Anglo-saxon poetry. Pagan poetry content Introduction 3

Chapter I. _ "Beowulf" - the largest monument of Anglo-Saxon epic poetry

1.1 The historical context of the creation of the poem "Beowulf"

The early medieval period of English literature refers to the 5th - 11th centuries. ad. Its beginning is associated with the invasion of Britain in the middle of the 5th century. Anglo-Saxons and Jutes - tribes of Germanic origin; the end of the period dates from 1066, when the Battle of Hastings took place, marking the beginning of the conquest of the British Isles by the Normans. Small kingdoms created by aliens (Anglo-Saxons) (Angles - Mercia and Northumbria, Saxons - Wessex, Jutes - Kent) fought among themselves for political hegemony. Shortly after the conquest, Northumbria ceded this hegemony to Mercia, and in the 9th century. - Wessex. The West Saxon dialect of Wessex became the classic dialect of Old English. Oral literature was of great importance in the early centuries of Anglo-Saxon history. In the songs and tales of the Anglo-Saxons who conquered Britain, echoes of the legends and plots that formed the content of German poetry on the continent in an earlier period were preserved for a long time. All or almost all the monuments of Anglo-Saxon poetry that have come down to us bear clear traces of processing under the influence of the Christianization of barbarian tribes, etc.²

" Beowulf " is one of the examples of the medieval heroic epic. The poem arose on the basis of ancient Germanic traditions dating back to pagan times. These legends appeared among the Germanic tribes long before the Anglo-Saxons moved to the territory of Britain. The action of the poem takes place on the shores of the Baltic Sea, its plot is borrowed from Germanic mythology. M.P. Alekseev claims that one circumstance seemed especially noteworthy to all researchers of Beowulf : Beowulf is not an Anglo-Saxon hero and the action of the poem is not confined to England; in the first part of the poem it probably takes place in Zeeland, in the second part in Jutland. Neither the Angles nor the Saxons take any part in the events depicted in the poem. This feature of the poem was interpreted differently: some attributed the addition of the epic legend about Beowulf to the time before the Anglo-Saxons moved to Britain, when, living on the continent, they were neighbors with the Danes; others, on the contrary, argued that the poem arose later, for example, during the period of Danish invasions, which brought with them northern legends new to the Anglo-Saxons and a special interest in the genealogy of Danish kings. Beowulf is not a historical person, but in the poem one can find, however, in the form of brief episodes or even just random hints, echoes of historical events, strife and battles of the North German peoples among themselves and with their South German neighbors. The historical and geographical nomenclature of the poem indicates that the legends processed in the poem could most likely have been formed in the first half of the 6th century, in the area that lay north of the continental homeland of the Angles [1, p.36]. Nevertheless, A. Anikst in his work "History of English Literature" believes that Beowulf was a historical person who lived in the VI century. The historical Beowulf participated in the struggle his uncle Hygelac fought against the Franks in 512. But nothing remained of these historical facts in the poem, except for a reference to the fact that Beowulf was Hygelak 's nephew and heir [3, p.28]. The fantastic exploits of Beowulf , however, are transferred from the surreal world of a fairy tale to historical soil and take place among the peoples of Northern Europe: Danes, Swedes, Gauts (Geats) appear in Beowulf , other tribes are mentioned, the kings who once really ruled them are named. In the guise of Beowulf , folk ideas about a hero taming the forces of nature affected. Beowulf is the embodiment of the moral ideal of the heroic personality of the early Middle Ages.
The text of the poem was written down thanks to a happy coincidence. England was Christianized (about 597) from two sides: from the north (Irish) and from the south (mission of Pope Gregory I the Great c.540 - 604 [ 15]). The southern mission came from the Catholics and would not tolerate wasting parchment on pagan verses even in a Christian setting, while Irish Christianity, on the contrary, was itself a mixture of the new faith with paganism, and Germanic customs were close to it. In print ( Wanley's catalog of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts ) it is mentioned for the first time in 1705. During the fire of the British Museum (in which the manuscript is stored) in 1731. the manuscript suffered, but by that time a transcription of the text had already been made, which is now used to restore the lost parts. It was first published by the Dane Thorkelin ( Grimur Jonsson Thorkelin ) in 1815, and the first English edition dates back to 1833 [2, p.48]
Pagan priests forbade writing poetry; their recording began to be carried out by scholar-monks after the introduction of Christianity. Along with the possible traces of oral poetic technique in Beowulf , however, we find traces of a careful, and perhaps multi-temporal, literary processing of the text to an even greater extent. This is evidenced, first of all, by the large volume of the poem (3183 verses). It has been surmised that initially both parts of it were not connected with each other; the story of the fights with Grendel and his mother is, in essence, related to the story of the fight with the dragon only by the personality of Beowulf . Nevertheless, the character of the hero, as it is presented in both parts of the poem, as well as language and metrics, indicate that even if both parts could have arisen at different times, then in any case they are not far apart chronologically.
An epic work is universal in its functions. The fantastic is not separated from the real in it. The epic contains information about gods and other supernatural beings, fascinating stories and instructive examples, aphorisms of worldly wisdom and examples of heroic behavior; its edifying function is as inalienable as its cognitive one. It covers both the tragic and the comic. At the stage when the epic arises and develops, the Germanic peoples did not have knowledge about nature and history, philosophy, fiction or theater as separate spheres of intellectual activity - the epic gave a complete and comprehensive picture of the world, explained its origin and further destinies, including the most distant future, taught to distinguish good from evil, instructed how to live and how to die. The epic contained ancient wisdom, knowledge of it was considered necessary for every member of society.
In the spirit of the theories that prevailed in science in the middle of the 19th century, some commentators of Beowulf argued that the poem arose as a result of the combination of various songs; it was customary to cut it into four parts: a duel with Grendel , a duel with his mother, Beowulf 's return to his homeland, a duel with a dragon. The point of view was expressed that the originally purely pagan poem was partially revised in the Christian spirit, as a result of which an interweaving of two worldviews arose in it. Then most researchers began to believe that the transition from oral songs to the "book epic" was not limited to their simple fixation; these scholars considered " Beowulf " as a single work, the "editor" of which, in his own way, combined and reworked the material at his disposal, setting out the traditional plots more extensively. However, it must be admitted that nothing is known about the process of becoming " Beowulf ".³
There are many folklore motifs in the epic. Skild is mentioned at the very beginning Skewang - "foundling". The boat with the baby Skild washed up on the shores of Denmark, whose people were at that time defenseless due to the absence of the king; subsequently Skild became the ruler of Denmark and founded a dynasty. After the death of Skild , they put him back on the ship and, together with the treasures, sent him back to where he came from - a purely fabulous story. The giants that Beowulf fights are akin to the giants of Scandinavian mythology, and single combat with a dragon is a common theme in fairy tale and myth, including northern myth. In his youth , Beowulf , who, having grown up, acquired the strength of thirty people, was lazy and did not differ in valor - does this not remind you of the youth of other heroes of folk tales, for example , Ilya Muromets? The arrival of the hero on his own initiative to help those in distress, his quarrel with his opponent (exchange of speeches between Beowulf and Unferth ), the test of the hero’s prowess (the story of the Beowulf and Breka swimming competition ), handing him a magical weapon (sword Hrunting ), violation of the ban by the hero ( Beowulf takes away the treasure in a duel with the dragon, not knowing that a spell weighs on the treasure), an assistant in the hero’s combat with the enemy ( Wiglaf , who came to the rescue of Beowulf at a time when he was close to death), three battles that the hero gives, moreover each subsequent one turns out to be more difficult (the battles of Beowulf with Grendel , with his mother and with the dragon), - all these are elements of a fairy tale. The epic keeps many traces of its prehistory rooted in folk art. But the tragic finale - the death of Beowulf , as well as the historical background against which his fantastic exploits unfold, distinguish the poem from a fairy tale - these are signs of a heroic epic.