HALLOWEEN

October 31st is Halloween. This festivity has Celtic origins: the Celts believed that summer ended on October 31st.

The Celts believed that ghosts and witches returned on that night and that evil spirits entered the body of a person or animal. This is why they used to wear frightening costumes and make big fires to send the spirits away.

Later, Christian pratices replaced pagan ones; the Roman Catholic Church decided to call November 1st "All Hallows Day" or "All Saints Day" and the evening of October 31st became "All Hollows Eve" - that is, Halloween.

Nowadays at Halloween children and teenagers wear skeleton, witch, ghost and monster costumes for parties. They visit their neighbours' houses and, when the door opens, they say "Trick or treat?" and people usually give them sweets or money.

This custom originated in the 9th century in Ireland, where on November 2nd - All Souls Day - Christians used to walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes", made of bread with currants. The more "soul akes" the beggars received, the more prayers they promised to say for dead relatives.

The custom of buying a big pumpkin and making a lantern comes from Irish folklore. Irish people put lit, hollowed-out turnips in front of their windows and in their garden to frighten evil spirits away.

THE CELTS

During the Iron Age (ca 600 BC-50 AD) a Celtic culture established itself throughout the British Isles.

The Celts were tribes of warriors who shared a similar language, religion and culture. The Romans, who fought against them, reported about their culture but presented them as barbarians.

The Celts gradually settled in Britain between 500 and 100 BC. 

They brought ironworking to the British Isles, which had amazing effects. It affected trade and helped develop local independence because iron was quite cheap and easily available.

We don't know if the hill fort (a small ditch and bank surrounding a hilltop) were built by the Celts as they moved into hostile territory or by the native Britons to defend themself. 

The basic unit of Celtic life was the clan, which was like today's extended family. Clans joined together with other clans to form tribes, each with its own social structure and customs.

The Celts live in huts made of timber with thatched roofs. 

 

The Celts practised agricolture when they were not fighting in wars. They introduced the iron plough, which made the cultivation of the soil easier. In the countryside in Britain it is still possible to see the long and narrow pattern  of the Celtic field.

Women were almost equal to men. They could choose the man they wanted to marry and retained their own property. They could also lead other warriors in war, like Boadicea - a warrior queen of the early Britons who fought against the Romans.

The Celts relied on the oral transmission of culture, especially through bards. Much of what we know of their traditions comes to us today through the old tales and poems that were handed down for generations before being written down.

They warshipped the natural elements, like the sun, the moon and water. They held their religious rites in the woods and near the sacred water of wells and springs.

BEOWULF'S DEATH AND FUNERAL

Beowulf must confront Grendel's mighty mother and kills her. After many years, he becomes king and he prepares a battle with what appears to be a new offspring of Grendel's mother. Beowulf stabs the dragon in the chest but he is mortally wounded.

The Geat people built a pyre for Beowulf, hung with helmets, heavy war-shields and shining armour, just as he ordered. Then his warriors laid him in the middle of it.

On a height they kindled the hugest of all funeral fires; flames wrought havoc in the hot bone-house, burning it to the core. They wew disconsolate and wailed aloud for their lord's decease.

Then the Geat people began to construct a mound on a headland, a marker that sailors could see from far away, and in ten days they had done the work: it was their hero's memorial. What remained from the fire they housed inside it and they buried torques in the barrow, and jewels and a trove.

Then twelve warriors rode around the tomb, all of them distraught, chanting in dirges Mourning his loss as a man and a king. 

GRENDEL

Grendel is the first monster that appear. His physical appearance is left to the reader's imagination. He is a descendant of Cain, the first murdered of the Old Testament of the Bible. He is described as a being "of the night": wherever he moves he is surrounded by darkness. 

He is bloodthirsty and keeps the Danish kingdom of King Hrothgar under siege for tewlve years, killing both warriors and civilians.

Grendel's mother has no name, but looks a bit like a woman. She lives with her son in a supernatural lake filled with sea-dragons, and the poison in her blood dissolves any sword used against her.

BEOWULF

Beowulf is the oldest surviving Anglo-Saxon epic poem. It is thought to have been composed by a single Christian author for a Christian audience in Northumbria (Anglo-Saxon England) any time from the 8th to the 11th century. 

In this poem warrior tribes fought against one another, when all that really mattered was not if  you died, but how and when. 

In a Danish kingdom, Beowulf confronts a monster that has been terrorising the king and his men for twelve years. Later, Beowulf dives into a misty lake and fights the monster's mother.

Fifty years later, an elderly Beowulf confronts a dragon terrorising the land of the Geats in Sweden.

Superhuman powers are attributed to him; he kills monsters which luve underwater and underground, which can fly and which breathe fire. Beowulf represents goodness, while the three monsters that he kills stand for evil.