|
Search over 100 encyclopedias and dictionaries: |
Research categories | Follow us on Twitter |
Research categories
View all topics in the newsView all reference sources at Encyclopedia.com |
|||
Beowulf
Beowulf. Anglo-Saxon poem. This anonymous epic of 3,182 lines is preserved in BL Cotton Vitellius A. XV, written c.1000. Provenance, date, and genesis are uncertain: Northumbria or Mercia in the 8th cent. have long been favoured, although some recent scholarship proposes Viking Age alternatives.
The principal setting is southern Scandinavia c.500, but there is also reference, direct or indirect, to Hengist, King Offa, and other figures from English history. The stately and complex narrative is composed in the alliterative metre common to most early Germanic poetry, and is enhanced by rich description, decorous speeches, and moral reflection. It surveys Danish dynastic legend before depicting three great monster fights which conform to international story-types. In the first two, the young Geat hero Beowulf frees King Hrothgar and the Danes from the predations of the evil fen-dwellers Grendel and his mother; in the last, Beowulf, now an aged king, loses his life while slaying a treasure-guarding dragon. Interlacing the main plot are quasi-historical feuds and wars which emphasize the rhythms of joy and sorrow, youth and age, life and death which permeate the poem. Beowulf is deeply concerned with the ideals and tensions of the heroic life, especially strength, wisdom, loyalty, and the quest for glory. Whether it is also a ‘mirror for princes’, Scandinavian propaganda, a Christian critique of heroism, or a Christian allegory of salvation is more contentious. D. C. Whaley |
|
|
Cite this article
JOHN CANNON. "Beowulf." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. 25 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN CANNON. "Beowulf." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. (May 25, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-Beowulf.html JOHN CANNON. "Beowulf." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Retrieved May 25, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-Beowulf.html |
|
Beowulf
Beowulf , oldest English epic, probably composed in the early 8th cent. by an Anglian bard in the vicinity of Northumbria. It survives in only one manuscript, written c.AD 1000 by two scribes and preserved in the British Library in the collection of Sir Robert Cotton. The materials for the poem are derived mainly from Scandinavian history, folk tale, and mythology. Its narrative consists of two parts: The first relates Beowulf's successful fights with the water monster Grendel and with Grendel's mother; the second narrates the hero's victory in his old age over a dragon and his subsequent death and funeral at the end of a long life of honor. These events take place entirely in Denmark and Sweden. The poem contains a remarkable fusion of pagan and Christian elements and provides a vivid picture of old Germanic life. It is written in a strongly accentual, alliterative verse. There have been some 65 translations of the work into modern English; one of the most accomplished is by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney (2000).
|
|
|
Cite this article
"Beowulf." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 25 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Beowulf." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 25, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Beowulf.html "Beowulf." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 25, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Beowulf.html |
|
Beowulf
Beowulf, an Old English poem of 3,182 lines, surviving in a 10th-cent. manuscript. It tells of two major events in the life of the Geatish hero Beowulf: the first when, in his youth, he fights and kills first Grendel, a monster who has been attacking Heorot, the hall of the Danish king Hrothgar, and then Grendel's mother who comes the next night to avenge her son; the second, 50 years later, when Beowulf, who has for a long time been king of the Geats, fights a dragon who has attacked his people, in a combat in which both Beowulf and the dragon are mortally wounded. The historical period of the poem's events can be dated in the 6th cent. from a reference to Beowulf's king Hygelac by the historian Gregory of Tours; but much of the material of the poem is legendary and paralleled in other Germanic historical-mythological literature in Norse, Old English, and German.
The poem is generally dated in the 8th cent., when England was being won over from paganism to Christianity. This date is taken to account for the strong thread of Christian commentary which runs through the poem. Beowulf, the most important poem in Old English and the first major poem in a European vernacular language, is remarkable for its sustained grandeur of tone and for the brilliance of its style. |
|
|
Cite this article
MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Beowulf." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 25 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Beowulf." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 25, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-Beowulf.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Beowulf." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 25, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-Beowulf.html |
|
Beowulf
Beowulf Anglo‐Saxon poem. This anonymous epic was written c.1000. Provenance, date, and genesis are uncertain: Northumbria or Mercia in the 8th cent. have long been favoured. The principal setting is southern Scandinavia c.500, but there is also reference to Hengist, King Offa, and other figures from English history. It surveys Danish legend before depicting three great monster fights. In the first two, the young Geat hero Beowulf frees King Hrothgar and the Danes from the predations of the evil fen‐dwellers Grendel and his mother; in the last, Beowulf, now an aged king, loses his life while slaying a treasure‐guarding dragon.
|
|
|
Cite this article
JOHN CANNON. "Beowulf." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 25 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN CANNON. "Beowulf." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 25, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-Beowulf.html JOHN CANNON. "Beowulf." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Retrieved May 25, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-Beowulf.html |
|
Beowulf
Beowulf Oldest English epic poem, dating from around the 8th century, and the most important surviving example of Anglo-Saxon verse. It tells how a young prince, Beowulf, slays the monster Grendel and his vengeful mother. Some 50 years later, Beowulf (now King of the Geats) fights and slays a fire-breathing dragon but dies from his wounds. The text, which exists in a single 10th century manuscript, was transcribed by more than one hand, and the many explicitly Christian interpretations were probably added by monks.
http://lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/AnoBeow.html |
|
|
Cite this article
"Beowulf." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 25 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Beowulf." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 25, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-Beowulf.html "Beowulf." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 25, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-Beowulf.html |
|
BEOWULF
BEOWULF. The longest of the known poems in OLD ENGLISH and the first major recorded poem in a European VERNACULAR language. Its 3,182 lines survive in one manuscript (BL Cotton Vitellius A. 15) of c.1000, which was damaged in a fire in 1731, first transcribed in 1787, and first published in 1815. The poem tells the story of its Geatish hero Beowulf in two parts: ridding the Danes of the monster Grendel and his mother, and a fatal struggle against a fire dragon after he became king of the Geats.
|
|
|
Cite this article
TOM McARTHUR. "BEOWULF." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 25 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. TOM McARTHUR. "BEOWULF." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (May 25, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-BEOWULF.html TOM McARTHUR. "BEOWULF." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Retrieved May 25, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-BEOWULF.html |
|
Beowulf
Beowulf a legendary Scandinavian hero whose exploits are celebrated in an eponymous Old English poem; in the first part, as a young warrior, he destroys the monster Grendel and Grendel's mother, and in the second part, as an old king, he kills (but is also killed by) a dragon which is ravaging his country.
|
|
|
Cite this article
ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Beowulf." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 25 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Beowulf." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 25, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Beowulf.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Beowulf." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 25, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Beowulf.html |
|
Beowulf
Beowulf
•Ralph
•elf, herself, himself, itself, myself, oneself, ourself, self, shelf, themself, thyself, yourself
•mantelshelf • bookshelf • sylph
•golf, Rolf, Wolf
•Randolph • Rudolph
•Wolfe, Woolf
•aardwolf • werewolf • Beowulf
•engulf, gulf
•Ranulf
|
|
|
Cite this article
"Beowulf." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 25 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Beowulf." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (May 25, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-Beowulf.html "Beowulf." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved May 25, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-Beowulf.html |
|
|
Search over 100 encyclopedias and dictionaries:
HighBeam™ Research, Inc. © Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
The Encyclopedia.com advertising network includes:
