Textuality » 3A Interacting
The text I'm going to analyze is an extract from the epic poem Beowulf: it is the earliest example of epic poem in English literature since it was written in Anglo-Saxon or old English. It deals with legends and deeds about the Germanic tribes that had moved to England.
In this text the speaking voice begins to present the hero of the story: Beowulf. In order to do that it uses some different categories of characterization. The first piece of information we find in the text is the social position of the hero: he is a royal vassal, a thane. From this last word the intelligent reader can understand that Anglo-Saxon society was based on a strict hierarchy because the hero's position in hierarchy is the first piece ofinformation given and it is in a strong position at the end of the line.
Another important category of characterization is the reference to hometown; we understand it because when he heard about the danger he was in Getland his hometown.
To make us understand the uniqueness of the hero, the narrator uses another category: reputation that is to say what people thinks about him. He uses sentences like "There was no one like him alive", "He was the mightiest man on Earth" "High born and powerful" when i read this part I notice that there is a climax.
From this extract the intelligent reader can understand besides the most important values of Anglo-Saxon society like generosity loyalty and solidarity: when the hero heard about the danger he leave to help king Hrothgar.
The speaking voice goes on with the description of Beowulf's skills: he is a leader, we can understand it by some different spies: as a matter of fact the narrator says that no one try to keep him from going from that sentence I understand that he was respected by the people and the elders that were at the top of Anglo-Saxon society another example is "like the leader he was". Besides he had a strategic mentality as a matter of fact is him whom select the warriors to go and help Hrotghar.
From the verb "ordered" I imagine that he was an authoritative but not an authoritarian man.
In Beowulf there are two different points of view: either a heathen poem because of the word "omen" that means they believed in the supernatural or Christian because it was written by monks and so they rendered it into a Christian way.