Why Is Beowulf A Celebration Epic?

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Why is Beowulf a celebration epic?

Introduction

About the Poem

The poem "Beowulf" is known from a single manuscript, whose due date is around 1000 AD C. Kiernan, said that this manuscript is a copy made by the very author of the poem during the reign of Canute II of Denmark. In the Beowulf codex that survives to this day, there are also other poetical pieces and excerpts from The Life of Saint Christopher, the letters of Alexander to Aristotle and Wonders of the East, and paraphrases of the biblical Judith. It has been dated between 1628 and 1650 the earliest foliation Nowell Codex, which was conducted by Franciscus Junius. The owner of the codex before Nowell--is still unknown. Thomas Smith and Humfrey Wanley assumed responsibility for cataloging the Cotton Library, which was the Nowell Codex. Smith's catalog appeared in 1969, and the Wanley in 1705. The manuscript of Beowulf is first mentioned in 1700 in the correspondence that said George Hickes, Wanley and his assistant chief. In the letter, Hickes responds in relation to an alleged charge against Smith, accused by Wanley to have overlooked the poem to make the catalog of Cotton Vitellius A. XV. Hickes wrote to his superior that has not yet been able to find the preceding Beowulf.

Beowulf is an anonymous Anglo-Saxon epic poem that was written in Old English alliterative verse. It has 3182 verses, and ,therefore, contains much more text than any similar work in their own language, representing about 10% of the existing corpus Saxon verse. Both the author and the date of composition of the poem is unknown, although scholarly discussions repeatedly proposed dates ranging from eighth to the twelfth century AD C. The work are preserved in the codex or Cotton Vitellius A. Nowel XV and given the fame of the poem, although it coexists with other works in the same manuscript, this has been called "Beowulf manuscript." Although the poem is untitled in the manuscript, has been called Beowulf since the early nineteenth century and is preserved in the British Library. It has two main parts: the first occurs in youth. Great hero, in some translations, "Goth" which gives its name to the poem, and tells how to come on to help the Danes or Jutes, who was attacked by an ogre -Grendel-giant, and after killing it, confronts his spiteful mother in the second part, Beowulf and the king of the Greats and fight to death with a fierce dragon. Its importance as an epic is comparable to that of Saxon Nibelungenlied, the Song of the Cid Spanish, French Song of Roland or Erin Gabala Labor, Book of Conquests of Ireland. There is still an academic debate over whether Beowulf is a celebration or an elegy. We can see that Beowulf, for better or for worse, is a story of men, told by men, about men and celebrating manly virtues. Even before the encounter with Grendel, for example, we empty string heroes in jars of beer and swapping stories of violent egotistical victories ...
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