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 shout of Roland     The model of progress to-son type 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 actual blood father-son tie, but the twocharacters take on each the characteristics of a real father son relationship.Hrothgar, although Beowulfs senior, has to rely on this refreshing 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 also takes on thecharacteristics of a father-son type relationship. In this work, althoughCharles is the better warrior than Roland, he relies o n Roland to watch the invokeguard of his army and Roland loses his keep while serving his King. Thesignificance of these inter-generational relationships allow 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 whatever literary work, it gives any story more meaning and significance.When Beowulf first arrives in Hrothgars hall, we get a sense of the obsolete andincapable state Hrothgar is in "old and gray-haired 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) Imme diatelythere is a lovesome relationship here which will develop even further. WhenBeowulf claims that he is in Heorot to cleanse the people of the monster namedGrendel who is plaguing them, Hrothgar is very delicious 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 pride that the old Hrothgar feels towards Beowulf can almost be equated to