Comparing Beowulf with the Green Knight
Matthew DeRosa Elias 9/26/12 Survey of English Literature Essay #1B When it comes to groundbreaking, classical literature, not many works can trump what Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight have done. Although similar through importance, readers would be hard pressed to discover any more similarities between the two. Beowulf is an epic poem from the Anglo-Saxon period, while Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a tale from the medieval period. The main characters of each novel, Beowulf and Sir Gawain, each endure personal struggles in the “problem of pride.” In completely separate fashions, both of them lust for domination (libido dominandi) throughout each of their respective stories. Beowulf, the earliest of epic heroes, was significantly known for his bravery. With his lack of fear for death, he without a doubt was known as the greatest warrior at the time. However with great skill and the constant appraisal from fellow warriors, Beowulf becomes very boastful in his continued desire for dominance. In fact, his first words of the tale were, “When I was younger, I had great triumphs. Then news of Grendel, hard to ignore, reached me at home.” Off the bat, he introduces himself as an accomplished warrior who felt it was his duty to slay the monster Grendel the minute he heard about his destruction. Beowulf revels in his decision to come over from Geatland to
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Robin Brown English 20 Michelle Karnes University of Pennsylvania King Arthur and his court were described as chivalrous, noble, courageous, and honorable. They were held to very high ideals and described almost to the height of perfection. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, we will witness this reputation they hold so dear, be challenged and diluted. Sir Gawain will act as an ambassador of this personification of excellence that we know as King Arthur and his court, and he will be put to the ultimate test, that of character. In Part I of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, we are introduced to King Arthur and his court. King Arthur is described to us as "most courteous of all" (l.26) among British Kings, which is an indication of his greatness and his court is reveled as the most courteous, courageous, and noble knights throughout Britain. The Green Knight describes them mockingly in lines 309-315: "What, is this Arthur's house," said that horseman then,/"Whose fame is so fair in far realms and wide?/Where is now your arrogance and your awesome deeds,/Your valor and your victories and your vaunting words?/Now are the revel and renown of the Round Table/Overwhelmed with a word of one man's speech,/For all cower and quake, and no cut felt!" Immediately we are alerted to the weakness of the court when the Green Knight proposes his challenge. Not one knight rises to
Discuss Homer's portrayal of women in the Odyssey. How might the language and style of the poem show the patriarchal perspective of Homer's society?
TMA 04 Discuss Homer's portrayal of women in the Odyssey. How might the language and style of the poem show the patriarchal perspective of Homer's society? In the Odyssey, Homer brings us back to the society of his times through his writings about the people, their lifestyles, perspectives and values. In the patriarchal perspective of women in Homer's society, women hold very low status in comparison to men. In fact, they are considered tokens of male power-struggles. We will study how Homer uses language and style in the portrayal of some women characters to understand what views of women are presented and how these may represent the patriarchal perspective of this male value-system society. Thus, prominent characters such as Penelope, Arete, Nausikaa and the maidservants, will be the focus of our discussion. Penelope is a woman of many virtues and through her longing for her husband and views about remarrying, she presents to us as a woman with not just beauty and intelligence, but also faithfulness and passion towards her husband. Penelope is a well-respected lady who always appears veiled and accompanied by her servants whenever she meets up with people as the use of veil in her society is a sign of her chastity and modesty (Od. 1.328-335). This explains why Homer compares her to Artemis, the goddess of chastity in the metaphor "looking like Artemis, or like golden
Cultural clashes in Gawain and the Green Knight.
