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The idea may have struck some scops to refer to the
carrion beasts just before the actual outbreak of the battle
. . . the beasts thus being endowed with a kind of
prescience which can be compared to that of rats leaving
a vessel on the verge of sinking. (Bonjour 565)
The Beowulf poet however, goes beyond this basic symbolism, saving
that poem’s raven until the end and then using it as a larger symbol
foretelling the “bondage and death” of a people:
In Beowulf, on the other hand, the theme is never used in
connection with any of the numerous battle scenes which
come into focus throughout the poem; and when it
appears, there is only a passing reference to warfare, and
a future warfare at that, still hidden in the haze and
dream of things to come . . . This formal difference, by
itself alone, might speak in favor of a certain originality
on the part of the Beowulf scop. (Bonjour 569)
Oldham uses her raven in the Anglo-Saxon vein (as a sign indicating a
forthcoming battle sequel) and quite appropriately. The character who
describes the behavior of the raven in the story is an old Scylding servant
and seer of the king named Stuff, so it is reasonable that he would choose
a more “traditional” interpretation of the sign. It is he who warns the king
that the violence is not over simply because Beowulf has cut off
Grendel’s arm, “the signs tell of danger, my lord . . . The raven waits. It
no longer feeds upon the arm [of Grendel]. It waits for fresh carrion.
There will be a death.” Hrothgar asks whether it will be a natural death
and Stuff replies, “no, my lord. It nestles in flesh violently ripped from
the body. This death will also be violent” (127). Oldham has already
introduced the raven and wolf as carrion animals during an argument
about blood feuds so her use of the bird later as a sign of foreboding is
logically established and in line with the beliefs available to the
Scyldings in the story.
Blood spilt for blood spilt: a carcass whitening as the
blood drains from hacked limbs, stripped of its armour,
left naked for the raven and the wolf to desecrate until
only the bones lie under the sun. (57)
By giving her book the title. The Raven Waits, Oldham suggests that the
dramatic climax or center of the story is that night of fear after Grendel’s
fight with Beowulf and before the attack of Grendel’s mother.
What is often called the moral center of the poem, Hrothgar’s
long speech to Beowulf following the defeat of Grendel’s mother (lines
1700-1784), does not appear in Oldham’s novel. Some of the themes
within it (shunning and banishing) do appear near this point in the plot.