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Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts. The poem begins in medias res or simply, "in the middle of things", a characteristic of the epics of antiquity. Although the poem begins with Beowulf's arrival ...
Beowulf (/ ˈ b eɪ ə w ʊ l f /; [1] [2] Old English: Bēowulf [ˈbeːowuɫf]) is a legendary Geatish hero in the eponymous epic poem, one of the oldest surviving pieces of English literature. Etymology and origins of the character
This is a list of Beowulf characters. Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem. Its creation dates to between the 8th [1] and the 11th centuries, the only surviving manuscript dating to circa 1010. [2] At 3183 lines, it is notable for its length. It has reached national epic status in England (although its setting is Scandinavia, not the ...
Beowulf is an epic poem in Old English, telling the story of its eponymous pagan hero.He becomes King of the Geats after ridding Heorot, the hall of the Danish king Hrothgar, of the monster Grendel, [a] who was ravaging the land; he dies saving his people from a dragon.
When Beowulf damages his sword wounding the dragon and is burned by the dragon's fire, [B 5] Wiglaf is the only man of Beowulf's band to overcome his fear of the dragon. [B 6] He rebukes the other thanes [B 7] and goes to Beowulf's aid [B 8] crying words of encouragement. [B 9] Wiglaf does not retreat, though his shield is consumed by fire.
Some terms present special problems; the Beowulf poet uses at least ten synonyms for the word 'man', from wer (as in werewolf, a man-wolf) and beorn to leod and mann; Tolkien writes that in heroic verse there were over 25 terms that could at a stretch be used to mean 'man', including words like eorl (a nobleman, like 'earl'); cniht (a young man ...
Grendel flees but dies in his marsh den. There, Beowulf later engages in a fierce battle with Grendel's mother in a mere, over whom he triumphs with a sword found there. Following her death, Beowulf finds Grendel's corpse and removes his head, which he keeps as a trophy. Beowulf then returns to the surface and to his men at the "ninth hour". [4]
The longest written epic from antiquity is the ancient Indian Mahabharata (c. 3rd century BC –3rd century AD), [6] which consists of 100,000 ślokas or over 200,000 verse lines (each shloka is a couplet), as well as long prose passages, so that at ~1.8 million words it is roughly twice the length of Shahnameh, four times the length of the ...