DRUŠTVENA ULOGA ŽENA U EPU BEOWULF
THE SOCIAL ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE EPIC POEM BEOWULF

Summary/Abstract: Beowulf, an epic poem by an unknown author, written down around the year 1000, marks the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon literature. It has been analysed in many academic texts, so the paper The Social Role of Women in the Epic Poem Beowulf relies on works that have dealt with the issues of the position and role of women in this epic poem. The paper examines how the social role of the female characters influences their identity. To achieve this, the paper first offers a brief overview of the position of women in the Middle Ages. After that, it analyses the characters of Wealhtheow, Hygd, Hildeburh, Fraewaru, Modthryth and Grendel’s mother to show how the identities of female characters depend on the roles of wife and mother as well as that the women cannot exist outside of those roles. The paper concludes that women who refuse to accept the ascribed roles necessarily become marginalized, reformed or expelled from the society

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