Poem of Beowulf

theme: Artistic feature of the poem "Poem of Beowulf."
Content

 

Introduction

Chapter I of . "Beowulf" - the largest monument of Anglo-Saxon epic poetry

1.1 The historical context of the creation of the poem "Beowulf"

1.2 Artistic features of the poem

Chapter I of I of . Good and Evil in the poem "Beowulf"

2.1 Confrontation between Good and Evil in the poem

2.2 The concept of good in the poem

2.3 Ideas of evil in the poem

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

 

The perception of " good " and " evil " reflects not only the moral and ethical aspects of a person's life , but testifies to a certain transformation of social consciousness that occurs in the process of historical and cultural interaction, as a result of a collision with various factors ( from political, external and internal to cultural ).

As a result , the study of the perception of these philosophical categories in different historical epochs is one of the leading historical problems .

A reflection of the perception of " good " and " evil " is represented, first of all, in the literary works of mankind, is , and is the main source in the studies devoted to the study of various aspects of life of , or other people in different historical epochs .

In the period studied in this course work, the IX - X centuries . represented by a literary genre that reflects all the diversity of reality, a heroic epic, one of the brightest monuments of which is the Anglo-Saxon epic " Beowulf " ( 10th century ).

The relevance of this work lies in the lack of study of the moral values ​​of the Anglo-Saxons regarding the study of other spheres of life of the Scandinavian peoples .

The aim of the course work is to study the concepts of " good " and " evil " among the Anglo-Saxons on the basis of the database contained in the epic " Beowulf " .

Based on the purpose of the work, the author has identified the following tasks that will highlight the topic in the most complete way :

1. 
                 Characterization and analysis of the main source of this topic, which is the Anglo-Saxon epos " Beowulf " , the ratio in its Christian and Pagan elements ;
   
2. 
                 Characteristics of the notions of " good " and " evil " among the Anglo-Saxons in the early Middle Ages, on the example of the text of this poem .
   

The subject of study is the Scandinavian epic " Beowulf " . The subject of study is good and evil, ideas about them among the Anglo-Saxons .

In the process of writing this term paper , the following sources and literature were used . The main source has become, like already has been mentioned earlier, the Anglo-Saxon heroic epic " Beowulf " , written in X in ., In translation in . Tikhomirov, A . Korsun, Yu . Korneev, as well as notes about . Smirnitskaya, M . Steblin-Kamensky and introductory article A . Gurevich to him . Also I want to mention the work of E .A. Melnikova " Sword and Lyre . Anglo - Saxon Society in History and Epic " .

The authors, who have studied this subject, researchers, to which addressed the author of this work in the course of her writing, E .A. Melnikova, A . Gurevich . But apart from that of medieval Anglo-Saxon literature, written and Alekseev Mikhail Pavlovich ( 1896 - 1981 ) - Russian literary-comparativist, scholar and lexicographer, a specialist in the field of foreign literatures ( English, French, German, Spanish ).

Chapter I of . " Beowulf " - the largest monument of Anglo-Saxon epic poetry

 

1 .1 Historical context of the creation of the poem " Beowulf "

 

The early medieval period of English literature dates back to the 5th - 11th centuries . our era . Its beginning is related to the invasion on the territory of the UK in the middle of V in . Anglo-Saxons and Jutes - tribes of Germanic origin ; the end of the period dates back to 1066 , when the Battle of Hastings took place , which marked the beginning of the Norman conquest of the British Isles . Small kingdoms created by aliens ( Anglo-Saxons ) ( Angles - Mercia and Northumbria, Saxons - Wessex, Utami - Kent ) fought among themselves for political hegemony . This hegemony shortly after the conquest of Northumbria ceded to Mercia, and in the IX century . - Wessex . West Saxon dialect of Wessex became the classic dialect of Old English language . Great importance in the early century of Anglo-Saxon history was oral literature . The songs and tales of the Anglo-Saxons who conquered Britain for a long time retained echoes of legends and plots that made up the content of German poetry on the continent in an earlier period . All or almost all of the monuments of Anglo-Saxon poetry that have come down to us bear distinct traces of processing under the influence of the Christianization of barbarian tribes , etc.

