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These were memorised phrases that conveyed a general and commonly-occurring meaning that fitted neatly into a half-line of the chanted poem. Examples are line 8's weox under wolcnum ("waxed under welkin", i.e. "he grew up under the heavens"), line 11's gomban gyldan ("pay tribute"), line 13's geong in geardum ("young in the yards", i.e. "young ...
The habit is so well known that examples are superfluous". [37] Raymond Wilson Chambers, in his Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn, says that Beowulf ' s dragon acts like "the typical dragon of Old English proverbial lore" because he guards treasure. [38] W. P.
The essays are: "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" looks at the critics' understanding of Beowulf, and proposes instead a fresh take on the poem. "On Translating Beowulf " looks at the difficulties in translating the poem from Old English. "On Fairy-Stories", the 1939 Andrew Lang lecture at St Andrew's University, is a defence of the ...
Tolkien ends the essay with an analysis of lines 210–228 of Beowulf, providing the original text, marked up with stresses and his metrical patterns for each half-line, as well as a literal translation with poetical words underlined. He notes that there are three words for boat and for wave, five for men, four for sea: in each case some are ...
The commentary, occupying over 200 pages, provides a detailed picture of how he saw Beowulf, sometimes taking several pages for a short passage of the poem, and giving his interpretation of difficult words or allusions by the poet. The commentary formed the basis of Tolkien's acclaimed 1936 lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics". [1] [2]
Even though the poem is a mere nineteen lines there are many differing interpretations, not least because the poem contains several obscure words and some ambiguous grammar. [13] One interpreter considers that the word Eadwacer in the poem is not a proper noun, but a simple common noun which means "property watcher". [ 14 ]
Beowulf replies haughtily to Hunferth" (1910) by John Henry F. Bacon. In the Old English epic poem Beowulf, Unferth or Hunferth is a thegn (a retainer, servant) of the Danish lord Hrothgar. He appears five times in the poem — four times by the name 'Hunferð' (at lines 499, 530, 1165 and 1488) and once by the appellation "the son of Eclafes ...
Ælfhere – a kinsman of Wiglaf and Beowulf. Æschere – Hroðgar's closest counselor and comrade, killed by Grendel's mother. Banstan – the father of Breca. Beow or Beowulf – an early Danish king and the son of Scyld, but not the same character as the hero of the poem; Beowulf – son of Ecgtheow, and the eponymous hero of the Anglo ...