One example of the use of flashback in Beowulf comes when Beowulf answers Unferth’s challenge about his swimming contest with Breca. In this part of the poem, Unferth questions the truth of Beowulf’s claims about defeating Breca, but Beowulf responds with a flashback in which he describes in some detail what the contest was like. For five nights, he says, they swam through the oceans wearing chain mail and with swords drawn to fend off whales and sea monsters. Beowulf slays nine of the monsters and claims that because of his valor, ships are no longer bothered by these creatures. Exhausted, he arrives on the coast of Finland.
The point of this flashback is twofold: to assert Beowulf’s superiority as a warrior and to challenge Unferth. Beowulf says that if Unferth had been as brave in reality as he is in his boasts, there would never have been a Grendel problem in the first place. He concludes his flashback by asserting that his purpose in coming to Heorat is to destroy Grendel and restore glory to Hrothgar—or die trying.
A flashback can be described as a past event that is inserted in literature and serves the purpose of taking the story back in time.
A challenge by Unferth on Beowulf’s ability to defeat Grendel introduces a flashback where Unferth tries to discredit Beowulf’s ability by referring to a previous swimming competition between Beowulf and Breca. According to Unferth, Breca won the competition after he emerged from the water first.
Are you that Beowulf who with Breca strove, on the open sea over a swimming match, where you two out of pride tempted the floods
However, Beowulf informs him that he had to battle sea monsters, which delayed him. Beowulf adds that he successfully defeated those beasts and managed to emerge from the water. Beowulf goes ahead to defeat Grendel, and Unferth’s doubts are laid to rest. The flashback, in this case, serves to build the audiences’ perception of Beowulf as a valiant warrior.
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