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Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Lecture Notes Beowulf Essay

Genre A heroic folk epic grow in the oral tradition of the Anglo Saxons, Beowulf is an anonymous poem committed to written report by an unknown Christian monk in 1000 honey oil Era, some 300 years after it was first composed. The manuscript is weaken of a document known as Cotton Vitellus A housed in a British Library. Beowulf belongs to the epic genre of long, narrative poems traffic with heroic deeds against a background of war and the supernatural and themes of grandness and significance.Full of legendary myths and somber, elegiac cadences, it has been composed in the Anglo Saxon argot and can be classed amongst other owing(p) epics such as the Illiad, Odyssey, Aenied and promised land Lost to name a few. The name Beowulf is a kenning, Bee-Hunter reflecting the warrior heritage of the substitution caliber Basic Plot The poem is eponymously named for its hero Bewoulf, a great warrior and later King, who sets out to rescue King Hrothgar and his people from the monster Gre ndel. During the hang of the poem, we see Beowulf slaying first Grendel and then his revenge seeking mother.Beowulfs final conflict takes place with the Dragon angered by the swag of the treasure it is guarding. Structure of the Poem There are terzetto preponderating views as to the structure of the poem -the structure is defined by the three increasingly difficult conflicts Beowulf faces -the structure can also be viewed in terms of kingship for instance, young Beowulf and old Beowulf with a different set of problems to be faced during each phase -the structure is that of interlacing of memories with narratives of present, a orbitual process of action, memory and reflectionBackground Although the poem is rooted in the Anglo Saxon as well as early Christian traditions, it reflects cardinal distinct value systems frequently at odds with each other. For instance, in line with its Anglo-Saxon origins, the poem celebrates the Germanic heroic code, which, exemplifying the goy warr ior culture, lays stress upon family ties, genealogy, immortality through fame and revenge for wrongs done to ones kith and kin. It determine ancestral heritage and individual reputation.Christianity, on the other hand, believes in immortality in terms of the afterlife and teaches that vengeance is best left to God. Bewoulf and Grendel Bewoulf is not only if a warrior and king. He also serves as a cultural example and as an incarnation of Anglo Saxon values and beliefs. The Cain-descended Grendel, with his innate desire to part asunder whatever has integrity, represents chaos and disorder, in contrast to Bewoulf, who represents order and cosmos. Grendel is the last-ditch exile. Unferth Unferth acts as a foil to Beowulf by accentuating through contrast the character of the latter.He redeems his earlier verbal taunting (flyting) of Beowulf by offering him his brand name in a later conflict. Literary devices/techniques Litotes-understatement e. g, Cain had no pleasure from that adventure Kenning-metaphorical descriptions combining two words to offer evocative alternative to captain Caesura-a pause in the line of a poem Alliteration- In language, initial rhyme refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases.

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