1. What genres do the following texts belong to?
Voluspa, Volsunga Saga, Beowulf, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Give some examples from these texts that support your identification (for example: "Voluspa is an example of the _____ genre, as the following references to gods from the poem illustrate: "Hear my words / you holy gods' (l.1) "By Odin's Will I'll speak the ancient lore" (l.3), etc).
2. What are some possible features of residual (or "secondary") orality preserved in Voluspa, according to the criteria Ong (1982) advances?
3. Identify a central incident that happens in at least four of the above texts, and discuss how it is both similar and different in each example (remember to site from the original texts).
4. How did Tolkien draw on the Old Norse and Old English texts in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels? Provide some concrete examples.
5. Discuss how Tolkien's use of "tradition" (e.g. older literary sources) differs from the techniques and agendas of modernism (see Week 7 in your Reader).
6. What place do the old myths have in the modern world?
7. How does the film Beowulf and Grendel "problematise" the hero-myth of Beowulf ?
8. Discuss what you think any of these texts desire (in the sense of their intention, how they wish to be received, what pleasures they offer).
Okay, I'm going to try answering Question 6:
ReplyDelete6. What place do the old myths have in the modern world?
To put it simply, the old myths are being used in many interesting ways, most of which are utilised in popular culture and cinema.
To lengthen this out a bit more, we'll concentrate on Volsunga Saga, for a few objects and people of note shown in it are prevalent in popular culture.
Right at the start of the Volsunga Saga extract (L1-5), we can see Sigurd and Regin "...ride up the heath along that same way wherein Fafnir was wont to creep when he fared to the water..."
Fafnir, one of three brothers, was "a dwarf who was gifted with a very powerful arm and a fearless soul" (Haimerl, E., Sigurd—ein Held des Mittelalter.). Fafnir is referenced in Lord of the Rings as Gollum/Smaug: Gollum because of his dwarfish nature, and Smaug because of his fearless soul and his gold hoarding.
Sigurd (also known as Siegfried (German) or Sivard (Scandinavian)) is the hero of the Volsunga Saga, even though he's only there for half of the story. His place in the modern world is, quite simply, as a hero in many different genres and contexts. Sigurd (as Siegfried) is very prevalent in modern video games, where they use both his name AND his weapon Gram (also known as Balmung), or at least references to them.
So through the glorification, exaggeration and change of this one myth, many different adaptations of the characters and objects arose. These changes allow storytellers and other such artists to weave their take on the tale, or to simply take the characters and change them to suit their own needs.
(Sorry if this is too long, I'll try and shorten it next time D: )
I'm going to do Question 4. How did Tolkien draw on the Old Norse and Old English texts in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels?
ReplyDeleteThere are many ways Tolkien drew from Old Norse and Old English texts, I'm am going to focus on the similarly between Beowulf and my favourite character from The Hobbit, Beorn.
Beorn is introduced in The Hobbit in Chapter VII Queer Lodgings; in which he is at his home, he allows Bilbo, Gandalf and the Dwarves to stay as long as they don't go out at night. Beorn is a 'skin-changer' which allows him to turn into a bear. During the day this is a choice but at night he turns into a bear.
Throughout the book you discover the similarly between Beorn and Beowulf, they both have pride in their strength, a code of honour and gracious hospitality. Both men also have a wrath to be feared in battle.
'In all things but the difference of scale between epic and fairy-tale realms-Beorn is Beowulf' (Day, 2003 p.149).
Beorn means 'man' in Old English, in Norse it means 'Bear'. Beowulf on the other hand's name in Old English is 'Bee-wolf' meaning wolf that hunts bees 'Bear'. In this word play Tolkien reveals his theory of Beowulf's origins as one in the bear cult of the Teutonic people. The rituals of the bear cult caused the 'holy battle rage'. Those who had the 'holy battle rage' were known as 'Berserkers', they went into battle only wearing animal skins and tore their enemies apart with their bare hands.
Day, D (2003). The world of Tolkien. London: Octopus Punishing Group Limited.
I have to say that this pretty much sums up Tolkien's idea of Beorn being Beowulf. Do you also think that Gollum could be a possible candidate for Grendel? It doesn't seem as obvious at first, but if looking very closely at both Grendel and Gollum, they:
ReplyDelete- have better than average strength for how they're described (Gollum's case is the ring)
- are twisted, corrupted beings
- are descended from humanity (“Many doomed beings were descended from Cain, including the detestable outcast Grendel” / "The wizard Gandalf surmises that Gollum is of a line of Hobbits called the Stoors")
Even though this is very little information for (and about) them both, it does help in gaining more of an understanding into how well Tolkien drew upon Beowulf as inspiration for The Hobbit.
Info obtained from:
http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/papers/Ancalagon/TolkienandBeowulf.htm
Yes I do agree with you, Gollum and Grendel is another good example of Tolkien drew from old texts. A few other examples are the dragons in The Hobbit and Beowulf. In the stories both dragons are guarding treasure in their lair, and when robbed they both seek vengeance on a nearby town.
