue: the

    epic stories of the pagan past were, frankly, epic. They wanted to maintain the awesome plots

    and fights of old stories but add new, more Christian factors. In Beowulf, one of the first points

    of integration is the history of Grendel. Grendel, the monster (called a demon in my song), was

    descended from Cain himself, the brother-killer from the Bible whose descendants God

    attempted to wipe out with a great flood. Another tactic of integration authors would try is

    deifying the main character. The hero had to be like Jesus, but more aggressive. This is up for

    debate as to whether it is the case in Beowulf. Does Beowulf go to battle alone time and time

    again out of hubris? Or is he sacrificing himself so nobody he loves can get hurt? I personally

    think this it is the latter.

    The trend of deifying the main hero is common in much medieval British literature. The

    Renaissance saw a change in focus from epics. Themes and concepts from epics were transferred

    into new types of stories, but in the Medieval Era it was popular to adjust epics to fit Christian

    audiences. This is seen in many King Arthur stories, where violence is simultaneously

    condemned and encouraged. In Morte d’Arthur, for example, Arthur has a gloriously violent past

    but does not want to fight those close to him. He eventually dies a supernatural and mysterious
    death. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain is given many blessings and blessed items.

    He is valiant on the battlefield, which we as the audience never really see, and is honorable to his

    peers throughout the entire story. He is nearly Christ-like in his behavior, an example of how one

    should act.

    In regard to politics and history, a common thing to do in medieval literature was

    combine history with fiction. This is seen in Beowulf with many historical sites and figures that

    can be verified. There was a historical Hrothgar and a large mead hall, Heorot. The Geats and the

    Danes were obviously real—geographical neighbors and allies following a period of tension.

    The approach to Christianity that makes Beowulf unique compared to the other pieces we

    have looked at is the time at which it takes place. As mentioned earlier, Beowulf was written by a

    Christian poet about the Pagan past. The author quietly ties Christianity into a seemingly Pagan

    epic. In Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale,” the speaker discusses the nature of a position many

    people take to take advantage of Christians. This is done in a time when the practice was still

    regular. In The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, many plot points and characters themselves

    are references to concepts in the Bible, with the main hero named after the cross Jesus died on

    (Red Crosse Knight). In Book 1 John Milton’s Paradise Lost, we see the aftermath of Lucifer’s

    banishment from Heaven. This acts as a sort of filler for gaps in the Bible’s timeline. The main

    and evident difference is that the latter three are speaking about Christian concepts in a time

    when Christianity was popular. Beowulf, however, is writing about Pagan concepts when

    Christianity is popular, and therefore has to retroactively place Christian themes into a Pagan

    lore.

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