Beowulf through a feminist lens

It is commonplace to think that great epics, or the monomyth hold the important values in a culture or society.  But back when Beowulf was written, women were certainly not as valued as they are today. Was it because they were weaker than men? Whatever it was one question remains. What would Beowulf be like if told from a feminist perspective? This is a largely speculative and ambiguous question, but Beowulf from a feminist perspective would not be a Monomyth, and might portray the Woman as weak.

The Monomyth is a story that transcended cultures and peoples that were so inexplicably different, except in the story, or the myth that they all had a variation of. The monomyth usually embodies the views of a society, and since most of the strong characters are men, they must've put men on a pedastal, apogee, apotheosis. So women probably were'nt viewed favorably, so if the protagonist in beowulf was a woman, she probably wouldn't be a hero, A hero has to take risks, That is the defintion of a hero. But a woman character, or even a real life woman back in the day, would probalby be reluctant to take risks. So in this aspect, it wouldn't be a monomyth. Next, look at Grendels Mother. She does not represent the view that women are all evil and cruel, but the subtlety that she was not even given a name sheds light to the fact that women were viewed as unimportant. 

Also, a feminist view on Beowulf might portray her as weak. We live in a culture now that is virtually free of sexism for most of us, most of the time. But that is way different than back in the day. As was stated before, the lack of a name for Grendels Mother, along with the lack of a strong female character goes back to the presumption that women were not viewed with importance. 

So I think that culturally, feminine beowulf was just impossible. It would be like our box office hit being a patriotic terrorist. Now that is more of a hyperbole than what I intend, but what I do intend is that the culture doesn't even allow for either. Beowulf was a story that needed to be masculine, but I don't think theres anything wrong with that.