" Beowulf " is one of the samples of the medieval heroic epic . The poem arose on the basis of ancient Germanic traditions dating back to pagan times . These legends have appeared in the media of the German tribes long before the relocation of the Anglo-Saxons on the territory of Great Britain . The poem takes place on the shores of the Baltic Sea, its plot is borrowed from Germanic mythology . M n. Alekseev says that all the researchers ' Beowulf ' is particularly notable thought one thing : Beowulf - not Anglo-Saxon hero and the action of the poem is not confined to England ; in the first part of the poem , it happens, probably in Zealand, in the second - in Jutland . Neither the Angles, or the Saxons did not take any participation in the events depicted in the poem . This feature of the poem was interpreted differently : some attributed the addition of the epic legend of Beowulf to the time before the migration of the Anglo-Saxons to Britain, when, living on the continent, they coexisted with the Danes ; others, on the contrary, argued that the poem arose later, for example, during the period of the Danish invasions, which brought with them northern legends new for the Anglo-Saxons and a special interest in the genealogy of Danish kings . Beowulf is not a historical person , but in the poem you can find, however, in the form of brief episodes or even just random allusions, echoes of historical events, strife and battles of the North German peoples among themselves and with their South German neighbors . Historical and geographic range poem points to the fact that processed in poem legends, most likely, could arise in the first half of VI in ., In the region lying to the north of the continental homeland tribe Angles [ 1, with .3 6 ]. Topics not less, A . Anikst in his work " History of English Literature " believes that Beowulf was a historical person who lived in the VI century¹ . The historic Beowulf participated in the struggle that his uncle Higelak waged against the Franks in 512 . But from these historical facts in the poem is not left nothing except the reference to the fact that Beowulf was the nephew and heir Higelaka [ 3 , with .2 8 ]. Fantastic exploits of Beowulf moved, however, from the surreal world tales on historic soil and place among the nations of Northern Europe : in " Beowulf " featured the Danes, Swedes, Gautam ( ifstream ), mentions other tribes, called the kings who once did they ruled . In the appearance of Beowulf, folk ideas about a hero who tame the forces of nature were reflected . Beowulf is the embodiment of the moral ideal of the heroic personality of the early Middle Ages .

The text of the poem was written thanks to a happy coincidence of circumstances . England Christianize ( about 597g ) with two sides : from the north ( Irish ) and a south ( mission Pope Gregory I Great approx .5 40 - 604 gg [. 15 ]) . South Mission came from the Catholics and not suffered to waste parchment on pagan poetry even in a Christian frame, and Irish Christianity in front of itself constitute a mixture of the new faith to the pagans, and the German customs were close to him . In print ( Wanle y's Catalog of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts ), she was first mentioned in 1705 . When fire British Museum ( in which is stored the manuscript ) in 1731g . manuscript has suffered, but to that time had already been made a transcription of the text, that is , and is now used for the recovery of the lost parts . First published its Dane Torkelin ( Grimur Jonsson Thorkelin ) at 1815 ., And the first English edition relates to 1833 g of . [ 2 , p . 4 8 ]

Pagan priests were forbidden to write poetic works ; their recording began to be carried out by scholarly monks after the introduction of Christianity . Along with possible traces of oral poetic art in " Beowulf " We, however, in still greater degree meet traces thorough, and can be Nonequal literary treatment of the text . This is evidenced, first of all, by the large volume of the poem ( 3183 verses ). Expressed guesses that initially both its parts do not have associated each with the other ; the story of the battles with Grendel and his mother, in essence, is connected with the story of the battle with the dragon only by the personality of Beowulf . Topics not less, the character of the hero, how it is presented in both parts of the poem, as both language and metric testify about the fact that if even the two parts and can occur at different times, then in any case, chronologically they are not far separated one from the other .

