Shows the importance of women's rituals of lament in the poem, surprisingly, around 6 lines that were damaged in fire and have missing words.

Bloom's introduction pursues the question of whether Beowulf is a Christian poem despite the absence of references to the New Testatment.

Explores the representations (in visual art and in Beowulf) of monstrous men--male monster hybrids--and their meanings.

Dockray-Miller analyzes Hrothgar's masculinity, in terms of kindship rituals, military rituals, marriage rituals, and paternity.

Disucsses rituals of the Hall--including its construction and male bonding ceremonies. Draws on historical research about surviving hall structures in England. See introduction and chapter 4.

This essay explores psychodynamics of father-son relationships in the poem. In an avant-gard approach, Earl brings his own dreams to bear on his textual analysis.

Focuses on the poem's representation of pagan rites and rituals.

Explores the subtextual homosocial relationship of Hrothgar to Beowulf.

Roles of women in rituals of gift-exchange and peace-weaving in Beowulf.

Horner examines the rituals of telling and of peace-weaving.

The introduction "Liquid Beowulf," considers how the poem's structure reflects anguish about mortality and the continual destructive march of history.

Analyzes Grendel as an object of terror.

After she examines the "masculinist" perspectives of much earlier criticism, particularly that of J. R. Tolkien, Lees goes on to argue about the significant function of the ritual of tracing patrilineal lines in the poem, considering how it highlights the power of male bonds. Her argument about patrilineal lines encompasses the monsters, too!
This essay can also be found in the volume edited by Lees, Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ages. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994 HQ1088 M45 1994

Interprets the glove, in which Grendel stashes his victims, according to medieval notions of body armor, and hybridity of Grendel's human/monstrous body.

Argues that this poem helps consolidate the notion of England by merging pagan and Christian traditions. Considers the importance of oral poetry as a ritual in the poem.

Chapter 2 "Dismemberment as Erasure: The Monstrous Body in Beowulf" argues about the centrality of Grendel's mother to the poem, and examines the male bonding that occurs in Beowulf's battle with Grendel, focusing especially on the metonymy of Grendel's hand and ont he underwater sword.

Overing looks at the interlace technique in Anglo-Saxon art and its manifestation in the objects in Beowulf--swords, shields--and in the textual construction.

In addition to arguments about male bonding and otherness, Overing offers ways of reading Wealhtheow's speeches and he figure of Modthryth.

Argues that the Beowulf poet is confronting his Christian nation with their heroic pagan past by using the literary devices of parataxis and kennings. Pays attention to a variety of pagan rituals including burial, omens, and burying treasure.

Pays attention to the dual perspectives--Christian and Pre-Christian--and to Hrothgar's ritualized sermon and the heathen idea of fate.

After Tolkien decimates the critics who have focused on philology and history and other extra-literary aspects of Beowulf, he goes on to argue for the centrality of the monster, Grendel, and issues of mortality to the poem.