From the viewpoint of dynamo theory, periodic behavior of the magnetic field is interpreted as a manifestation of the eigenmode in magnetohydrodynamic equations describing the dynamo. The alternative explanation is that we are dealing with a demonstration of different fluctuations of the dynamo control parameters rather than with a periodic process. A simplified geodynamo model is considered; it is able to reproduce a scale of inversions that is similar to the real scale and a priori does not describe excitations of a periodically varying magnetic field. The analysis shows that, according to the currently available data on the scale of geomagnetic field polarities, the presence of a eigen frequency corresponding to a period of about 50 Ma is not fixed in the geodynamo problem.