What makes wiglaf a worthy successor to beowulf

Wiglaf's actions and gestures similarly emphasize this bond, as Wiglaf acts as assistant, colleague, and finally nurse and mourner as the episode comes to a close. At this moment, the two kinsmen experience the intensity and physical intimacy of this decidedly martial and heroic space. They both move away from this protection, however, in a coordinated attack that demonstrates their alliance and cooperation. Although these events take place over the course of twenty lines — , they combine to form a quick, precise sequence in a systematized and successful attack that seems more spontaneously organic than consciously planned.

Like the speeches and descriptions that precede and follow it, the actual sequence of action demonstrates Wiglaf and Beowulf's emotional and affective bond. Other phrases similarly emphasize this bond between the young and old kinsmen. The heroic and affective bond is thus also lexical. During the dragon fight, the diction of the poem promotes Wiglaf away from youth and into full maturity, using terms and descriptors of success and accomplishment.

This diction shows that Wiglaf has fully matured as he has been tested in battle. At the same time, however, Wiglaf's ascendant heroism takes a decidedly non-masculine turn when he becomes the chief nurse and mourner for the dying Beowulf. Neither of these actions will stop Beowulf from dying, but they may make him more comfortable in the process; washing and un dressing, of course, are services that women have traditionally tended to perform for children or for incapacitated people or for the dead, in fact.

Any potential Christological association also feminizes Wiglaf, as it is mulieres women who proceed to the tomb to tend to the body of Christ Luke But it also illustrates an unusual level of tender caregiving, and its reiteration shows that this nursing is an important part of Wiglaf's character; his loyalty to his lord includes not just the willingness to fight to the death but also to care for the body of the dying.

Wiglaf thus adds a new and unusual dimension to the poem's intertwined definitions of masculinity and heroism. This emotionally charged caregiving metaphorically wounds Wiglaf in a way that the dragon could not. In this surprising image, the poet deepens our understanding of Beowulf and Wiglaf's bond as physically embedded in their heroic bodies. That heroic focus on the body is embedded in the poetic diction of the scene as well.

Their military, biological, and emotional closeness is reinforced in the unifying bodily diction of the image, even though at this point in the narrative Beowulf is dead. All of these close readings point to a role for Wiglaf as the ascendant young hero, ready to take over as the old hero dies and enters the realm of posthumous fame and glory.

Wiglaf is young, loyal, brave, skilled, intuitive, and nurturing. Beowulf himself, however, seems not to see Wiglaf as a fully worthy successor. As noted above, scholars have engaged in extended discussion about the exact nature of Beowulf and Wiglaf's kinship; that discussion has included reference to Beowulf's bequest of his war-gear to Wiglaf, since Beowulf has no biological son.

Now I would give to my son [my] battle-gear, if there to me had been given any heir belonging to my body that remained after [my death]. However, Beowulf does not immediately give the items to Wiglaf. Wiglaf has to wait approximately eighty lines before Beowulf makes the seemingly logical next step to follow his statement above, that since he has no biological son he will treat Wiglaf as a worthy proxy:.

The glory-minded lord did give to the thane, the young spear-warrior, the golden ring from his neck, the gold-decorated helmet, ring, and mail-coat, ordered him to enjoy [them] well. Fate has swept away all of my kin to the measured end, those earls in courage; I must go after them. Beowulf actually undercuts the bond between him and Wiglaf twice in this sequence. First, he hints that Wiglaf will inherit the war-gear since Beowulf has no biological son, but does not then immediately follow through on that suggestion.

Instead, he makes Wiglaf gather treasure from the dragon's barrow —91 , then gives thanks to God — , and then provides tomb-building instructions —8 before he fulfils the implied promise in the earlier lines and gives his war-gear to Wiglaf since he has no biological son.

Wiglaf seems not be offended by this deathbed slight; he remains seated by Beowulf's corpse, sprinkling it with water in a futile gesture of hope. While scholars have focused on Beowulf's somewhat grudging gift of his war-gear to Wiglaf, none has remarked that Wiglaf does not need the gift, either practically or metaphorically.

