Hero vs. Monsters

• Meet the Hero – Beowulf

• He will encounter 3 monsters– Grendel– Grendel’s Mother– Dragon

Beowulf

• Composed in Old English

• First significant piece of English literature

• Long narrative poem @ 3200 lines

• An Epic

• Beowulf is an Epic hero

Anglo-Saxon Literature

• Told by a story teller called a scop

• Performed with a string instrument musical background

• Anglo-Saxon Historical Past

• Opening lines in Old English

• The Battle

Epic Definition

• An extended narrative poem recounting actions, travels, adventures, and heroic episodes and written in a high style.

Characteristics of an Epic

• The main character or protagonist is heroically larger than life, often the source and subject of legend or a national hero

• The deeds of the hero are presented without favoritism, revealing his failings as well as his virtues

Characteristics cont.

• The action, often in battle, reveals the more-than-human strength of the heroes as they engage in acts of heroism and courage

• The setting covers several nations, the whole world, or even universe

Characteristics cont.

• The episodes, even though they may be fictional, provide an explanation for some of the circumstances or events in the history of a nation or people

• The gods and lesser divinities play an active role in the outcome of actions

Characteristics cont.

• All of the various adventures form an organic whole, where each event relates in some way to the central theme.

Typical in epics a set of conventions

• Poem begins with a statement of the theme

• Invocation to the muse or other deity

• Story begins in the middle of things

• Catalogs participants on each side, ships, sacrifices, weapons

Conventions

• Histories and descriptions of significant items (who made a sword or shield, how it was decorated, who owned it from generation to generation)

• Use of patronymics (calling son by father’s name)

Conventions

• Long, formal speeches by important characters

• Journey to the underworld

• Use of the number three (attempts are made three times, etc)

• Previous episodes in the story are later recounted.

Examples

• Homer, Iliad

• Homer, Odyssey

• Virgil, Aeneid

• Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered

• Milton, Paradise Lost

Beowulf

• Oral story

• Passed down from generation to generation before being written down

• Written down by an unknown poet

• From Northumbria possibly a monk

Only known Manuscript

• Found 18th century• Dates to @ 1000AD• Part of Codex - containing 4 other volumes

– The Passion of St. Christopher– The Wonders of the East– Alexander’s Letter to Aristotle– Judith (a fragment)

Only known Manuscript• Burned and stained

• Survived Henry VIII’s destruction of the monasteries

200 years earlier