An epic work is universal in its functions . The fantastic is not separated from the real in it . The epic contains information about gods and other supernatural beings, fascinating stories and instructive examples, aphorisms of worldly wisdom and examples of heroic behavior ; Cautionary feature it as the inseparable, how and informative . It covers both the tragic and the comic . At one stage, when there is , and develops the epic, from the German peoples do not exist in an isolated spheres of intellectual activity of knowledge about the nature and history, philosophy, art literature , or theater - the epic gave a complete and comprehensive picture of the world, explaining its origin and future destiny, including and most distant future, he taught to distinguish good from evil, instructed in how how to live and how to die . Epos could accommodate in itself ancient wisdom, the knowledge of it was considered necessary for each member of the society .

In the spirit of the theories prevailing in science in the middle of the XIX century, some interpreters of the " Beowulf " argued that the poem appeared in the result of unification of different songs ; it was customary to cut it into four parts : a duel with Grendel, a duel with his mother, Beowulf's return to his homeland, a duel with a dragon . It expressed a point of view that the original purely pagan poem was partly redesigned in the Christian spirit, as a result of which in her and came interlocking of two worldviews . Then the majority of researchers began to believe that the transition from oral songs to " book epic " was not limited to their simple fixation ; these scholars viewed " Beowulf " as a single work, the " editor " of which combined and reworked the material at his disposal in his own way , presenting traditional plots in more lengthy terms . It is necessary, however, to admit that a process of becoming " Beowulf " nothing is not known² . [ 1, p. 2 5 ]

There are many folk motives in the epic . At the very beginning Skild Skewang is mentioned - " foundling " . The boat with the baby Skild washed up on the shores of Denmark, whose people were at that time defenseless due to the absence of the king ; subsequently Skild became the ruler of Denmark and founded a dynasty . After Skilda's death , they put him back on the ship and, together with the treasures, sent him back to where he came from - a purely fabulous plot . Giants, with whom fighting Beowulf, akin to the giants of Norse mythology, and combat with the dragon - a common theme of fairy tale and myth, in fact including and north . In his youth Beowulf, who, having grown up, acquired the force of thirty people, was lazy and did not differ prowess - not reminiscent whether it is youth of other heroes of folk tales, such as Ilya Muromets ? The arrival of the hero on his own initiative to help those in distress, his squabble with his opponent ( exchange of speeches between Beowulf and Unfert ), the test of hero's valor (the story of the competition in the voyage of Beowulf and Breka ), handing him a magic weapon ( sword Hrunting ), violation of the ban by the hero ( Beowulf takes away the treasure in a duel with a dragon, not knowing that a spell gravitates over the treasure ), an assistant in a single combat between the hero and the enemy ( Wiglaf, who came to the rescue of Beowulf at the moment when he was close to death ), three fights that the hero gives , and each subsequent one turns out to be more difficult (the battles of Beowulf with Grendel, with his mother and with the dragon ) - all these are elements of a fairy tale . The epic keeps many traces of its prehistory, rooted in folk art . But a tragic fi - nal - death of Beowulf, the same as the and the historical background on which deployed his fantastic feats distinguish the poem from tales - it is the signs of the heroic epic . [ 7 , p. 2 31 ]

 

1.2 Artistic features of the poem

 

In the hands of a Christian scribe poem, of course, it has undergone very significant changes ( were thrown out the names of pagan gods and too obvious traces of Germanic mythology and introduced elements of Christian ideas ). For example, he (the " author " ) considers Grendel to be a descendant of Cain, calls sea monsters a devil , etc. Most of the inserts are borrowed from the Old Testament (the names of Abel, Cain, Noah, mentions of the flood - all this directly goes back to the biblical book of Genesis, which attracted the attention of Anglo-Saxon Christian poets and put them into verses ). As for Grendel, the poet recalls the giants, clearly mixing the Christian tradition of Satan with the ancient myths of the Titans who rebelled against the Olympians . Christian influence is felt, however, not only in these interpolations, which clearly contradict the pre-Christian basis of the poem ; it extends much further, affecting the development of the plot and even the characterization of the hero . Christian elements penetrated the structure of the poem deeper than it seems at first glance ; Beowulf himself has been transformed into a kind of Christian ascetic . The last episode of the poem - the description of the death of the hero - is distinguished by very characteristic contradictions - traces of literary processing in the Christian spirit of a pre- existing tradition .

