An Introduction to the English Folk Epic
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Transcript of An Introduction to the English Folk Epic
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An Introduction to the English
Folk Epic
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Called the “Dark Ages” - - a time of Barbarians
During a time of Old English Warriors
Where does the word “barbarian” come from? Just what WERE the Dark Ages? What made them
“dark?”
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A Story About a
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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.
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VIKINGS
INVADE
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DARK AGES DOES NOT MEAN NO ART
VIKINGS LOVED GOLD, JEWELRY, WEAPONS, AND RINGS
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Shield Clasp
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Art resulted in stories, some of which were told in manuscripts that were beautifully decorated and colored.
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Many of the artworks pictured in this presentation were a part of a discovery at Sutton Hoo, a Medieval burial ground.
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ADVENTURE
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Grendel
The monster we love to hate
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to the Rescue…
Heroes
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Author/Composer
Was aChristian
Monk?
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SONG
of PRAISE
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Folk Epics are tales of a
national HERO
But What Is
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Characteristics of a Pagan Hero
• Good Fighter• Loyal• Persevering (Never Gives Up)
• Wins “Fame” (in Songs in a Mead Hall)
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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
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Characteristics of a Christian Hero
• Recognizes God as Creator
• Humility in the presence of God’s Power
• Altruism in Action
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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)
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Historical Background
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•Part History
•Part Fiction
The Poem
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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
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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
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Structure and Style
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Macrostructure• Begins and ends with a
FUNERAL (Scyld Scefing and Beowulf)
• Arrival and Departure of a HERO
• Youthful Adventure/Kingly exploits
• Good and Evil Characters Contrasted
• Begins and ends with a FUNERAL (Scyld Scefing and Beowulf)
• Arrival and Departure of a HERO
• Youthful Adventure/Kingly exploits
• Good and Evil Characters Contrasted
Macrostructure
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Example: Death of Grendel and Aeschere
Seeming irrelevant digressions collectionsAllusive incidents and charactersSuggestive of past and futureComplexity often lost on modern reader
Example: Death of Grendel and Aeschere
Seeming irrelevant digressions/ collectionsAllusive incidents and charactersSuggestive of past and futureComplexity often lost on modern reader
MicrostructureMicrostructure
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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
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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
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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 is an allusion?
What do we mean when we say, “THAT’S an understatement!”
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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.