Beowulf As an Epic

Beowulf As an Epic/ Importance of Beowulf/ literary qualities in Beowulf. 

            There are many characteristics of the Beowulf poem that make it a  significant part of the history of literature.  It is a perfect representation  of how the people in eighth century England communicated, what their feelings were, and their culture.  "It gives us vital information about Old English social life about Old English politics and about  many things that scholars would like to have much more information on."  In fact, it is from this poem that we derive many of the details for our reconstructions of Anglo- Saxon social life. 

                                Unfortunately, no one knows who wrote this work, but it is estimated to have been written between the 8th and probably early 11th century. , The epic poem of Beowulf did not make any significant impression until the end of the 18th century. In 1815 Beowulf was first translated from its original format into Latin, then later on into Danish, but it wasn't until 1820 that Beowulf was actually translated into the first modern language.                                                                

                From the Epic we know that the Old English epic Beowulf is the story of a young Geatish warrior who comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the King of the Danes, whose kingdom is being terrorized by a monster named Grendel. Beowulf uses his epic strength and bravery to slay Grendel in Hrothgar’s mead hall, Heorot, and then to slay Grendel’s vengeful mother in her underwater lair. Beowulf’s fame spreads, and he returns home to Geatland laden with treasure for his king, Hygelac. Beowulf later becomes the king of the Geats and rules for a peaceful fifty years. When a dragon begins to pose a threat to Geatland, Beowulf and his servant Wiglaf set off to defeat it. Beowulf succeeds in slaying the dragon, but dies in the process. 

Importance of Beowulf.   

 Beowulf   is essentially a record of heroic deeds, the concept of identity—of which the two principal components are ancestral heritage and individual reputation—is clearly central to the poem.  

       Much of Beowulf is devoted to articulating and illustrating the Germanic heroic code, which values strength, courage, and loyalty in warriors; hospitality, generosity, and political skill in kings; ceremoniousness in women; and good reputation in all people. Traditional and much respected, this code is vital to warrior societies as a means of understanding their relationships to the world and the menaces lurking beyond their boundaries. All of the characters’ moral judgments stem from the code’s mandates. Though he is Christian, he cannot (and does not seem to want to) deny the fundamental pagan values of the story. 

Beowulf is  now widely taught and is often presented as the first important work of English literature, creating the impression that Beowulf is in some way the source of the English canon. But because it was not widely read until the 1800s and not widely regarded as an important artwork until the 1900s, Beowulf has had little direct impact on the development of English poetry. In fact, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Pope, Shelley, Keats, and most other important English writers before the 1930s had little or no knowledge of the epic. It was not until the mid-to-late twentieth century that Beowulf began to influence writers, and, since then, it has had a marked impact on the work of many important novelists and poets, including W. H. Auden, Geoffrey Hill, Ted Hughes, and Seamus Heaney. 

As an epic 

Beowulf, first and foremost, is a long narrative poem. It contains 3,182 lines and has been divided into forty-three sections. It has been written in a way that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience and arranged so that the language stimulates  an emotional response, the basis of why a piece of writing would be considered a poem. 

                   Beowulf also contains an epic hero. The title of the poem has been named after our epic hero, Beowulf. In definition, an epic hero is someone that does larger than life deeds and is stronger and smarter than any normal man; and Beowulf fits this description as if the mould were made for him. He has the strength of thirty men and uses it as a major weapon against evil. This can be seen through Beowulf’s battles with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon 

. An epic is a long narrative poem, composed in an elevated style, dealing with the trials and achievements of a great hero or heroes. The epic celebrates virtues of national, military, religious, cultural, political, or historical significance. The word "epic" itself comes from the Greekepos, originally meaning "word" but later "oration" or "song." Like all art, an epic may grow out of a limited context but achieves greatness in relation to its universality. Epics typically emphasize heroic action as well as the struggle between the hero's own ethos and his human failings or mortality. 

          All of these characteristics apply to Beowulf. The hero, Beowulf, is the title character. He represents the values of the heroic age, specifically the Germanic code of comitatus — the honor system that existed in Scandinavian countries in the fifth and sixth centuries between a king, or feudal lord, and his warriors (thanes). Thanes swore devotion to their leader and vowed to fight boldly, to the death if necessary, for him. If the leader should fall, his thanes must avenge his life. For his part, the leader rewarded his thanes with treasure, protection, and land. His generosity often was considered a virtue and a mark of character. Courage, loyalty, and reputation were other virtues for these warriors, and we can look for them as themes in the poem. The code of the comitatus is at the heart of theBeowulf epic. 

           Increasingly, scholars distinguish between two types of epic. The first, the primary epic, evolves from the mores, legends, or folk tales of a people and is initially developed in an oral tradition of storytelling. Secondary epics are literary. They are written from their inception and designed to appear as whole stories. Under this definition, Beowulf is a primary epic, the best evidence being that it first existed in the oral tradition. Furthermore, Beowulf does employ digressions, long speeches, journeys and quests, various trials or tests of the hero, and even divine intervention, as do classic epics. We might call Beowulf a folk epic,  

Beowulf, however, differs from the classic epics of ancient Greece, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which were composed some 1,500 years before and set the standard for the epic tradition. It does not open with an invocation to a Muse, and it does not start in medias res ("in the middle of things"),  

     Some of the devices employed by the Beowulf poet, such as frequent digressions, may seem tedious to the modern reader. To his audience, however, the list of heroes, villains, and battles were familiar. The stories of great achievements were cherished and intended to honor Beowulf's own accomplishments. Poems like this appealed to a wide audience and constituted a form of public entertainment.  

     The language of Beowulf is cast in the Epic style.Like Iliad or Odyssey and the Ramayana and the Mahabharata Beowulf is characterised by the formality dignity,deliberate choices of speeches ,the massing of details ,the elaboration of descriptions. 

According to Stopford Brook Beowulf “ has an epic quality in this--- that the purification of the hero—the development of his character to perfectionist “ At last he dies for the sake of his subjects winning an undying fame. This is the purification of the soul and the ever – recurring theme of many a epic. 

 From start to    finish, Beowulf demands our acknowledgment that sorting out the monster from the hero and the coward is a lifetime’s struggle in the dark.  

  To conclude Beowulf is a true epic possessing as it does many epic qualities and epic contentions. 

     

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Prepared by Chandi Halder ( M.A. in English)7699243332.