Free Indirect Discourse in Maria Dahvana Headley's Translation of Beowulf

Encountering Works from the Distant Past

…Beowulf saw himself as God’s gift,

Grendel as a goner; he used his strength to slay

the intruder, trusting in his Father to protect him,

as He always had. He bled the hellion, and 

Grendel fled piecemeal, no Heaven for him,

no honey, only rushing through a haunted hall to die

in his own mausoleum. Now his mother was here,

carried on a wave of wrath, crazed with sorrow,

looking for someone to slay, someone to pay in pain

for her heart’s loss. She found the path,

and made her way to Heorot.

[lines 1268-1278 of Beowulf translated by Maria Dahvana Headley]

Friday, September 9, 2022

Beowulf, a narrative poem dating back to the 11th century, details the triumphs of its eponymous hero Beowulf. While Beowulf is the oldest surviving manuscript written in the Old English vernacular, its firm impression in the English literary canon suggests this “man’s-man” story has enduring sources of intrigue for modern readers. On the level of plot, the poem positions itself as an epic, relaying Beowulf’s unlikely feats in battle. However, at one moment in the text, the Beowulf narrator inhabits the consciousness of its characters, a style of third-person narration called free indirect discourse (FID), revealing a diffuse self-awareness in the poem and complicating readings of Beowulf as merely a celebration of chivalry. 

Shortly after the creature Grendel’s defeat and the feast thrown in Beowulf’s honor, the Beowulf narrator recounts Beowulf’s memory of unarmed combat with Grendel— “Beowulf saw himself as God’s gift” (1268). We as readers get a sense for Beowulf’s hubris not only through this line’s immediate content, but also through its conjugation of verbs. This particular translation of Beowulf by poet Maria Dahvana Headley translates the Old English to “saw himself,” a past-tense verb followed by a reflexive pronoun, as opposed to something like the simple past tense of the to-be infinitive, “was.” This small semantic decision muddles the line between narrator and character at the same time it leads us to wonder if this poem’s third-person narrator (assuming that it can also be distinct from Beowulf’s character) agrees with Beowulf’s proud self-assessment. If this poem’s narrator had agreed, perhaps the simple past tense would have been used to convey an observation rather than a judgement. Furthermore, the insertion of FID also implicates the translator’s personal stakes, as Headley has added a layer of feminist skepticism that may not have been so manifest in the original manuscript. Headley seems to implicitly tell us that we can decide, just like the narrator, if we believe Beowulf.

The Beowulf narrator then returns to introducing Grendel’s mother, not just as a monstress, but as mourning the murder of her child— “Now his mother was… / crazed with sorrow, / looking for someone… to pay in pain / for her heart’s loss” (1274-1277). Similar to line 1268 which contains Beowulf’s conceit, the third-person narrator seems to ventriloquize Grendel’s mother’s pain. Although a less clear example of FID, we can read this narrator as occupying a space between the impersonal-omniscient and innermost world of Grendel’s mother through the participial phrases beginning with “crazed with” and “looking” (1275-1276). Here, it becomes unclear whose thought this belongs to, as the language used (“sorrow,” “heart’s loss”) connotes a deeply affective attachment unlike the previous Beowulf-narrator hybrid. Taken in context with the simple past tense, “was,” the narrative voice postures itself as commiserative rather than doubtful, as if it has decided Grendel’s mother carries more authenticity than Beowulf. This narratorial entanglement leaves us with a thread of her-story (Headley’s intention perhaps), lying beneath the Geats’ his-tory, Beowulf’s conspicuous tale of masculine power.

Paying close attention to a text’s foregrounded perspective (character, narrator, translator, or an ambiguous mix) can reveal the layering of subjective truths. The recognition of how FID create shades of meaning serves a similar purpose to physicians taking vitals: readers feel for irregularities in the text’s pulse. Moreover, FID allows us to see reading as a non-neutral practice, among the characters within Beowulf, yes, but especially for us as consumers who seek to make sense of the surrounding world. Headley’s translation interpellates us as on a continuum of readers grappling with the fragility, abstruseness, and politics of meaning. Suddenly the world of Beowulf feels not so estranged from us.

---