The Theme Of Father/son Relationships In Beowulf & The Song Of Roland :: Epic of Beowulf Essays

The Theme of Father/Son Relationships in Beowulf & The Song of Roland     The representation of father- password emblem relationships in early Medievalliterary works is a key theme early authors used to give their works more depthand meaning. two works that use the theme of father-son relationships areBeowulf and The Song of Roland. In Beowulf, the relationship between Hrothgarand Beowulf is one in which there is no telephone numberual blood father-son tie, merely the twocharacters take on all the characteristics of a real father son relationship.Hrothgar, although Beowulfs senior, has to rely on this new warrior who comesto Heorot to help him rid his kingdom of a great danger which he can not getrid of by himself, and Hrothgar treats him as if he were his own son. In TheSong of Roland, Charles relationship with his nephew Roland in any case takes on thecharacteristics of a father-son type relationship. In this work, althoughCharles is the better warrior than Roland, he relies on Roland to watch the rearguard of his army and Roland loses his aliveness while serving his King. The significance of these inter-generational relationships will be looked at in thispaper, as well as what the authors through the guise of these father-sonrelationships were trying to say about various different aspects of life duringtheir time.     In Beowulf, the function of the relationship between Hrothgar andBeowulf helps to further the plot in several ways. Whenever there is a relianceon family in any literary work, it gives any story more meaning and significance.When Beowulf first arrives in Hrothgars hall, we get a sense of the old andincapable state Hrothgar is in "old and old among the guard of earls"(Beowulf, pg. 62) is how he is first described. When hearing who Beowulfsfather is he states in a joyous tone "I knew him when he was a child..Well doesthe son now pay this call on a proven ally" (Beowulf, pg. 62-63) Immediatelythere is a fond relationship here which will start even further. WhenBeowulf claims that he is in Heorot to cleanse the people of the monster namedGrendel who is plaguing them, Hrothgar is very grateful and he states "So it isto fight in our defence, my friend Beowulf, and as an act of kindness that youhave come to us here" (Beowulf, pg. 65) We see here that Hrothgar is indeedgrateful to have the services of so brave a warrior. When Beowulf slays Grendel,the presumption that the old Hrothgar feels towards Beowulf can almost be equated to