Essential Question # 3

How is Wealhtheow portrayed? What does she do? What can we expect from Anglo Saxon women?

Wealhtheow is portrayed as a hostess to the men in Heorot during feasts. She offers a cup Hrothgar, her husband, begging him to enjoy the feast, and then procedes to offer the cup to every man in Heorot. It acts as if it is her responsibility to make the feast enjoyable, and would feel shamed if any man found her to be less than satisfactory. She is described as mindful of ceremonial, which shows that she is entirely submissive to the customs of her kingdom. This would not be an odd trait, if not for the fact that as queen, Heorot is literally her kingdom. She should be the one making the customs, not acting them out. Despite being a queen, Wealhtheow behaves like a servant. Rather than living up to her title as queen, which means a woman sovereign, she lives up to her name, which means foreign slave. While she is serving the men of Heorot, she is described as "excellent in mind", showing that the standards of her time were not only that women had to serve men, but also that they had to enjoy doing so. Some might interpret her behavior as merely polite and considerate. However, she is clearly nothing more than a servant. Even though she is the one bearing the cup, not once does it touch her lips. She gives every man what their share, and chooses not to take what is left over(if there was anything). She looks like a queen and dresses like a queen, but she does not act like a queen. If this is the role of a queen in an Anglo Saxon society, one can only imagine the servitude that is expected of regular women, who were not even permitted to enter Heorot. The role we can expect an Anglo Saxon woman to play is that of a servent of no more worth to a dog. Actually, that's not technically true. After all, even dogs receive the scraps of the master's table.