FOLKLORE. BEOWULF- THE FIRST EPIC POEM Lecture 2 С. А. Трякина, учитель английского языка ГОУ СОШ 1232, г. Москва

During the period from the 6 th to the 3d century BC Celtic tribes invaded Britain. Celtic tribes The Picts (penetrated to the mountains in the North) The Scots (went to the North of Great Britain and crossed over to Ireland) The Britons ( held most of the country)

About 3,000 years BC the British Isles were inhabited by the Iberians. We do not know much about them as history was not written at that time.

During the period from the 6 th to the 3d century BC Celtic tribes invaded Britain. Celtic tribes The Picts (penetrated to the mountains in the North) The Scots (went to the North of Great Britain and crossed over to Ireland) The Britons ( held most of the country)

In the 4 th century the Germanic tribes of the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes came to the British Isles.

The people who inhabited the British Isles could not yet write. Writing came much later, together with Christianity. But these people were gifted and talented both in handicrafts and in verbal art.

FOLKLORE From time immemorial people composed songs, legends, fairy tales and riddles. They passed them on from generation to generation by word of mouth. In this way they reflected their joys and fears, their wisdom and history.

As folk poems and legends existed in the oral form and had to be remembered, there had to be some devices in a folklore text which would serve as aids to memory. These could be rhymes, repetitions of sounds, rhythmical pattern.

BEOWULF Beowulf is the oldest known English epic poem, the foundation-stone of all British poetry. We would like to know but probably we would never discover the exact answers to the questions: Who wrote it? When? Where?

Scholars came to the conclusion that perhaps Beowulf was composed during the 7 th or the 8 th century. The author of the poem drew his story from old pagan legends brought over from the continent. The scene is set among the Geats (the Jutes) who lived on the southern coast of Scandinavia, and their neighbours across the strait, the Danes.

The character of Beowulf is a combination of features of a nephew of the king of Jutes and of various mythical heroes

The theme of the poem is the story of a great leader who saves or tries to save people in danger. Beowulf who is a strong and fearless advocate of freedom and justice, expresses the Anglo- Saxon ideals of personal conduct.

The characters of villains who are opposed to Beowulf are: the fire-drake or dragon, the cannibal – ogre Grendel and his mother- a water-witch. The dragon Grendel The water-witch

The tone of the poem is dark, melancholy and austere. In simple, direct and majestic verse an exciting story of adventure and heroism is told.

Beowulf comes victor of all the battles he has to fight, and his victory over the monsters symbolizes the triumph of Man over powers of darkness, evil and death.

Источники: Волосова Т.Д., Геккер М.Ю. English Literature ч.1,изд-во «Просвещение», М г. Кукурян И.Л. An Outline of English Literature, изд-во МГУ, М г. Иллюстрации: