English Literature - Lecture 4/ 02.11.

2021

An epic = a long narrative poem, on a grand scale, about the deeds of warriors
and heroes. It usually incorporates myth, legend, folktale and history.
Examples: Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey, Beowulf, Virgil’s Aeneid,
Milton’s Paradise Lost, etc.

Beowulf
 MS. Cotton
 Date of composition: 8th century (?)
 Language: West Saxon
 First printed: 1815
 First named: 1805 by Sharon Turner
 Time of events: 6th century and earlier
 Locations: Danish Island of Zealand/Sealand and country of the Geats
(South of Sweden)
 Setting: men are ‘beneath the heavens,’ ‘between two seas,’ on ‘middle-
earth,’ ‘surrounded by water’
 Structure: Prologue and 43 sections/cantos (3,182 lines) – 2 parts
 Characters: Beowulf, Hrothgar, Grendel, Hygelac, Wiglaf
 History: the death of Hygelac in a raid on the Franks in 521 is recorded in
Bishop Gregory of Tours’ Historia Francorum
 Myth and legend: Weland/ Wayland; Sigemund; “days of the giants”
(1559)
 Folklore: the symbolism of number three, the custom of naming swords,
death rituals
 Christianity: Old Testament
  Style:
 anticipation/ prolepsis/ flashforward (“the Shielding nation/ was
not yet familiar with feud and betrayal.” 1017-18) and analepsis/
flashbacks;
 laconic understatement and use of the negative: “Beowulf had
little cause to brag/ about his armed guard” (2873-4) , “His royal
pyre/ will melt no small amount of gold” (3010-1);
 digression, parallelism (the saga of Finn, the Frisian; the building
of Heorot and the song of Genesis; Beowulf’s victory over Grendel
and Sigemund’s victory over the dragon) and antithesis (e.g. light,
feasting, order, ceremony vs. darkness, murder, chaos, savagery);
 3rd person point of view for most of the poem, with occasional
interventions from a 1st person speaker;
 conclusions drawn by narrator: “That was one good king” (11)
about Shield Sheafson and about Beowulf (2390), “He was a
considerate man” (1812) about Beowulf;
 kennings: Heavenly Shepherd (God), monstrous hell-bride
(Grendel’s mother), gold-friend (king), the world’s candle (sun).

Ideals of the Heroic Age:

 grave courtesy in receiving and dismissing men of rank;
 generosity of rulers;
 loyalty of retainers;
 thirst for fame;
 solemn boasting before and after;
 interest in genealogies and pride in a noble heredity.