With this reading assignment I felt blindsided and confused with the abrupt upbringing of Queen Modthryth in the middle of the description of Queen Hygd, who is Hygelac’s wife, so I decided to research some background information on her. Modthryth is the queen of King Offa in Beowulf. Before Modthryth was married to Offa she was a wicked princess who killed any man who looked her in the eye. It does not go into detail of why she is such a wicked princess, but once she is married to King Offa she immediately changes her ways and actually becomes famous for her good contributions. It is suggested that she changed her ways because of King Offa’s kind and generous nature and because she truly loved him. Queen Hygd is presented, as the epitome of what a Queen should be like back then as well as women. She was positive, polite, thoughtful, and everyone liked her. On the other hand, Queen Modthryth is the exact opposite of Queen Hygd before she became Queen. It was interesting though that Queen Modthryth was famous for being a murderous princess and a queen who did good deeds.
In Beowulf there are six women: Queen Modthryth, Queen Hildeburgh, Grendel’s mother, Queen Hygd, Wealhtheow, and Freawaru. Wealhtheow and Hygd are described as hostesses. Their main function is to carry the cup of mead and pass it around when the king and his men have meetings in the hall. The queen will first give the cup to the king, which represents he has all power and is ranked at the top. Then the queen will slowly go around the hall giving the cup of mead to the other men in certain order based on rank.
Hildeburgh’s and Freawaru’s function was to settle peace between feuding parties by taking the opposing king or prince in marriage; however, both fail to bring peace among the men. Finally, Modthryth and Grendel’s mother act as foils against all the other women in the story. These two women were termed as monsters. They both use violence to settler their disputes. Modthryth killed any man who entered her hall or looked her in the eye and most of the time these were innocent men. Grendel’s mother similarly killed anyone who entered her hall. In the end both women were brought under control by either death or marriage. Modthryth, however, was able to be influenced by society and changed her ways. While the women in Beowulf do not serve big roles the book would not be complete without them. They serve as hostesses, peace-weavers, and monsters. The women are not powerless, the queens do hold some political power but are ultimately directed by men. (464 words)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modthryth
Hey ash,
ReplyDeleteThat is really interesting how you investigated the women of Beowulf. I find it interesting to compare their woman of the time and culture with our women of this time and culture. I think you did a great job discussing the significance of women and also of the character that you did not know much about.
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a really good post. You did a really good job explaining everything and I can tell you spent a lot of time researching all of it.
It's very interesting how, as you pointed out, that while these women are only supporting characters in the poem, they really do make it complete. It is also interesting to note that these women have much more power than women would later on in history. A medieval or Victorian Modthryth would never have had the power to murder those men (though that might have been a good thing, in this case).
ReplyDeleteAshley,
ReplyDeleteI was really interested in your blog topic because I usually pay attention to the role of women in the stories we read, but I hadn't for this one because they seemed so insignificant. When you tied the roles of all of the women together, it made me realize that they do play a significant role in the text. You showed that their characters serve to support the men, be used for alliances, and as hostesses; this illustrates that the Anglo-Saxon culture also saw women as such, at least among the nobility. Thanks for bringing this up.
Some thoughtful and positive comments from your peers. Your careful reading and thoughtful writing are clearly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this!
ReplyDeletethank you so much, i used to have trouble with understanding the purpose of queen modthryth in the story beowulf, but now i can see how this piece of information is aligned with the story. THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!! i really appreciate.
ReplyDelete