| Description |
ix, 283 pages |
| Contents |
The diction of Beowulf -- Variation -- The structure and the unity of Beowulf -- Design for terror -- Setting and action -- Episodes and digressions -- Christian and pagan in Beowulf -- Anticipation, contrast, and irony -- Appendix: -- A. The varieties of poetic appellation -- B. Check-list of compounds formed on the same base-words in Beowulf and in other poems -- C. The limits of variation |
| Summary |
During the twenty years that have passed since the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's famous lecture, "Beowulf, the Monsters and the Critics," interest in Beowulf as a work of art has increased gratifyingly, and many fine papers have made distinguished contributions to our understanding of the poem as poetry and as heroic narrative. Much more, however, remains to be done. We have still no systematic and sensitive appraisal of the poem later than Walter Morris Hart's Ballad and Epic, no thorough examination of the poet's gifts and powers, of the effects for which he strove and the means he used to achieve them. More than enough remains to occupy a generation of scholars. It is my hope that this book may serve as a kind of prolegomenon to such study. It makes no claim to completeness or finality; it contributes only the convictions and impressions which have been borne in upon me in the course of forty years of study of the poem. - Preface |
| Analysis |
Beowulf |
|
Dragons in literature |
|
English language Old English, ca. 450-1100 Style |
|
Epic poetry, English (Old) History and criticism |
|
Heroes in literature |
|
Monsters in literature |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references |
| SUBJECT |
Beowulf. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79018834
|
| Subject |
English language -- Old English, ca. 450-1100 -- Style.
|
|
Dragons in literature.
|
|
Epic poetry, English (Old) -- History and criticism.
|
|
Heroes in literature.
|
|
Monsters in literature.
|
| LC no. |
58012828 |
| ISBN |
0520015126 |
|
9780520015128 |
|
