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EPIC POETRY. EPIC HERO. EPIC. “ An extended narrative poem, usually simple in construction, but grand in scope, exalted in style, and heroic in theme, often giving expression to the ideals of a nation or race. ”
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EPIC POETRY EPIC HERO
EPIC • “An extended narrative poem,usually simple in construction, but grand in scope,exalted in style, and heroic in theme, often giving expression to the ideals of a nation or race. ” • Sidelight: Homer, the author of The Iliad and The Odyssey, is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Epic Poetry." Based on the conventions he established, classical epics began with an argument and an invocation to a guiding spirit, then started the narrative in medias res. In modern use, the term, "epic," is generally applied to all lengthy works on matters of great importance. The Rhapsodoi, professional reciters, memorized his work and passed it on by word of mouth as part of an oral tradition.
EPIC CHARACTERISTICS • Aristotle described six characteristics: "fable, action, characters, sentiments, diction, and meter." Since then, critics have used these criteria to describe two kinds of epics: • Serious Epic • fable and action are grave and solemn • characters are the highest • sentiments and diction preserve the sublime • verse • Comic Epic • fable and action are light and ridiculous • characters are inferior • sentiments and diction preserve the ludicrous • verse
EPIC CHARACTERISTICS • When the first novelists began writing what were later called novels, they thought they were writing "prose epics." Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, and Samuel Richardson attempted the comic form. Yet what they wrote were true novels, not epics, and there are differences. • The Epic • oral and poetic language • public and remarkable deeds • historical or legendary hero • collective enterprise • generalized setting in time and place • rigid traditional structure according to previous patterns • Comic Epic • written and referential language • private, daily experiences • humanized "ordinary" characters • individual enterprise • particularized setting in time and place • structure determined by actions of character within a moral pattern
EPIC CHARACTERISTICS • The hero is a figure of great national or even cosmic importance, usually the ideal man of his culture. He often has superhuman or divine traits. He has an imposing physical stature and is greater in all ways than the common man. • The setting is vast in scope. It covers great geographical distances, perhaps even visiting the underworld, other worlds, other times. • The action consists of deeds of valor or superhuman courage (especially in battle). • Supernatural forces interest themselves in the action and intervene at times. The intervention of the gods is called "machinery." • The style of writing is elevated, even ceremonial.
EPIC CHARACTERISTICS • Additional conventions: certainly all are not always present • Opens by stating the theme of the epic. • Writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus. The poet prays to the muses to provide him with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero. • Narrative opens in media res. This means "in the middle of things," usually with the hero at his lowest point. Earlier portions of the story appear later as flashbacks. • Catalogs and genealogies are given. These long lists of objects, places, and people place the finite action of the epic within a broader, universal context. Oftentimes, the poet is also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members. • Main characters give extended formal speeches. • Use of the epic simile. A standard simile is a comparison using "like" or "as." An epic or Homeric simile is a more involved, ornate comparison, extended in great detail. • Heavy use of repetition and stock phrases. The poet repeats passages that consist of several lines in various sections of the epic and uses Homeric epithets, short, recurrent phrases used to describe people, places, or things. Both made the poem easier to memorize.
EPIC HERO • Although length and complexity are hallmarks of the epic poem, the most important element is the hero. The hero of an epic is a human being with characteristics a society admires and often wishes to emulate. The hero is male, attractive, and unusually strong and able. He is a trained solider or warrior and believes in and follows the code of honor for which he is willing to sacrifice his life. He fights for the noble cause: those who cannot defend themselves, usually women and children; the preservation of a society; honor; and the noble way of life.
EPIC HERO • The hero is considered better in most respects than the common man. • However, the hero is also in many ways the same as the ordinary man. He has the same longings and desires as any man might have: the desire to be beloved and respected by his own people; the desire for some degree of wealth or material comfort; the desire for a family with children, especially sons like himself; the desire to stand out above his fellow human beings in some way; the desire not to being shame to himself or his family in any way. The hero also hopes that the divine will favor him and his cause.
EPIC HERO • The Epic Hero is a larger-than-life hero who embodies the values of a particular society. • An epic hero is superhuman. He is braver, stronger, smarter, and cleverer than an ordinary person • The epic hero is on a quest for something of great value to him or to his people • The villains who try to keep the hero from his quest are usually uglier, more evil, and more cunning than anyone we know in ordinary life • The epic hero is often of mixed divine and human birth and so possesses human weakness • The divine world (the gods) interferes with the human world
BEOWULF MANUSCRIPT • written in Old English sometime before the tenth century A.D., describes the adventures of a great Scandinavian warrior of the sixth century. • A rich fabric of fact and fancy, Beowulf is the oldest surviving epic in British literature. • Beowulf exists in only one manuscript. This copy survived both the wholesale destruction of religious artifacts during the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII and a disastrous fire which destroyed the library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631). • The poem still bears the scars of the fire, visible at the upper left corner of the photograph. The Beowulf manuscript is now housed in the British Library, London.
COMITATUS • Comitatus is the basic idea that everyone protects the king at all costs even if it means a warrior giving up his own life. • If a king is killed, the warriors must avenge the death of the king or they can no longer serve as warriors for the next king. It is an idea that coexists with the interlacing theme. • You will see the comitatus theme all through Beowulf and all of the Anglo-Saxon poetry. The diction (ring-giver, hearth-companion, etc) indicates the idea as well as the behavior. • Notice how there is the motif of eating, sleeping, dying all the way through the text, and all of it is done as a "team" even to the passing of the cup uniting the group of warriors. • They stayed in the meadhall while the king slept in an adjoining "apartment" so they could constantly protect him.
COMITATUS • You will even see the idea in the avenging of Grendel's death by his mother. Some of the same actions on her part are the same as the actions of the warriors. • Beowulf is also a good text to demonstrate how comitatus died with the Anglo-Saxon period. Notice how at the end of the text only Wiglaf follows Beowulf into the battle with the dragon. • When Beowulf goes into the various battles, there is a progression of the comitatus dying with the behavior of the warriors: the warriors stand on the bank waiting, the next time they are sleeping and the third time only Wiglaf goes with him.
BEOWULF • Early Germanic heroic poem • Oldest exiting poems in the English language • Old English (Anglo-Saxon) • Time – 525 AD • Author unknown • Written 8-10 Centuries
TERMS • Mead – drink similar to beer; fermenting honey, instead of grain • Scop (shop) – Tribal historian who remembered stories from the past and retold and recited them. • Thane – Warrior • Wyrd – Fate; man has a choice to act or not to act a certain way; he had to abide by the consequences of his choice
TERMS • Wergild • Payment for the murder of a kinsman • Each man had his “price,” or worth according to his station in life • Payment in place of life • Ecgtheow, Beowulf’s father, who was exiled after killing a man. Hrothgar (king of the Danes) paid his wergild
POET • Trained – used traditional poetic forms • Heroic vs religious • Run-on lines common in religious poetry • Associated with monastery • Christian tone • Missionaries to England • Pope Gregory advised missionaries to England not to obliterate the pagan beliefs at once; work through them. • Poem fuses pagan and Christian ideas
