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An Introduction to the English Folk Epic

Beowulf. An Introduction to the English Folk Epic. During a time of Old English Warriors . Called the “Dark Ages” - - a time of Barbarians. Where does the word “barbarian” come from? Just what WERE the Dark Ages? What made them “dark?” . A Story About a. DRAGON. 445-1485 A.D.

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An Introduction to the English Folk Epic

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  1. Beowulf An Introduction to the English Folk Epic

  2. During a time of Old English Warriors Called the “Dark Ages” - - a time of Barbarians • Where does the word “barbarian” come from? • Just what WERE the Dark Ages? What made them “dark?”

  3. A Story About a DRAGON

  4. 445-1485 A.D. The helmet has become a symbol of the Sutton Hoo burial; it survived as a mass of small pieces, and was only reconstructed after years of painstaking work in the British Museum Laboratory.

  5. VIKINGS INVADE

  6. Beowulf

  7. DARK AGES DOES NOT MEAN NO ART VIKINGS LOVED GOLD, JEWELRY, WEAPONS, AND RINGS

  8. Shield Clasp

  9. Art resulted in stories, some of which were told in manuscripts that were beautifully decorated and colored.

  10. Many of the artworks pictured in this presentation were a part of a discovery at Sutton Hoo, a Medieval burial ground.

  11. ADVENTURE Story Of:

  12. Grendel The monster we love to hate

  13. Heroes to the Rescue…

  14. Author/ Composer Was a Christian Monk?

  15. SONG of PRAISE

  16. Folk Epics are tales of a national HERO But What Is HEROIC?

  17. Characteristics of a Pagan Hero • Good Fighter • Loyal • Persevering (Never Gives Up) • Wins “Fame” (in Songs in a Mead Hall)

  18. Pagan Characteristics, cont. • Little Regard for Danger or Self: Brave • Battle as a Way of Life • Personal Vengeance as Familial Requirement • FATE: Revenge and/or Death

  19. Characteristics of a Christian Hero • RecognizesGod as Creator • Humility in the presence of God’s Power • Altruism in Action

  20. Christian Characteristics cont. • Contrast between Good and Evil Rulers • Personal Vengeance transmuted into Fighting Evil • Good is Rewarded and Evil is Punished (Evil in the World)

  21. Beowulf Historical Background

  22. Part History Part Fiction Beowulf The Poem

  23. Author/Composer • Likely an educated Christian, possibly a monk • Wove together many oral traditions with consummate skill • Slightly sanitized the pagan traditions • Produced a single tale

  24. Manuscript History • Authored in 1,000 B. C. • Saved from looting of monasteries under Henry VIII • Saved from fire in Sir Henry Cotton’s Library in 1731 • Danish scholar translated it in 1787; first published in 1815

  25. Beowulf Structure and Style

  26. Macrostructure Macrostructure • Begins and ends with a FUNERAL (ScyldScefing and Beowulf) • Arrival and Departure of a HERO • Youthful Adventure/Kingly exploits • Good and Evil Characters Contrasted • Begins and ends with a FUNERAL (ScyldScefing and Beowulf) • Arrival and Departure of a HERO • Youthful Adventure/Kingly exploits • Good and Evil Characters Contrasted

  27. Microstructure Microstructure • Example: Death of Grendel and Aeschere • Seeming irrelevant digressions collections • Allusive incidents and characters • Suggestive of past and future • Complexity often lost on modern reader • Example: Death of Grendel and Aeschere • Seeming irrelevant digressions/ collections • Allusive incidents and characters • Suggestive of past and future • Complexity often lost on modern reader

  28. Style of the Folk Epic • Lyric • Epic • Narrative A poem, such as a sonnet or an ode, that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. A lyric poem may resemble a song in form or style. A long, serious poem that tells the story of a heroic figure. Two of the most famous epic poems are the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer

  29. Characteristics of Style • Elegiac tone • Concentration on feelings • Extra epithets delay narration and focus the point of view A poem that laments the death of a person, or one that is simply sad and thoughtful. Like “Richard the Lion-hearted” for Richard I

  30. Literary Devices • Scops used harp to add beats to poetry • Four Lifts per line; with a caesura • Understatement/Litotes • Allusions A natural pause or break in a line of poetry, usually near the middle of the line. There is a caesura right after the question mark in the first line of this sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” What do we mean when we say, “THAT’S an understatement!” What is an allusion?

  31. Literary Devices, cont. • Exalted Vocabulary • Ritual Objects • Kennings: bardic formulae, used as appositives, for example, “swan-road” A phrase used instead of the simple name of a thing, characteristic of Old Teutonic, and esp. Old Norse, poetry. Examples are oar-steed = ship, storm of swords = battle.

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