Wiglaf has already participated in the iconic ritual of receiving arms from his biological father. Beowulf needs a son to receive his war-gear, but Wiglaf does not need a father or more weapons and armour.

He holds his family's ancestral property Once Beowulf is dead, the Geats need Wiglaf more than he needs them. As noted above, critics have parsed the end of the poem in an attempt to determine whether Wiglaf succeeds Beowulf as king of the Geats, but they have proceeded on the assumption that Wiglaf would want that succession.

Hill emphasizes the ways in which Wiglaf's loyalty to Beowulf is that of a retainer to a lord; Wiglaf's loyalty is to Beowulf the individual, not to the Geats as a nation or tribe. Once Beowulf is dead, that bond of loyalty disappears, since it is a bond of homosocial intimacy rather than one mediated by any larger entity of tribe or group or nascent nation. Throughout the poem, Wiglaf expresses no loyalty to the Geats, who after Beowulf's death will endure the terrors prophesied by an anonymous woman at Beowulf's pyre:.

The Geats may see Wiglaf as a potential and attractive new king, but his disappearance at the very end of the poem indicates instead that Wiglaf, like many heroes before and after him, sets off into the unknown. The poet does not permit the audience a glimpse into his future; that future does not lie within the bounds of the poem's narrative and geography. Part of Wiglaf's attractiveness for the audience is his status as one of the few dynamic characters in Old English poetry.

In the course of the dragon fight and its aftermath, he has grown from a young to a mature man. While he does not necessarily become king of the Geats, he certainly assumes command, even if temporarily, once Beowulf is dead.

After Beowulf's death, Wiglaf gives orders, with the poet twice using forms of the verb hatan to command to describe his actions. His order is promptly followed, as an anonymous Geat announces Beowulf's death and predicts future devastation following line Similarly, the Geats act as he orders them to build Beowulf's funeral pyre:. Then ordered the son of Weohstan, the war-brave man, to command the many heroes, the bold-actors, that they from afar bear the firewood. These two instances of reaction to Wiglaf's speech stand in marked opposition to the reaction to his first speech, which takes place before the dragon fight — In that first speech, he reminds his companions of their debt to Beowulf; they ignore his exhortation, and then they run away.

After the dragon fight, in contrast, the Geats do what he tells them. The poet as well realizes that Wiglaf has changed through the course of the narrative. He has experienced battle against a monstrous creature. He has nursed his king, watched him die, and mourned that loss. Consistent with the heroic code, they promised to come to the assistance of their king if he ever needed them.

Wiglaf rightly accuses them of running when they vowed to fight. He attempts to shame them into action, but no one returns. Wiglaf is the only one willing to risk his life to help his ruler. He declares that he would rather be burned to death than to abandon his king, and he rushes to Beowulf's defense. It is Wiglaf's blow that slows the serpent and decreases his firepower, thus enabling Beowulf to manage one last thrust with a knife that opens the dragon's belly and kills him.

The bond between Beowulf and Wiglaf is apparent as the king speaks to the young man and Wiglaf tries to comfort him. They have literally shared a baptism of fire, the test of battle that is the only criterion earning Beowulf's trust. Although Wiglaf is not his offspring, Beowulf thinks of him as a son when the dying king, unable to stand, briefly reflects on his life and passes control of Geatland on to the brave young retainer. Wiglaf represents courage and loyalty in the face of unbelievable odds.

In fact, he's a sort of a reverse-Judas figure. Whereas Judas is the only one of the twelve apostles who betrays Jesus, Wiglaf is the only one of eleven thanes who remains loyal to Beowulf. The implication here is that, even though cowardice and betrayal are immoral, in the world of Beowulf they are far more common than true courage, loyalty, and indifference to death and suffering.

Wiglaf is also similar to the character of Horatio in Hamlet —a minor character who is a friend of the hero and who survives to tell the tale to others after everyone else has died. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources.

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