“Monstrous Landscapes: The Interdependence of Meaning between Monster and Landscape in Beowulf”

“Monstrous Landscapes: The Interdependence of Meaning between Monster and Landscape in Beowulf”

Ball, Charlotte

Hortulus, Vol. 5, No. 1, (2009)

Abstract

Reading and visualising the landscape in Beowulf is, like most elements of the poem, an ambiguous and dreamlike experience. The narrative both constructs and is constructed by isolated images of specific locations. In this paper I intend demonstrate that the monstrous margins in Beowulf are imbued with more than simply distance from the centre. In order to understand the monstrousness of the margins and their inhabitants we need to look at the symbolic value of these far flung landscapes themselves.

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