The tale of Beowulf

The tale of Beowulf begins and remainders with the funeral of great tycoons. The funerals equal in this tale argon beautify with rites that derive from the cultural traditions of the kings being position to rest. Scyld Scefing is entombed within a barge change with signs of his accomplish handsts, while com/beowulf-as-an-epic-hero/Beowulf is enshrined within a barrowful filled with relics of his rule. Yet within these traditionalistic burial chambers unrivaled can find traces of the men themselves as each makes requests that lead to the particularity of their burials.This allows the funerals to become particularly distinctive as the author makes use of the elements, such as orb, perk up, and peeing (Smith). all(prenominal) funeral defines the symbolic ideas of transaction versus grounded-ness repre displaceed in the lives of these two men, and the regularity in which each is carried out emphasizes the icy ways in which they entered their lands and mounted their thr whizzs. The funerals of two men are repre moveative of their personalities as shown through their deeds and the ways in which they lived their lives. Though both men were chivalrous warriors and kings, their lives as youths and kings appear to be rattling different.The movement characteristic of Scyld Scefings funeral matchs a continuation of the boldness and vigor with which he sailed through life. His life was continually champion of forward query from low to lofty estate, and he does not cease this interrogative sentence in his death. The poem continues, Forth he fared at the fated moment, sturdy Scyld to the comfort of God (lines 26-27). His clansmen and subjects seem determined that their king should keep moving though he has been cut off from life, as they instantaneously bore him over to oceans billow (line 28).He is centerd on a barge that is taken by the floods to an nonetheless higher and much celebrated place, and the rowing used by the author to chance upo n this continue this motif of motion to an unconstipated higher estate. Such words and phrases as outbound highlight this motion, and as noman is able to say in sooth who harbored that freight, his burial demonstrates that his resting place could mean stock-s cashbox another promotion for this king who had move from foundling to royalty. The funeral given Beowulf differs greatly from that given(p) Scyld Scefing.Beowulfs rites represent that of a more grounded king who had been home grown and bred specifically to become royalty. His funeral demonstrates no great motion, as his lineage is anchored and steeped in royalty. The rites take place within the land of his birth, and his tomb is place upon a foundation of the soil upon which his ancestors walked. The source establishes this in his recounting of the events They fashioned for him the kin of Geats firm on the farming a funeral-pile (line 2821). The firmness with which this tomb is established upon the humankind defend s the strength of Beowulfs root within his homeland.Around this is erected a wall, and this further strengthens Beowulfs position as a foundational attractor of his land. The monuments given to house this leader are built into the ground of the commonwealth and given foundations alike to the roots that one finds in Beowulfs lineage. His burial is akin to burying treasure (gold and precious stones), swear the ground with treasures of earls, gold in the earth (2850), and this is in essence an act of large-minded back to the earth the treasure it has afforded. The funerals of Scefing and Beowulf withal differ in the elements that attend each.According to amateur George Clark in his essay Beowulfs Armor, Each funeral places the final offering of arms and armor and treasure in the context of one of the elements, peeing, fire, or earth (429). While water is the dominant element in Scefings funeral, fire is used to herald the burial of Beowulf. The significance of the water for Scefi ng derives mainly from his hi memoir, as he was borne to the Danes on a miniature vessel as an aban dod infant. The water represents the deep, the void from which the king came and to which he is allowed to return.The story comes full circle for this king, as he is again borne away at the end of his life, given back to the water that offered him to the Danes. This is done on purpose by his clansmen, and highlighted by the narrator who writes, No less these skew-whiff the lordly gifts, thanes huge treasure, than those had done who in former time forth had sent him sole on the seas, a eat child (lines 43-46). He is again sent by himself on the seas into the unknown stomach of the flood which had offered him up as a child.The fire for Beowulf is the opposite of this water, and this might as well as be seen as a fibre to difference in his birth and youth. However, the narrative continues, Wood-smoke rose black over blaze, and blent was the yammer of flame with weeping (the wind was still), till the fire had broken the frame of hit the books (2827-30). While the water takes Scefing away from the land, Beowulfs fire offers up incense that rises and, as the ashes fall, remains forever mingled with the soil in the land of his birth.The narrator mentions that the wind was still, stress the idea that no part of Beowulfs burnt body or ashes is allowed to fly ball beyond the land of his birth and rule. He utterly belongs to this land, and the roaring of the fire becomes a dirge that rises and mingles with the sound of his subjects weeping. Yet the endorser gets the feeling that Beowulf is not lost to his people. This fire is allowed to burn beyond Beowulfs bones, devour his flesh and, as the smoke was by the sky devoured (2838), the fire sends up Beowulfs essence as a safeguard and covering for his land and people.Though the lives of Scefing and Beowulf were similar in many ways, they overly differed in just about very significant areas that have to do with how they came to be king. While Scefing begins life as a foundling and sustains upward motion that raises him to the estate of ruler, Beowulf is born a prince whose roots are grounded in his homeland. The elements used to represent these two men are also representative of their origins. Water is used to symbolize the rootless Scefing, while fire and earth symbolize Beowulfs grounded ancestry.Both men are treasured by their people, yet allowed to take their destinies by drifting or be rooted as has been their custom. Works Cited Beowulf. The Harvard Classics, muckle 49. Frances B. Grummere (Trans. ) 1910. P. F. Collier & Son, 1993. Clark, George. Beowulfs Armor. ELH. Vol. 32. No. 4. Dec. 1965. pp. 409-441. Smith, Jennifer. Paradise Lost and Beowulf The Christian/ heathenish Hybrids of the Epic Tradition. Department of English. Long bound California State University. http//www. csulb. edu/jsmith10/miltbeow. htm