ENGLISH

Beowulf: The Poem and Its Tradition

By John D. Niles

Book information

Publisher
Harvard University Press
Year
1983
ISBN
0674067258, 9780674067257
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
16 MB (16873630 bytes)
Pages
VIII+310\320
Topic
Literature
Time added
2018-08-10 13:36:58

Description

Niles interprets "Beowulf" as a song performed before an audience, not as a text to be read by clerics. Showing its art to be formal, tradition-bound, and highly stylized, he maintains that much of its character derives from the oral heroic verse-making heritage of Anglo-Saxon poets. Distinguishing Beowulf from Old English poems of clearly monastic origin, Niles finds in it little evidence of Christian symbolism of Latin learning. Instead, it affirms, without irony, the value of heroic action in a world in which even heroes must die. Postulating a tenth-century date for "Beowulf", he offers an integrated view of this masterpiece as expressing a sophisticated poetic tradition of the post-Viking age.

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