An Introduction to the English

Folk Epic

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?”

A Story About a

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.

VIKINGS

INVADE

DARK AGES DOES NOT MEAN NO ART

VIKINGS LOVED GOLD, JEWELRY, WEAPONS, AND RINGS

Shield Clasp

Art resulted in stories, some of which were told in manuscripts that were beautifully decorated and colored.

Many of the artworks pictured in this presentation were a part of a discovery at Sutton Hoo, a Medieval burial ground.

ADVENTURE

Grendel

The monster we love to hate

to the Rescue…

Heroes

Author/Composer

Was aChristian

Monk?

SONG

of PRAISE

Folk Epics are tales of a

national HERO

But What Is

Characteristics of a Pagan Hero

• Good Fighter• Loyal• Persevering (Never Gives Up)

• Wins “Fame” (in Songs in a Mead Hall)

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

Characteristics of a Christian Hero

• Recognizes God as Creator

• Humility in the presence of God’s Power

• Altruism in Action

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)

Historical Background

•Part History

•Part Fiction

The Poem

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

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

Structure and Style

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

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

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

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

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!”

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.