One of the questions that I wrote today about Beowulf refered to the women in the book. After I wrote the question the teacher answered my it by talking the example of Wealhtheow on page 41. However, this afternoon I read about Queen Hygd and she had problably become my favourite character of the book, even though the author does not write a lot about women.
Wealhtheow is Hrothgar’s wife and she represents the hospiatlity and the good taste as she hosts the banquets in Heorot. She is everything that a queen should be generous, tasteful, proper, and kind. She uses diplomacy when she speaks. While Hygd is the virtous and loyal wife of the king Hygelac. “And although, Hygid, his queen, was young, a few short-years at court, her mind was thoughtful and her manners sure. Haereth’s daughter behaved generously and stinted nothing when she distributed bounty to the Geats” (Heaney, 132). She is depicted as the ideal woman of that time: beautiful, generous, intelligent, and docile. As Wealhtheow, her role is to serve the Geats: she “moved about with the mead-jug in her hand, taking care of the company, filling the cups that warriors held out” (Heaney, 135). In Beowulf that attitude is problably something that gives honor to women.
After that the author gives a description of Queen Modthryth as the antithesis to Hygd’s virtue: “If any retainer ever made bold to look her in the face, if an eye not her lord’s stared at her directly during daylight, the outcome was sealed: he was kept bound, in hand-tightened shackles, racked, tortured until doom was pronounced-death by the sword, slash of blade, blood-gush, and death-qualms in an evil display” (Heaney, 133). However, she became less cruel when she was married. Therefore, the marriage gives to women the right attitude to follow. Her cruelty is seen as some of the most grievous sins a woman could commit: “A woman should weave peace, not punish the innocent with loss of life for imagined insults” (Heaney, 133). Hygd is the exact interpretation of an angelic person and her behavior represents the right attitude a queen should have.
Women of that time were innocent but with an high value, generous but rigorous, diplomatic and obetient to their husbands.
Lisa Poletto 