DeleteTolkien also got the names for Gandalf and the dwarves(Kili, Fili, Thror and Thorinn etc) in The Hobbit from the Voluspa. Though he changed the spelling of some names.
Question 7: How does the film 'Beowulf and Grendel' "problmeatise" the hero-myth of Beowulf?
ReplyDeleteIf by "problematise" you mean to say that the filmmakers confused Beowulf's traits and made him too "soft", I agree.
The classic myth of 'Beowulf' is, in short, a story of a warrior who returns to his homeland to protect the villagers and royalty from a "troll" who is seeking revenge after the death of his father. Beowulf, as a warrior, is supposedly strong and lacks certain empathy- he is a killer, a guardian, and a defender. In the written tale, more recently translated by S. Heaney, the defeat of Grendel isn't really looked into too deeply. In our critical readers, we are only given excerpts of the myth, but what is given shows that Beowulf is a strong character. In the movie we watched during class time, 'Beowulf and Grendel', directed by Sturla Gunnarsson in 2005, Beowulf's character is softer than expected of a warrior. While he has knowledge of weaponry, fighting, battle, and injury, he also falls in love with a woman in the village and at the end of the movie, is compassionate towards Grendel's- the troll's- son.
I feel that the movie portrayed Beowulf as a lover, not a fighter, in that he had an underlying compassion for the troll and his family.
Hi Grace,
DeleteI would agree with how you have portrayed Beowulf as not the traditional warrior. Based on what I have seen of Beowulf and Grendel my opinion of the hero-myth being problmeatised is that it seems almost a switch of roles of hero and villian. The traditional hero being Beowulf is somewhat taken over by making the underdog Grendel seen as more a hero (in a lighter sence). We see at the start that Grendel's father was killed in front of his eyes and can simphasis with his anger and his love of his father (maybe not cutting his head off to keep mind you). We see Grendel as more an emotional person than ever and want no wrong to happen to him due to his naiveity from no education. So when Grendel does get killed it is a sad ending as we feel sorry for him. And as Beowulf was the one who killed Grendel it makes him seem like a bit of a jerk for someone who is meant to be caring for Grendal's family.
I'm going to try tackle question 2: Possible features of residual (or secondary) orality preserved in Voluspa according to the criteria Ong (1982) advances.
ReplyDeleteOng (1982) describes secondary orality as speech that depends on prior knowledge and or functioning of written language and print.In comparison to primary, which reflects people who have not come into any contact of writing or print. In Voluspa it is quite difficult to acknowledge secondary as it is obviously set closely to the worlds creation, especially when referring to paragraph six ''they named night and nights children, gave names to morning and night, afternoon and evening, ordered time by years''. Automatically, the poem creates images of a completely untouched world, therefore it is hard to assume or discover that the characters knew any written language.
Although, there seems to be an 'ancient' world. ''I'll speak the ancient lore, the oldest of all that I remember''. Yet 'Voluspa' does not suggest of any written language, everything is spoken out right and taken action physically or orally.
The three maidens ''...established laws, decided the lives men were to lead...'' which hinders towards rules that must have been recorded for all to see and know of.
Overall, there was not an overwhelming amount of secondary orality found in Voluspa, or maybe I'm doing this all wrong?
3. Identify a central incident that happens in at least four of the above texts, and discuss how it is both similar and different in each example (remember to site from the original texts).
ReplyDeleteThe central incident or the similarity I have read in all five texts in the idea of gold and treasure. It is described as holy and needed to be protected which is usually by a mythical dragon. There are also the similarities of gold being connected to the sun and with nature (rivers, streams).
In the Hobbit “Then suddenly a great light appeared in the low place in the hills and the northern end of the lake turned golden. "The King beneath the Mountain!" they shouted. "His wealth is like the Sun, his silver like a fountain, his rivers golden run! The river is running gold from the Mountain!" (p.234).
In Beowulf “No man appeared in that desert waste, but he worked himself up by imagining battle; then back in he'd go in search of the cup, only to discover signs that someone had stumbled upon the golden treasures” (p. 5).
In Lord of the Rings “About its feet there flowed, as a thread of silver, the stream that issued from the dale; upon its brow they caught, still far away, a glint in the rising sun, a glimmer of gold” (p.13).
In Volsunga Saga ʺin angry wise dost thou take my speech; but hearken, for that same gold which I have owned shall be thy bane too” (p.10).
And in Voluspa “She sees a hall, fairer than the sun, thatched with gold; it stands at Gimle. There shall deserving people dwell to the end of time and enjoy their happiness”(p.3).
Therefore when you look at each of these texts we see how gold can be used as a symbol of the importance of beliefs wither it be mythical or religious during the period the texts are set in. In relation to central incidents in Beowulf and the Hobbit the central incident is the killing of the dragon which was protecting the gold and treasure.