Sign Up For Anytime Events Storywalks. Support the BPL. Choose the way that works best for you from the Boston Public Library resources listed below, and celebrate National Poetry month by visiting, or revisiting, this classic work: Irish poet Seamus Heaney's lyrical and approachable translation of the epic.
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The poem is a prime example of a literary epic, focusing on the heroic quest of its title character, Beowulf, a Scandinavian warrior. Two of the most obvious characteristics of epic poetry are its length and narrative quality. Unlike lyric poems, which can be short reflections on a single object or person, epic poems are quite long -- often the length of a novel -- and they present a narrative or story that features many objects and characters.
Although Beowulf already is a well-renowned hero as the poem starts, his greatest challenges are described over the course of the poem. This is also the same difference Eventually the heroes name and greatness is known throughout the land and his reputation becomes protection against other countries. When Beowulf fought Grendel's mother, who sought revenge for her son's death, he was able to defeat her as well.
Many of his traits that constitute him as an epic hero contribute to the overall aspect of the proper epic in which this story is. Works Cited "Beowolf. New York: Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston, Home Page Beowulf as an epic. Beowulf as an epic Satisfactory Essays.
Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Beowulf Beowulf is the single greatest story of Old English literature and one of the greatest epics of all time. Ironically, no one can lay claim to being the author of this amazing example of literature. The creator of this poem was said to be alive around A.
When the first English monks heard the story, they took it upon themselves to write it down and add a bit of their own thoughts. Thus, a great epic and the beginning to English literature was born. To be considered and epic, a piece of literature must exhibit quite a few specific, literary techniques.
Some of the main criteria points include being a long, narrative poem, having an epic hero, and containing rhythm, alliteration, and imagery.
Beowulf can be considered an epic because it contains all of this criteria. Beowulf, first and foremost, is a long narrative poem. It contains 3, 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 mold were made for him. He has the strength of thirty men and uses it as a major weapon against evil. Grendel was a huge beast, a descendent of Cain, who ruthlessly murdered innocent Danes because he felt pity for himself.
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