Cultural clashes in Gawain and the Green Knight An understanding of the various cultural clashes operating in Gawain is useful not only to get a better impression of the poem's world, but can even work to explain some of the behaviour of the characters. The blending of the supernatural and the real allows the narrative to function at once as a piece of Arthurian romance and as a story with a definite placing in a distinct and wholly realistic setting. This allows for contrasting depictions of a courtly tradition with its Anglo Saxon ancestor, and finally of human behaviour within these systems: specifically, courtesy clashing with humanity. The arrival of the Green Knight at Camelot marks the first and most distinctive cultural clash in the poem. He is at once of this world and not of it: he is human, like the seated court, but perhaps like no other human even the heroes present have encountered before: 'þe most on þe molde on mesure hyghe' (137). Enjoying the successes of early campaigns, Arthur's court is appropriately decked in beautiful tapestries, the food is rich and succulent and the women are handsomely arrayed: When Guenore ful gay grayþed in þe myddes, Dressed on þe dere des, dubbed al aboute: Smal sendal bisides, a selure hir ouer Of tryed tolouse, of tars tapites innoghe Þat were enbrawded and beten wyth þe best gemmes (74 - 9) They therefore
Pity for the Damned. In the epic poem The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Dante experiences pity for the damned souls in hell, which defies the Christian Churchs concept of frowning upon those in purgatory. Canto XIII of The Inferno exemplifies Dante
Pity for the Damned: Dante's Quest for Personal Understanding In the epic poem The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Dante experiences pity for the damned souls in hell, which defies the Christian Church's concept of frowning upon those in purgatory. Canto XIII of The Inferno exemplifies Dante's ideas about people who commit suicide, which runs entirely contrary to the Church, who believes that those who commit suicide have dishonored God's gift of human life. Dante's defiance reflects his ability to analyze his surroundings and utilize his free will to think when released from the Church's grasp. Interestingly, he is only able to feel complete mental freedom in Hell, the place the Church disdains. Therefore, this poem is Dante criticizing society for blindly following the Church and diminishing their ability to think for themselves, and the Church for creating this type of controlling environment. Canto XIII (The Forest of Suicides) is solely dedicated to suicides, unlike any other Canto, which illustrates the significance of this point in Dante's journey to the underworld. He passes through six levels of hell before reaching the circle of violence and he has not felt this much pity since the story of Francesca. Upon entering the forest Dante questions his surroundings, an expected response of him. The entrance to the woods illustrates the pull between the imagined and
Beowulf: The Trojan Horse of Christianity.
Juan Carlos Trujillo Trujillo 1 Professor Miller English 45A 9 March 2003 Beowulf: The Trojan Horse of Christianity One of the most written about topics and still uncertain topics in Beowulf is the topic of the Pagan and Christian elements found throughout the poem. While I tend to believe in the former, one of the main questions has been, as posed by F.A. Blackburn: Does a Christian, who used old lays in his material, compose the poem? Or is it a heathen, either from old stories or from old lays, and at a later date revised by a Christian? Again, it seems to me that a Christian poet wrote Beowulf-it is too consistent to be otherwise. What the poet appears to be doing is taking familiar pagan stories (or at least stories which are pagan is style), and embedding in them Christian elements. What evidence is there that the Beowulf poet is doing what is described above? There is quite a lot of evidence. One of the most obvious features is the occasional insertion of Judeo-Christian consequences/behavior after or during pagan-like behavior. For example, when the poet describes the people's natural reaction to Grendel's attacks, he writes that "Sometimes at pagan shrines they vowed / offerings to idols, swore oaths / that the killer of souls might come to their aid / and save the
Commentary on lines 305-338 of Sir Orfeo. While at first glance the details in the medieval romance Sir Orfeo, the ballad "King Orfeo," and the Scottish poem King Orphius seem to be just a group of similar themes gained from classical and Celtic tradition
Commentary on lines 305-338 The pursuit of Heurodis to the fairy world and her successive retrieval is Orfeo's response to the fairy king's test of his political on top of his marital authority. The medieval amendment of the Orpheus myth connects matrimonial love with political power; it emphasizes the couple's unfaltering loyalty and confirms the marriage of a ruler to his land in this classical tale contained in Celtic myths. While at first glance the details in the medieval romance Sir Orfeo, the ballad "King Orfeo," and the Scottish poem King Orphius seem to be just a group of similar themes gained from classical and Celtic traditions, the renaming of Orfeo's wife in later editions of the tale focuses awareness on her position in the loss and regaining of political sovereignty. The lines that I am going to examine are 305- 338 and are just before King Orfeo goes into the fairy kingdom to reclaim his wife, as she has been took by the Fairy King. He has been living in the forest for ten years with wild beasts, as he made himself exile when he lost his wife. He has given up on himself and his looks so that another woman will not look at him because of this grief he feels. The content of this passage is that King Orfeo sees some ladies on horseback, and he recognises one of the ladies as his wife Heurodis, Heurodis recognises him also but not as he used to be, one of riches
The poem Beowulf, edited by Daniel Donoghue and translated by Seamus Heaney, is a masterful piece of poetry.