What it has come down to us edition of the poem of Beowulf belongs to the Anglo-Saxon scribe VIII of - the IX century ., It is clear at last , and from the poetic art of the poem . All the surviving works of Anglo-Saxon poetry written, so -called ancient German alliterative verse, is used not only in the Anglo-Saxon, but also and in Old High , and Old Norse poetry in the period between the VIII and XIII centuries . Alliterative verse was characteristic both oral Germanic heroic epic, so and monuments of writing . Especially for a long time this form was maintained in Iceland, then both at the continental Germanic peoples already in the early Middle Ages, it is replaced by a verse from the final rhyme . Old Germanic versification was based on rhythm, determined by the number of stressed syllables in a line of poetry . Alliteration is the consonance of the initial sounds of words that were under semantic stress and repeated with a certain regularity in two adjacent lines of a verse, which , due to this, turned out to be connected . Alliteration is audible and significant in Germanic verse, since the stress in Germanic languages mainly falls on the first syllable of a word, which is at the same time its root . It is therefore understandable that the reproduction of this form of versification in the Russian translation is almost impossible . The main organizing principle of this metric system is the division of each line of poetry into two hemistichs, in which there are two main rhythmic stresses ; in this case, the consonants that stood before one or both of the main stresses of the first hemistich must be repeated (i.e., alliterated ) before the initial stress of the second hemistich . Alliterative verse ( pure tonic verse Saxon, Old High and staroislandskoy poetry ( VIII - XIIIcc ). Increasingly likely verse of two hemistichs by two stress in each, the two words of the first and one of the words of the second hemistichs connected alliteration initial sounds . A similar organization alliterative verse races voluminous in Turkic languages³ [ 9 , with .1 89 ].

The poetry of " Beowulf " is very skillful and is distinguished by strict consistency ; with her bound and other characteristic features of the style of the poem : stringing synonyms and frequent use of metaphors . The abundance of metaphors is, generally speaking, one of the features of Anglo-Saxon poetry and brings it closer to Scandinavian poetry . Very difficult it is to pass and this feature Scandinavian and Old English verse, so -called kenning ( literally - " designation " ) - a poetic paraphrase, substituting one noun normal speech two or several words . Kennings were used to designate the concepts most significant for heroic poetry : " leader " , " warrior " , " sword " , " shield " , " battle " , " ship " , " gold " , " woman " , " raven " , and for each of these concepts existed for several or even on mnogu kennings . Instead, in order to say " Prince " , in poetry used the expression " the giver of the Rings " , common kenning soldier was " Ash battles " , a sword called the " stick of battle " and etc. In " Beowulf " kennings usually binomial, in skaldic same poetry meet and polynomial kennings . So, the poet prefers to say "the tree of joy " instead of " harp " , " son of the hammer " instead of " sword " , " road of the whale " or " swan's way " instead of " sea " , " battle lindens " instead of " shields " , " forge of wars " instead of " warriors " , etc. Some metaphors are distinguished by a special sophistication and even a peculiar mannerism, which, however, was especially appreciated . In this sense, a stylistic technique " Beowulf " is designed brilliantly . [ 13 ]

" Beowulf " has attracted to itself wide attention not only scientists, but and poets . Modern English poetry has changed many times : the most interesting experiments of this kind are considered to be the poetic translations of William Morris ( 1895 ) and Archibald Strong ( 1925 )⁴. Many times retell it also for children and young people ( special spread in England and America received prose retelling of the poem, made by writer, Russian by origin ,

