An analysis of norse mythology in beowulf by an anonymous anglo saxon poet

But it is important to distinguish between mythology, which is religious and social belief rendered in stories, and the literary form those stories take.

But it is important to distinguish between mythology, which is religious and social belief rendered in stories, and the literary form those stories take. Literature is often a late product of civilizations. It occurs when there is enough leisure to record and invent tales, and enough literacy to appreciate the records.

Because it usually occurs late in a culture, mythological writing sometimes takes place as a culture is disintegrating.

When root values are endangered people take care to preserve them in stories. Mythological literature may be seen in part as an embalming of a culture, the point where a living faith is becoming a historical curiosity. This is not always true of course the Bible being a notable exceptionbut it holds often enough in the mythologies recounted here.

In Egyptian myth there is a bewildering profusion of gods and sacred names. The pyramid texts refer to several myths without telling them in their entirety.

We must rely on a foreigner, Plutarch, the late Greek historian, for a complete account of the Isis and Osiris myth. This tale points to a static, worshipful culture, one founded on moral struggle, death, and an afterlife to come. The principal Babylonian mythological works are the Epic of Creation and the Gilgamesh Epic, which reveal a rather coarsely masculine culture, sensual and proud, yet with a deep pessimism in the face of death.

Indian mythology is vast, scattered through many literary works: They show a culture evolving from a primitive worship of nature and earthly power to metaphysical speculation and a realization of saintly principles. In its literary manifestations Classical mythology covers over a thousand years of writing.

It starts with Homer, who lived about B. Moreover, it includes two very distinct cultures, the Greek and the Roman.

According to Arthurian legends, at what age did Arthur become King of Britain?

Greek mythology is colorful, individualistic, amazingly diversified, and rationalistic. It displays a culture where personal honor is paramount and in which conflict is always present. Homer is both ebullient and stark in the way he depicts war. He delights in his senses, in courage and prowess, but he also shows the horrors of death.

He is casual toward the gods, admiring their might but laughing at their human antics. Opposed to him is the early poet Hesiod, fierce, pious, a bit naive, but full of powerful conviction in the gods. The Homeric Hymns, recorded from B. Pindar, a lyrical poet of the late sixth century B.The poet links Beowulf with the the legendary hero Sigemund, from a series of tales from the Old Norse Volsunga Saga that an Anglo-Saxon audience would know.

The effect is to build on an existing narrative and perhaps foreshadow coming events in Beowulf. In the novel, Beowulf, there are many connections that can be made to Norse mythology. From the way that they buried their dead to their views on heroism, and their thoughts on war and violence, Beowulf is a good representation of historical Norse mythology.

Summary and Analysis: Norse Mythology; The Norse Gods — Odin, Thor, Balder, Frey, Freya, and Loki B.C. to about B.C., were poems in praise of various gods that told of their various exploits.

Pindar, a lyrical poet of the late sixth gloomy culture in which one's pleasures were few but very intense. The Anglo-Saxon epic of. Norse Mythology; The Norse Gods — Odin, Thor, Balder, and the epic stories of Beowulf, the Volsungs, and Sigurd Beowulf's Dragon is a research planning and media essay well-known dragon from Norse Mythology from an analysis of the norse mythology in the epic beowulf.

The anonymous Anglo-Saxon (old word for English) poet who put Beowulf onto paper was a Christian, but writes of an older time when Christianity was weak or even unknown (story probably set about A.D.

in Scandinavia). He enters with astonishing empathic powers into the life of the Anglo-Saxon world. Perhaps his biggest contribution, though, is to use his own experience as a creative writer, and particularly as a creative writer in the same epic and fairy-tale modes, to understand what the Beowulf poet was up to.