IT is repeatedly stated in Beowulf that the great Geat is in and before battle 'angry', 'furious', 'enraged'. When he engages Grendel at close quarters, yrre waeron begen / repe renweardas.1 And in the struggle with Grendel's Mother, Beowulf is described as yrre oretta 'angry warrior' and shortly thereafter we are told as follows: bregd Pa beadwe heard, Pa he gebolgen wees, / feorhgenidlan, Pet heo on flet gebeah.2 While, strictly psychologically considered, fury in a man normally as cool and collected as Beowulf may appear startling on first reading, emphasis on it in the heat of battle should, on mature consideration, hardly be surprising; this is almost universally part and parcel of poetic description of fierce combat, common in Western heroic literature from Iliad to Nibelungenlied and even more pronounced in Celtic epic tradition. Far more startling is the anger which is described as overtaking Beowulf well before the start of battle, as is the case before the fight with Grendel:
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Martin Puhvel (1968) studied this question.