3. A. Ragozina in 1898 g of . and survived a number of editions ) . Botkin first translated "Beowulf" in the French language ( 1877 ). At the present time there is a Russian translation of the poem, made in . Tikhomirov in the book : Beowulf . Elder Edda . Song of the Nibelungs, Moscow, 1975 . In this work we used the first translation of " Beowulf " in the Russian language ( Translation from the Old in . Tikhomirov ). About " Beowulf " is written so immensely much that every line in it can become an occasion for versatile discussion .

Integrity of life coverage meets and integrity displayed in the epic characters . The heroes of the epic are cut from one piece, each personifies some quality that determines in its essence . Beowulf is the ideal of a courageous and decisive warrior, unchanging in loyalty and friendship, a generous and merciful king . The epic hero is not tormented by doubts and hesitations, his character is revealed in his actions ; speech it so as unambiguous as the and actions . This monolithic character of the epic hero is explained by the fact that he knows his fate, takes it for granted and inevitable, and boldly goes to meet it . The epic hero is not free in his decisions, in the choice of the line of behavior . Actually, his inner essence and the force that the heroic epic calls Fate coincide, are identical . Therefore, the hero remains only in the best way to valiantly fulfill his destiny . Hence - a kind, may be on a different taste a little primitive, the grandeur of the epic heroes . [ 12 ]

When all the differences in content, tone, still like and in the conditions and the time of their occurrence, the epic poem does not have an author . The point is not in the fact that the name of the author is unknown ( in science is not just made - always unconvincing - attempts to establish the authors Eddic songs or " Song of the Nibelungs " ), - the anonymity of the epic works of principle : a person who combined, expanded and reworked who was in their possession poetic material is not aware of himself in as the authors wrote their works . This, of course, does not mean that the concept of authorship did not exist at all in that era . Known names of many Icelandic scalds, who stated about his " copyright right " to the executable of songs . And those are not , however, a poetic work of traditional epic storyline of heroic songs and legends, which are in a early form were all familiar, in the Middle Ages is not evaluated as a work of any company, nor by the poet to create this kind of work, but not to think this about whether to mention her .

Drawing from a common poetic Fund, the composer of the epic poem concentrated the attention on selected them heroes and the plot, pushing on the periphery of the narrative , many others related to this story tradition . Like that, like the beam floodlight illuminates a separate piece of terrain, leaving in darkness most of its part, so , and the author of the epic poem ( author at the specified Now sense that the poet, devoid of copyright consciousness ), developing his theme, limited hints at its branches , being confident in the fact that his audience has known all of the events and characters, how to chant them so , and those who only casually he mentioned . Legends and myths German peoples found only partial embodiment in them Epic poems, preserved in a written form, - the rest or missing, or can be recovered only indirectly through . In " Beowulf " in abundance scattered cursory guidance on the kings, their wars and dissensions, in the mythological characters and legends . Laconic allusions was quite enough for the fact that in the minds of listeners or readers of the heroic epos any relevant association . The epic usually does not convey anything completely new . The strength of his aesthetic and emotional impact of the order does not belittled, - on the contrary, in the archaic and in medieval society, the greatest satisfaction afforded, presumably, non-receipt of the original information, or not only her, but and the recognition of previously known, a new proof of the old and therefore especially valued truths . [ 3 , p . 3 8 ]

