Beowulf is a heroic epic in Britain and the first important work in English literature. Written in old English, it is the earliest epic in Europe written in its own language after Greek and Roman epics.
Only 30,000 lines of all old English poems have been preserved, including heroic poems, religious poems, lyric elegies, aphorisms, riddles and incantations, among which Beowulf is the longest and most comprehensive.
Historical figures in epics, according to records, lived in the 5th and 6th centuries. This epic story takes place in what is now Denmark and southern Sweden-where the Anglo-Saxons lived at that time. These people have been emigrating to Britain since the middle of the 5th century. About the first half of the 8th century, the legend about Beowulf was written in England where they settled. The only surviving manuscript can be traced back to the end of 10. The manuscript of 173 1 was burned several lines in a fire, but it was basically intact. It was first printed and published in 18 15.
The content of this epic is partly historical and partly legendary. The characters mentioned in it, such as Roska and Hu Yelak, are all historical figures, and some episodes in the poem also mention some historical figures. The protagonist Beowulf, his deeds are basically legendary. The combination of historical factors and legendary factors reflects the life when the clan society disintegrated.
This poem reflects the frequent wars between tribes and the intensification of contradictions among kings, relatives and subjects within the clan. Beowulf is impeccable as a relative and vassal. As king, he was the guardian of the clan until he gave his life. For neighboring countries, we don't oppose each other's hostile attitude, but help them eliminate pests and diseases. For neighboring kings, we can also do our best to serve the spirit of loyalty. From all aspects, he is an ideal figure.
But on the whole, the epic still retains the characteristics of Christianity in the past, and the noble virtues such as kindness, honor, generosity and courage have been fully affirmed.
Epic has a rigorous structure and concentrated selection of materials. It begins with a funeral and ends with a funeral, in which two important events in Beowulf's life are written. There are a lot of interludes in the poem, which play the role of comparison, analogy or suggestion. For example, at the banquet, someone told an impromptu story about Sigmund's dragon-cutting, echoing Beowulf's dragon-cutting 50 years later. The singer sang the story of Finn's wife's failure to mediate the blood feud, in order to set off the failure of Hector Roska in trying to solve the blood feud with his neighbor. These episodes seem abrupt to read today, but the audience at that time were familiar with them.
Epic rhythm is leisurely and solemn, dialogue and narration alternate, sometimes mixed with poet's comments. For example, when grendel entered the Deer Hall and saw the Warriors, he was overjoyed and prepared for a hearty meal. The poet commented on the side: "But after tonight, he will never meet the luck of eating people again." The poet used this cadence rhetoric to express his satire on fate.
Beowulf, like other old English poems, uses alliteration instead of ending rhyme, that is, the consonants or vowels at the beginning of each word are the same or similar. Each line of poetry is divided into two and a half lines, each line has two stressed words, and stressed words generally have alliteration, so each line can have at most four alliterations, generally two in the first half, and more poems with one alliteration in the second half. Another feature is the use of "substitute words", such as the poem calling the sea "the whale road", the king "the man who gives the bounty ring" and the samurai "the man who holds the shield", which enhances the image of the language. The form of epic also shows the influence of Virgil's epic.