Harry Potter and the Goblet of Beowulf: Rowling’s Beowulfian Allusions, Analogues, and InversionsAllusions, Analogues, and Inversions

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11320%2F26%3A7XP5W8I7" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11320/26:7XP5W8I7 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol43/iss2/10" target="_blank" >https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol43/iss2/10</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Beowulf: Rowling’s Beowulfian Allusions, Analogues, and InversionsAllusions, Analogues, and Inversions

Original language description

In this essay, I suggest Rowling’s Goblet of Fire literarily echoes the Old English epic poem Beowulf, while simultaneously updating the medieval epic to reflect the novel’s place within the modernized, Christian-influenced fantasy tradition. While cursory popular links have been made between the Old English epic with Rowling’s novel, this essay presents a sustained dialogue between Beowulf and Goblet of Fire. Both heroes engage in one-to-one combat (Beowulf with Grendel and Harry with Voldemort), venture into an unknown watery abyss (Beowulf diving into Grendel’s mother’s underwater cave and Harry rescuing Ron and Gabrielle from the merpeople in Hogwarts’s Lake), and fight a dragon (Beowulf’s final fight and Harry’s fight with the Hungarian Horntail). I argue Goblet of Fire, if read in parallel with Beowulf, presents us with mirrors and inversions of the Beowulfian duel sequence, highlighting thematic and characterological analogues between Harry and Beowulf. The fourth Potter novel, whether consciously or otherwise, reflects symbolic elements from the Old English epic poem, and such Beowulfian reflections allows us to further appreciate Rowling’s unique themes, of which sometimes align with and sometimes depart from the novel’s Old English predecessor. While Goblet of Fire’s instances of thematic and visual echoes from Beowulf could be read as alluding to the epic, where I discuss Old English words or passages, such connections are at the most analogues. However, Goblet of Fire reflects yet transforms elements from Beowulf within its narrative, allowing us to further appreciate Rowling’s piece as a work of mythopoetic literature.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10201 - Computer sciences, information science, bioinformathics (hardware development to be 2.2, social aspect to be 5.8)

Project

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Continuities

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Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

ISSN

0146-9339

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

43

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

8

Pages from-to

137-60

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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