BEOWULF

WHAT IS BEOWULF?

Beowulf is the earliest reamining example of epic poetry. It was writtens sometime during the 7th century in Anglo-Saxon or Old English.

WHAT IS AN EPIC POEM?

Epic poetry is a form of poetry that dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period.

It was born as an oral form of poetry that was handed down from generation to generation.

It tells about the deeds of one nation’s hero and the values of a nation.

SUMMARY

Beowuf tells the deeds of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero, that went to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Geats, to face and kill two two supenatural creatures.

These two creatures had attacked the king’s hall one night and they had laughtered his thanes.

Back home, the country was attacked by a dragon that he won but he is also mortally wounded.

In Beowulf the verse is typical of traditional oral poetry: there are frequent uses of poetic devices as repetitions, fixed phrases and alliterations.

They had to aid scops’ memory, in fact, their use gave scops time to think about the next lines.

The metre is based on a pattern of stressed and alliterated words.

BEOWULF’S DESCRIPTION

Reading an extract from the poem where Beowulf is described, you can identify the categories used by the narrator to create the characterization of the hero.

HIERARCHY - HOMETOWN

The first piece of information gave by the narrator is about the hierarchy; in fact, Anglo-Saxon society was based on it.

He is a thane, a royal vassal of some importance.

The second information is Beowulf’s hometown, the narrator informs the reader he lives “over in Geatland”, in an higher place than the country attacked by the monster.

REPUTATION After the first and the second pieces of

information, the narrator adds some adjectives to draw Beowulf’s personality.

“There was no one else like him alive, he was the mightest man on earth, high-born and powerful ”

From this description the reader can understand that Beowulf was really an hero: he can do what common people cannot do, he’s powerful and he comes from a very important family.

The narrator says also that “no elder denied him, dear as he was to them” and “the leader he was.”.

Old people respected him, so he had a good reputation; moreover the narrator underlines Beowulf’s leadership.