The epic poet, processing is not he belonged to the material, the heroic song, myth, legend, legend, widely using traditional expressions, stable comparisons and formulas figurative clichés borrowed from oral folk creativity, not able to consider itself an independent creator, how on the matter nor was his contribution to the final creation of the heroic epic is great . This dialectical combination of new and perceived by predecessors constantly generates in modern literary controversy : science tends then to emphasizing folk foundations of the epic, is in favor of individual creative start in his creation . The Beowulf MS was written down circa 1000CE by two scribes in late West Saxon (the literary and posh dialect of the period). The first scribe, who writes in an Anglo-Saxon rounded insular minuscule hand with some carolignian features, copied the first three prose pieces of the Nowell Codex and a little over the first 85 pages of Beowulf (up to the word moste on line 1942 in this edition, on folio 172v). The second scribe, who writes a more conservative Anglo-Saxon square minuscule hand, copied the remainder of Beowulf (roughly 1238 lines) and the poem Judith which follows. Both scribes proof-read their writing, and the second scribe also proof-read the writing of the first scribe (see Kiernan for further details), as well as possibly making some later alterations to Beowulf (see II. below). There are currently 116 leaves in the Nowell Codex, Beowulf filling 70 of them.

The beginning of St. Christopher was already lost when Nowell put his name on the first leaf (and probably the bulk of Judith as well). Nowell probably preserved the manuscript after King Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries after the break with Rome. Its history prior to coming into Nowell's possession remains a blank.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Nowell Codex passed into the library of Sir Robert Cotton [1571-1631], an antiquarian; whence its British Library designation, for Cotton catalogued his books according to busts of the Roman emperors that surmounted each of his bookcases, and in the case of the codex in question, it was presided over by Vitellius. The Cotton collection was presented to the British people in 1700 by Sir John Cotton, grandson of Sir Robert. A committee of the House of Commons became trustees of the bequest and appointed Humfrey Wanley as one of the members of a commission to report on the state of the library. Wanley reported that the location of the library, in the Cotton House, was unfit and eventually, in 1722, the collection was moved to Essex House, Strand and there it remained for seven years. Though an Act of Parliament (6 Anne, c. 30) had endorsed the construction of a new building to house the collection in 1706, the Cotton Library still had no permanent home. So in 1729, after Essex House was deemed unfit, it was moved to another interim residence: the Ashburnham House in Westminster. The ill-omened name did not fail to disappoint, and in October 1731, the house caught fire. Much of the library was damaged and some volumes completely destroyed--damage resulted not only from the flames themselves, but also from the water used to extinguish the fire; the Beowulf MS was presumably saved by being thrown from the window, though it is badly burnt along its outer edges (see Syd Allan's Ashburnham House Fire page and Andrew Prescott's online article '"Their Present Miserable State of Cremation": the Restoration of the Cotton Library' for more details on the fire). The collection finally made its way in 1757 into the care of the British Museum, where it was finally provided a much-needed rebinding in August 1845, as well as having its leaves inlaid within heavy sheets of paper--the latter of which, for the most part, halted the loss of letters and words from the crumbling edges of the MS, which had previously suffered this sort of damage continually from the late 1700s until 1845.

It is unclear exactly when Beowulf began to be studied in post-Saxon times. Nowell and Cotton may or may not have paid it any attention. The first modern reference to the poem is a brief description by Humfrey Wanley (see above) who mistakenly described it as a story about Beowulf 'the Dane' who feuded with Swedish princes. This inaccurate description drew the attention of the Icelandic scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin, who worked in Denmark as an archivist, eventually becoming the Royal Danish Archivist. In 1786 Thorkelin went to England to research Danish heroes in British libraries; coming across Wanley's description, he hired a professional scribe to copy the manuscript (the document now known as Thorkelin A) and later himself made a copy (Thorkelin B). These transciptions are invaluable in that they preserve almost 2000 letters which are now lost from the edges of the scorched vellum. The poem was not printed in its entirety until Thorkelin's edition (with facing Latin translation) appeared in 1815; the first complete vernacular translation (in Danish) of Nicholas Grundtvig appeared in 1820; and not until 1837 did the first complete English translation of John Mitchell Kemble (from a family of prominent actors, himself a student of the German linguist, folklorist and political activist Jacob Grimm [of the 'Brothers Grimm']). Innumerable subsequent editions and translations (into many languages) have appeared since.

evil

Chapter I of I of . Good and Evil in the poem " Beowulf "

 

2.1 Confrontation between Good and Evil in the poem

 

The opposition of good and evil plays an important role in dualistic myths, where each of the characters and symbols refers either to the positive series as the bearer of good, or to the negative series as the embodiment of the evil principle . However, much more often good and evil, although they stand out as the main semantic concepts, do not have direct names within the mythological system : in particular, the symbol of the " left side " is used to denote evil , usually correlated with evil .

