Beowulf’s  funeral- texture analysis

The extract deals with Beowulf’s funeral, where the Geat people show the respect they have for their leader by creating a noble funeral.

The composer uses alliteration to better convey the atmosphere of the different moments of the funeral. In the 2^nd line for example the short sounds in stacked and decked, give the reader the idea of some one who’s gathering something.

Moreover the narrator gives precise information about the warriors’ funerals in his period, describing with care every aspect of the ceremony.

The use of word’s as “Mourining”, moreover, create a sad atmosphere surrounding the action thanking to their sound.

To give relevance to Beowulf, instead, the composer underlines his uniqueness and importance: he puts him in the centre and on a higher position, using a superlative form to distinguish him from the others. The metaphor and the alliteration of sound “f” interesting the fire give the reader not only the idea of the sound but also the idea of Beowulf’s power.

The composer also uses words from the semantic field of buildings/iron to convey the strength of Beowulf’s body.

From line 12 to line 19 the composer tells about people’s feelings, highlighting their pain using short sentences made of few words with strong significance; concluding with a very strong metaphor.

In the following lines the poet tells again about Beowulf’s importance for his people, giving emphasis to what they did after his death to commemorate his figure with a metaphor, underling the size of Beowulf’s treasure.

In the last part the composer uses alliteration to highlight the importance of the people who were taking part to Beowulf’s funeral.