An Ecocritical Reading of a Hero: To Be Human or Not in Beowulf

In contemporary studies and literary works, ecocriticism is generally associated with present problems and conditions related to the interconnection between humans and nature. Likewise, the Middle Ages offer numerous fields for ecocriticism, such as the definition and treatment of animals, climatic disasters like the Little Ice Age, and reflections of these in literary works of the time, even beginning with the biblical narration of the Creation. Accordingly, this article aims to shed light on the relationship between humans and nonhumans in the Middle Ages through the analysis of Beowulf by foregrounding the differences between humans and nonhumans within the framework of medieval ecocriticism, which has become the centre of academic medieval studies in recent years. In Beowulf, the human and nonhuman relationship is interwoven within an ecocritical approach. However, as seen through a close reading of the text, an ecocritical reading of Beowulf is possible not due to an inherent ecocritical awareness of nature within the epic, but because humans, nonhumans, and nature cannot be evaluated independently of each other, despite the sharp line drawn between the human and the nonhuman.