For me the great strength of the poem is that it goes beyond Beowulf to link to other, more contemporary mythoi of evil. "Thug" and "thief" bring to mind every matriarch in a Mafia story or film, and "dying to pass her loss on to another" connects with the revenge elements in those stories also. The guilt that "comes in waves" connects with every newspaper story of mothers of gang members in rough neighborhoods in every city I can think of. It seems to me we miss a great deal if we read this through Beowulf exclusively.
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