An Introduction to the English Folk Epic

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An Introduction to the English Folk

During a time of Old English Warriors

Called the “Dark Ages” - - a time of Barbarians

A Story About a

DARK AGES DOES NOT MEAN NO ART

VIKINGS LOVED GOLD, JEWELRY, WEAPONS, AND RINGS

Art resulted in stories, some of which were told in manuscripts that were beautifully decorated and colored.

Many of the Many of the artworks artworks pictured in pictured in this this presentation presentation were a part were a part of a of a discovery at discovery at Sutton Hoo.Sutton Hoo.

AUTHOR/ COMPOSER

WAS A CHRISTIAN

AUTHOR/ COMPOSER

WAS A CHRISTIAN

Folk Epics are tales of a

national HERO

But What Is

Characteristics of a Pagan Hero

•Good Fighter•Loyal•Persevering (Never Gives

Up)•Wins “Fame” (in Songs in a

Mead Hall)

Pagan Characteristics, cont.

• Little Regard for Danger or Self: Brave

• Battle as a Way of Life• Personal Vengeance as Familial

Requirement• FATE: Revenge and/or Death

Characteristics of a Christian Hero

•Recognizes God as Creator

•Humility in the presence of God’s Power

•Altruism in Action

Christian Characteristics cont.

•Contrast between Good and Evil Rulers

•Personal Vengeance transmuted into Fighting Evil

•Good is Rewarded and Evil is Punished (Evil in the World)

Historical BackgroundHistorical

Background

•Part History

•Part Fiction

The PoemThe Poem

Author/ComposerAuthor/Composer• Likely an educated Christian,

possibly a monk• Wove together many oral

traditions with consummate skill• Sanitized slightly the pagan

traditions• Produced a single tale

Manuscript History

• Authored in 1,000 B. C.• Saved from looting of

monasteries under Henry VIII• Saved from fire in Sir Henry

Cotton’s Library in 1731• Danish scholar translated it in

1787; first published in 1815

Structure and Style

Style of the Folk Epic

•Lyric

•Epic

•Narrative

Characteristics of Style

•Elegiac tone•Concentration on feelings

•Extra epithets delay narration and focus the point of view

Literary DevicesLiterary Devices•Scops used harp to add beats to poetry

•Four Lifts per line; with a caesura

•Understatement

•Allusions

Literary Devices, cont.

• Exalted Vocabulary

• Ritual Objects

• Kennings: bardic formulae, used as appositives, for example, “swan-road”

This PowerPoint presentation taken in part from:

http://www.cbnosf.org/lesson_plans.htm

A presentation found on the New Orleans - Sante Fe District of the Brothers of the Christian Schols

An Introduction to the English Folk Epic

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