Here Be Monsters

I won’t presume to say anything definitive about a subject as vast as the role of nature within Western literature. But it has been on my mind because of my work with the epic Old English poem Beowulf.

At any point in history, we can count on literature to reflect our relationship with the natural world. Renaissance poets wrote about Arcadia, an idyllic place of bountiful natural splendour and harmony where happy shepherds frolic. (Never, by the way, written by or for actual shepherds.)

The Romantic poets like William Wordsworth saw nature as Sublime, full of terror but with powerful imaginative and spiritual force. Then, throughout the Industrial Revolution, nature was the enemy of civilization, to be conquered and subdued. And writers in our time reflect our dissociation from the natural world as well as our fears for its future.

Anglo-Saxon England may have been largely settled agricultural land, but the natural environment that the Beowulf poet presents is hostile and threatening. Safety, comfort, and generosity are found inside, in the king’s hall. Outside is wilderness ruled by monsters.

Even if you are Beowulf, the greatest of heros, you may kill one monster in the wilderness but in the end, another one will bring you down.

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Bones and Keeps: https://www.amazon.com/Bones-Keeps-Dena.../dp/1773170147

Painting: Lynd Ward (from his "Beowulf" series)

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