The poem Beowulf, edited by Daniel Donoghue and translated by Seamus Heaney, is a masterful piece of poetry. By looking at the roles that women played back in Anglo-Saxon times, one can get a better understanding into the function of Grendel's mother in the poem. By examining specific examples of other women in this time frame to Grendel's mother it helps to compare the differences from the expected behavior. In one of her essays, Jane Chance investigates some of the possible meanings behind the importance of Grendel's mother and her societal acceptance. Many people still debate the actual function of Grendel's mother, but in previously written words of Jane Chance some answers may be found. Jane Chance, one of the many people who have examined the poem Beowulf, wrote an essay that provided an explanation of the important role played by the women in Beowulf. She states: "The role of women in Beowulf primarily depends upon 'peace making' either biologically through her marital ties with foreign kings as a peace-pledge or mother of sons, or socially and psycho-logically as a cup passing and peace-weaving queen within a hall" (p. 156). Chance also goes on to establish how each of the women in the poem are used to prove her point about their symbolic presence. The women of pagan history, mostly notably the queen, portray a symbolic gesture of peace in the form of bringing
Beowulf - critical review
I believe Beowulf was written with an Anglo-Saxon foundation, but there was an attempt at relating Christian beliefs to the Anglo-Saxon ways. The main character of the poem, Beowulf, is portrayed as an Anglo-Saxon warrior. Beowulf's values and the way that other characters in the poem acted were also primarily Anglo-Saxon. The traditions of Beowulf's people support the Anglo-Saxons in several ways throughout the poem. On the other hand, there are many instances in the poem where it is easy to recognize the Christian themes that were included. Beowulf is a great Anglo-Saxon hero in the poem and possesses several unexplained supernatural powers. From this, you can only assume that he is above humans and "normal" people. One explanation for Beowulf's strength is that the Anglo-Saxon writer is relating Beowulf directly to the Great White Bear of the North, which is an Anglo-Saxon myth. Several details support this, including the breakdown of Beowulf's name into the root language. "Beo", meaning bee, and "-wulf" meaning enemy support this because the "enemy" of the "bee" is the bear. "Knew at once that nowhere on earth had he met a man whose hands were harder; his mind flooded with fear-but nothing could take his talons and himself from that tight hard grip."(Beowulf pp.46-47, ll. 751-755) This quote from the poem is referring to when Beowulf fought Grendel in Herot, and he holds
The Threat of Seclusion in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Robin Brown 7-23-03 Michelle Karnes English 20 The Threat of Seclusion Sir Gawain, the hero in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, has a reputation of being chivalrous, courteous, brave, and honorable in his dealings with others. This reputation serves as Gawain's identity for those around him, but more importantly, it serves as Gawain's sustenance. With all of the many life-threatening challenges in his travels to find the Green Chapel, the most threatening thing to Gawain is solitude. In solitude, there is no one to receive his chivalry or honorable actions and there is no one to admire his bravery; Gawain's reputation, the very thing that sustains him, is insignificant. Sir Gawain's knightly ways are immediately evident in Part I of the poem. His bravery and loyalty are demonstrated when he requests to take King Arthur's place for the Green Knight's challenge. This outward display of knightly values coupled with Gawain's humility possibly explains Gawain most completely. He says to Arthur and the court, "I am the weakest, well I know, and of wit feeblest And the loss of my life would be least of any; That I have you for my uncle is my only praise; My body, but for your blood, is barren of worth;" (l.354-357) Although, in accepting the challenge and outwardly appearing knightly, his words speak more to how he truly feels about himself. Gawain must always