HUMA 1125 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Germanic Languages, Alliteration, Antithesis
Document Summary
Beowulf is sit in a germanic world, before the arrival of christianity. Later audiences have found it a good story but for its first audiences it was a good story about their ancestors. Poem is concerned with leaders and their conduct. Language is traditional and composite rather than local: dialects mainly anglican, dialect spoken north of the river thames. The poem is complex, tragic, often reflective: scrutinizes human experience for any wisdom it might yield. Roman empire fell: partly because of the invasion of barbarian tribes around 4 ce. Two of the main tribes were: angles and saxons. By 5th century germanic tribes from northern germany came to england: consequently english is a germanic language. Treasure: when a king gives a gift to recognize the efforts of a warrior, the gift bestowed upon him signifies honour: treasure = honour. Dragon: usually reflect the negative side of humans: in germanic narratives, dragons love to horde treasure.
