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Verbal Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Shepherd of Gems:
The narrator uses a metaphor that compares the ferocious dragon to a “shepherd” when describing a scene in which several of Beowulf’s men, including Wiglaf, furnish his grave with the treasures they find in the dragons’ hoard:
No lots they cast for keeping the hoard
when once the warriors saw it in hall,
altogether without a guardian,
lying there lost. And little they mourned
when they had hastily haled it out,
dear-bought treasure! The dragon they cast,
the worm, o'er the wall for the wave to take,
and surges swallowed that shepherd of gems.
Then the woven gold on a wain was laden—
countless quite!—and the king was borne, hoary
hero, to Hrones-Ness.
The men, mourning the death of their virtuous King, have no interest in keeping the “dear-bought” but rusty treasures. Instead of dividing the treasure between themselves, they decide to bury it with the King. They are much less respectful, however, to the body of the slain dragon, which they toss over the cliff to be “swallowed” by the waves below. Here, the narrator describes the dragon as a “shepherd of gems.” In this metaphor, the dragon is imagined as taking care of the hoard of treasures, just as a shepherd takes care of his flock of sheep. There is a sense of bitter irony in this metaphor, as the dragon did not protect life, as a shepherd does, but instead destroyed it.
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