Developed religious and philosophical systems characterize the understanding of good and evil as moral categories that determine human behavior , not associated with the impact on him of various mythological forces or the state of ritual purity or desecration . However, and in this period may spread dualistic systems, in which , along with the embodiment of good start ( god ) assumes also , and the presence of a separate embodiment of evil ( devil, Lucifer and the like ). This motif as a purely literary is continued , and in the epic " Beowulf " , where there are separate characters, embodying in itself good and evil . [ 8 , p . 7 1 ]

The plot of this largest of the Anglo-Saxon epics is not complicated . Beowulf, a young knight of the people Gautam, after learning about the disaster, which struck at the King of the Danes Higelaka, - about the attacks monster Grendel on his palace Heorot and of the gradual extermination of them in for twelve years vigilantes king sent for the sea, to destroy Grendel . Defeating him, he then kills in new duel, at this time in the underwater housing, another monster - the mother of Grendel, which tried to take revenge for the death of his son . Showered with awards and thanked, returns Beowulf to himself at home . Here he commits new feats, and later becomes king Gautam and successfully ruled the country at over fifty years . On expiry of this period of Beowulf comes to the fight with the dragon, which is devastating the neighborhood, being angry encroachment on protected their ancient treasure . Beowulf manages to win and it's a monster, but - at the cost of his own life . The song ends with a scene of the solemn burning of the hero's body on a funeral pyre and the construction of a mound over his ashes and the treasure he conquered . [ 11 ]

Representatives of the " mythological school " in literary criticism of the last century tried to decipher this epic in the following way : monsters personify the storms of the North Sea ; Beowulf is a good deity that bridles the elements ; his peaceful reign is a blessed summer, and his death is the onset of winter . In this manner, in epos symbolically depicted contrasts nature, growth , and wilting, the rise and decay, adolescence and age . Other scientists have understood these contrasts in ethical terms , and seen in " Beowulf ," the theme of struggle of good and evil . Expressed in the confrontation between two warring forces, the conflict divides the images of the poem into two camps, in one of which - the hero, king and queen of the tribe, their squads, in the other - monsters, opponents of the hero . The world of the poem is divided into two parts : in the center of the first - the hero, in the center of the second - his opponents . All the elements of this world are attracted to one of the poles, there is no " neutral " , not associated with the or other camping parts . Images of characters and their characteristics, temporal and spatial features, objects - all bear the imprint of belonging to the world of heroes or their opponents . The opposition of individual elements is so consistent and comprehensive that the world of monsters appears as an inverted world of heroes . He has those same best characteristics, but with the sign minus . This is a kind of absolute opposite of the world of heroes, its reverse side .

 

2.2 Representation of the good in the poem

 

The world of culture, joy and color, embodied in " Beowulf " Heorotom - Halls, glow which spreads " on many of the country " . In his banquet hall carousing and having fun leader and his associates, listening to songs and legends osprey - retinue singer and poet, praising their fighting action, still like and deeds of ancestors ; here the leader generously endows the vigilantes with rings, weapons and other valuables . Such a reduction of " middle world " ( middangeard ) to the palace of the king ( for everything else in this world, set aside in silence ) is explained by the fact that " Beowulf " - a heroic epic, which is formed, in any case, in the well-known to us the form, in the retinue environment . [ 5 , p. 6 ]

So as the case happened in the X century, the time of conquest, then in the first turn, the Anglo-Saxons valued qualities that manifest themselves on the field of battle - is the strength, courage, valor, courage :