For my next essay...

... I am hoping that Adrienne doesn't read this until AFTER she has marked my Beowulf essay, for reasons that will soon become clear. I really like the text a lot, but somehow writing about it was proving difficult, not because there was nothing to say, but because it had all been said already, by people who are much better informed than me, so, in order to keep myself amused while writing I did something a bit unusual to the first paragraph (emphasis added)...

THE ROLE OF TREASURE IN HEANEY’S ‘BEOWULF’

Beowulf’s legend is heavily imbued with references to treasure; it’s nature changes,
essentially as it is used to convey several different ideas that are central to the work. In the
opening lines of Heaney’s Beowulf the poet makes reference to Shield Sheafson’s sea-burial
with ‘massed treasure’ (4.40), a symbol of the man’s power and popularity but also an
unconventional field of association for gold - rather than it being seen as a symbol of a great
leader’s victory, it is at a moment of great sorrow, when a well-loved leader has died. This
fatal connection of gold and death is continued throughout the poem, with Hygelac dying
whilst wearing that ‘most resplendent / torque of gold’ (40.1196-97) that Beowulf hands
over to him with after his defeat of Grendel at Heorot, in a battle with the Frisians. Later the
reader can see this mirrored at Beowulf’s own death , in the ‘collar of gold’ (88.2810) that he
entrusts to Wiglaf. Another element of Beowulf’s death that echoes back to the beginning
lines of the poem, is his burial, like the Danish Shield Sheafson’s, upon a bier, a ‘great
abundance’ (98.3135) of gold. Even more reminiscent of that other man’s parting, is the
discovery of ‘a standard, entirely of gold’ (87.2767) within the dragon’s hoard, that seems
incredibly similar to the ‘gold standard’ (4.47) raised above Sheafson’s head in the poem’s
early movements. These interconnecting references create a somewhat sinister picture of the
sumptuous treasure hauls, made all the more disturbing by Heaney’s description of each new
piece of bounty, which is painstakingly wrought, using compelling rhythm and dwelling on
all its beauty. The phrase

‘hanging high over the hoard,

a masterpiece of filigree; it glowed with light’ (87.2768-9)

neatly illustrates this. The alliteration of the ‘h’ sound in the first part of this description of
the standard seems almost like the chant of a hypnotist, and echoes the irresistible lure of the
serpent’s hoard, that only Beowulf seems to have been immune to.