Week 12 Essay: Beowulf

This week I read half of the Beowulf unit. I had intended to read the entire unit but then the day got away from me and I ran out of time. There wasn't really a whole lot to notice for this unit, even just half of it. I did really like the imagery of the royal colors and I suppose I could talk about how the Queens were portrayed in the story. I found it very interesting. I am still going to go and actually read the entire unit because I really want to know what happens!

So, I always love when stories or books give a lot of imagery, especially with royal clothing. I say royal clothing because there are normally specific colors associated with the kingdom, which for some reason fascinates me. I found it interesting how the kingdom that Beowulf was from, their colors were gold and red I think. Gold is such was such a sought after material that the fact that they used it as their jewelry and colors suggested wealth and the red would suggest power. When Beowulf goes over seas to Daneland, the colors the king and queen wear are very different. I don't remember exactly what colors but I do remember that the queen wears silver bands of jewelry instead of gold. The king still wears a golden crown, but he is the only one wearing gold. When I read it, it suggests to me that this land is poorer that Beowulf's, wearing silver which is not as precious as gold.

One other thing I noticed from the story was how the queens were portrayed. I feel like in most stories about great Kings and their warriors, the queens are only in the background. They are something coveted by other kings and fought over and won. They can persuade their kings, but other than that, they don't have a lot of power. Now I know this is not the case all of the time, it is just a stereotype of those stories. In this story however, the queens represent more than just an object. They are important in honoring the warriors before they leave for an important mission. They also represent peace and unity, since most queens were married off to unite kingdoms and make peace. I thought it was cool how both of the queens had titles along with their names. The first one was Queen, whatever her name was, The Wise and Fair, and then the Queen of Daneland, The Beautiful.

Queen in Beowulf