THE EPIC POEM
• It’s a long narrative poetical composition
• Epic = epos (greek) = oral exposition
• It’s an oral exposition and they were told from generation to generation because they wanted
to transmit the legendary history of their population/land/history and their main tradition values
• The most famous epic poems are Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid
• They were usually accompanied with music
• It refers to a divine element
• They spoke to the gods
• The Epic poem deals with a recollection
WHAT CHARACTERISES THE EPIC POEMS?
• They are long narrative poetical compositions
• They describe a military values and the aristocratic origin, of the society
WHAT DID THE PROTAGONISTS HAVE TO DO?
• All of the heroes are legendary heroes
• They have to achieve glory
• They have to show their strength
• Through this legendary figures the epic poems wanted to transmit the legendary history of their
population/land/history and their main tradition values
HOW IS AN EPIC POEM WRITTEN?
• The vocabulary that is used in a polemic poem is extremely rich and high
• The style is a high vocabulary, lexicon
WHICH RETORICAL ELEMENT MAINLY CHARACTERISES AN EPIC POEM?
• The alliterations. There are a lot of them in an epic poem
• The alliteration is that rhetorical figure that refers to the “object” with close lines
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BEOWULF
• It’s the oldest remaining epic poem
• It describes a warrior society, which means that the king and the warriors had a relationship of
trust
• There was no title in this poem, so they’ve called him like the main character: Beowulf
• He is the main character of this poem
• Beowulf became the name of the poem after
• He was a Scandinavian hero but we don’t know why he was a hero in this history also if it was
an Anglo Saxon poem
• We don’t really know why Beowulf was written, but most probably It was written to eulogy to a
king who died in the during the 7th century, but it was actually written in the 11th century
• In that period you were regarded as a hero if you died as a hero. What really mattered was
how, where and when you die
WHERE DOES BEOWULF TAKE PLACE?
• Beowulf takes place in different places
• The first actions of the poem take place in Denmark.
WHAT DOES IT TALK ABOUT?
• We mainly divide the plot in three parts:
1. It’s about the first fight that Beowulf fought against the monster: Brendel. Every night the
monster came to frighten people. So he killed him
2. The second part is about Brendel’s mother who wanted to take revenge of his son who had
been killed by Beowulf
3. In the third part Beowulf becomes king of the Geats, but after 50 years of peace and
prosperities, a dragon now threatens again the Geats, and he’s trying to destroy the country.
Beowulf succeeds to kill him but he dies. According to Beowulf wishes, the Geats warriors,
burnt his body on a huge pile of wood, and he also asked the people to bury him in a Barrel
that overlooked the sea. Why did he decide to be buried there? Because he wanted that all
the sailors could see his Barrel, because he was the hero of the Geats
• In the first actions Beowulf fought against a monster: Grendel. But Brendel’s mother wanted to
take revenge, so she fought against Beowulf, but he succeeded at killing her. So thanks to
Beowulf this land is again in peace.
• But after 50 years of peace and stability a new monster arrives: a Dragon. In the fight between
him and Beowulf, Beowulf kills the dragon but this time he is mortally wounded. And then he
dies
The Geats were a population that in the middle ages lived in the, now, south of Sweden.
When Beowulf died against the dragon, all the people in Beowulf’s land are desperate.
They can’t believe that their hero had just died. So they organised the hugest funeral for
their hero.
Pag. 53: “The funeral of Beowulf”. This text refers to Beowulf funeral, and it explains how
the Geats celebrate a hero’s death. In this case he was their hero and they can’t believe he
just died.
Why did Biewolf die? He died because he wanted to defende his land and his people. The
hero has saved the land of Gates.
WHAT DOES BIWOLF WANT TO TRANSMIT?
• It’s and epic poem who wants to celebrate the glorious past ofthe national history of the Anglo
Saxons, in Great Britain
• Odyssey and Iliad celebrate the Greece history, while Beowulf the Anglosaxon’s history
HOW IS IT WRITTEN?
• The vocabulary that is used in a polemic poem is extremely rich and high
• The style is a high vocabulary, lexicon