Professor Borges - A Course on English Literature

building a ship exactly like the one he came in and placing him next to the mast surrounded by weapons and jewels, then pushing him out to sea.
    All peoples have believed that the territory of death lies beyond the sea. Life was associated with the course of the sun; since the sun is born in the east and dies in the west, a parallel was drawn to human life. It was believed that when it was over, one went to the land where the sun dies, to the west, beyond the sea. Hence, in the Celtic legends, paradise was thought to be in the west. In Greek mythology, the kingdom of death was beyond the water, and one had to cross the water to reach it. So, this ship they push out to sea has that meaning. Next comes a description of the ship and the king lying next to the mast, and then of the subjects crying, pushing the ship out to sea. This is one of the most powerful scenes in the poem. 6 We cannot know if in the mind of the poet—who genuinely felt this scene—if this king being pushed out to sea (in the ship he arrived in) is a symbol of man mysteriously returning to the place from which he mysteriously came. In any case, this ritual of launching the ship is not an invention of this poet but rather a Germanic custom. Ships containing the skeletons of men and animals have been found at the bottom of the sea. We can deduce from this that they not only pushed the dead out to sea, but on their last trip, they were accompanied by their servants and their favorite animals. It was a Germanic custom to bury the dead with their dogs at their feet. In the book
Beau Geste
, the hero says that he “had his Viking’s funeral with a dog at his feet.” 7 He was talking about a sergeant who had been buried. There is an ancient text that also says that after the ship was launched, it would be set on fire.
    The author [of
Beowulf
] intentionally described different burial rites of the Germanic people. This can be seen at the end of the poem, with Beowulf’s funeral next to the sea, on a pyre so high it can be seen by sailors out at sea, and that is heaped with weapons, shields, and helmets. This detail also appears in the
Odyssey
, where there is also a funeral rite.
    In the next class we will continue our study of
Beowulf
and probably examine the Finnsburh Fragment.

CLASS 3

    BEOWULF.
BRAVERY AND BOASTFULNESS:
BEOWULF
AS COMPARED TO THE
COMPADRITOS.

    MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1966
    In the previous class, we discussed the epic poem
Beowulf
. Today, we will pick up where we left off. I recounted one of the most poetic episodes of the poem: the one about the child who arrives mysteriously on the coast of Denmark, who becomes king and instills fear in his enemies. The poet notes that he is a good king because what is expected of a king is that he be strong and warlike and that his neighbors fear his people. Then the years pass and when death approaches, he gives instructions for hisfuneral. So they prepare the funeral ship.
    The poet says that this ship was “
isig ond utfus
.” The first word means “frozen,” and is related to the English word “iced” and the German word
eisig
. But we don’t know if the ship is covered with ice (it is strange that the poet hadn’t spoken of ice earlier), or if he meant “resplendent,” “shimmering,” “as clear as ice.” The third word is difficult to translate because
fus
means “eager” and
ut
means “out.” 1 In other words, the ship was eager to leave, as if it were a living being. Then the ship is described; the poet says that it flew a flag made of gold fabric, and that the king was placed in a seated position, leaning against the mast: “The powerful one against the mast.” Then his vassals, crying, push the ship out to sea, and then we have these lines that I know by heart: “Nobody, neither the counselors in their assemblies nor the heroes under the heavens, knows who received that cargo.” And it is said that the ship was pushed far away by the power of the sea: “Under the power of the sea, it traveled far.” Now, an ancestor is also mentioned, who is also called Beowulf, like the eponymous hero of the poem, but he is a different Beowulf. And this lets us imagine that there is a connection between the royal house of Denmark and the royal house of the Geats—that tribe that is a bit mysterious—which some have identified with the Jutes who invaded England, and others, with the Goths, in other words, the ancestors of the Spaniards, who were the Visigoths. But there is a