Here are the questions for weeks 1 - 3. Please use the comments section
to post your answers. Do not make a new blog. Do not necessarily answer
all the questions, but select those you want to answer. You may combine
more than one question into a single answer.
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).
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).
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1. What genres do the following texts belong to?
ReplyDeleteVoluspa is a poem.
Voluspa's each paragraph is composed of four lines. It makes rhythm. And it often refers God, so I think it is a kind of mythological poem.
Volsunga Saga is a saga.
Saga is composed of the series of events or adventures whose length are long. There is a hero in saga who is from Norway and Iceland. The only difference between saga and epic is where they rooted in and what they focused on. To be precise, saga is originated in Norse and is focused more on family. On the other hand, epic is started in Greek and concentrated on individuals.
Both of saga and epic show us long hero's history. But in 'Volsunga Saga' you can find many words related in family. Like father, mothe and kin. The saga illustrates: "Little art thou like thy kin in stoutness of heart." (p.9 /l.14) "Who is thy father? And what thy kin, that thou wert so hardy as to bear weapons against me?" (p.10 / l.5) Therefore, I think Volsunga Saga is more suitable to Saga.
Reference:Cambridge Dictionaries Online. (2016). Saga. Retrieved 10 March 2016, from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/saga
Explain like I’m five. (2015). ELI5: The difference between an epic and a saga [Blog comment]. Retrieved 10 March 2016, from https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38ooif/eli5_the_difference_between_an_epic_and_a_saga/
Beowulf is a epic poem.
It talks about the heroes who fights against a dragon named Grendel. Beowulf is not only the oldest English epic poem but also the longest. It is written in Anglo-Saxon England. The difference between epic poem and poem is the length. "How long narrative are there." Epic poem is much longer than peom.
Reference: British Library. (n.d.). Beowulf. Retrieved March 14, 2016, from http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/beowulf.
Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are classified as fantasy fiction. In reality, there are no magical powers. But in the books, characters have supernatural abilities that couldn't happen in reality.
Reference: Find me an author. (n.d.). Fantasy fiction genre. Retrieved March 14, 2016, from http://www.findmeanauthor.com/fantasy_fiction_genre.htm
A good answer, Faye.
Delete6. What place do the old myths have in the modern world?
ReplyDeleteThe origin of the old myths came from Norse mythology. The most common thesis is related to hero. He fights against a giant to save the village or world such as Beowulf.
As understanding background of the culture and the history about the Western world, we can figure out where myths are rooted in.
There are two flow of myths. Hellenism is historically rooted in ancient Greece, it is associated with the image of Zeus or Apollo that was called Greek and Roman mythology.
The other we called it is Hebraism. It is a historical flow of the contract with the only God in Israel. It’s about Christian.
This two streams have been combined each other or sometimes even conflicted for a long time. Both myths represented true incidents, but people didn’t think that was true. I know there are too many unrealistic factors so we can’t distinguish what is right and what is wrong. Since the antiquity, myths were written by Greeks and they made it look more realistic.
Still today, myths are interesting story that effects our fascination, imagination and creativity. It makes people believe it true. The Odyssey and the Iliad, written by Homer, are the oldest Greek mythology. They followed the different way of description against the bible. The Genesis of the world and the birth of God were written differently.
That’s why we are still looking for old myths. There are no criteria to explain what is true. It can be interpreted differently depends on who he is. Values of people is various and we can’t decide them. We can only understand and believe what is suitable with my belief.
Myths are intimate topics of movies, novels and games. Basic story of myths is same, but part of myths can be changed. For example, Thor is god of thunder in Norse mythology. He is well kwon these days because of films. He is described as a super hero. He is not an unacquainted character to us. As receiving information of Thor through movies, we are able to understand him more interesting. Factors of fantasy and technologies are added to stories, therefore, it is still attractive to many people.
Reference: Greek myths & Greek mythology. (2016). Greek myths : What are they? Retrieved March 16, 2016, from http://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/greek-myths-what-are-greek-myths
You made some really good points. Like mentioning the Myth of Thor being re-told and made into movies etc.
DeleteHowever, I found your work a bit hard to read, could you get someone to proof-read your work next time. before you upload it. Thanks.
Faye writes:There are two flow of myths. Hellenism is historically rooted in ancient Greece, it is associated with the image of Zeus or Apollo that was called Greek and Roman mythology.
DeleteThe other we called it is Hebraism. It is a historical flow of the contract with the only God in Israel. It’s about Christian.
If this is right, then what are we looking at here with these Northern myths? They don't fit into either of your two streams.
Vanessa you are right, but we need to take into account English language learners.Faye's English is not perfect, so we have to search a bit for the content. Learning a language is a slow process!
Delete7. How does the film Beowulf and Grendel "problematise" the hero-myth of Bwowulf?
ReplyDeleteThere are many differences between the Beowulf movie and the epic poem. Something special extra is added to the original story like Hollywood style.
In the epic text, Grendel’s mother is described as a hideous yellow snakelike creature. During the fight, he has only one purpose to kill her. He attacks her aggressively with the sword. But in the movie, Grendel’s mother looks like golden attractive creature. Beowulf hasn’t carry any weapon and even has sexual intercourse with her during the fight. I felt that he doesn’t want to leave her and she wants Beowulf come back to her.
Beowulf is a true hero who held up by the Anglo-Saxon culture. True hero is often described to follow righteousness more than personal emotion. But in the movie, Beowulf doesn’t have the characteristics of a true hero. He is described just man who feels emotion of love. It is not a love but he felt similar emotion of love with Grendel’s mother. That’s why he lies the incident that he killed her. For him, love is more important than justice.
Lastly, the dragon in the epic is just a foe to achieve his desire to kill. The best way to being a hero is a death as a result of a final battle with his strong foe. Fatal injuries received in the dragon’s final fight lead to his death. He is a true hero until his last moment of life. But in the movie, he knows the fact that the dragon is his son. He is born with Grendel’s mother and him. Although he knows the truth about the dragon, he slays his son. The existence of dragon means Beowulf’s failure. The mistake represents that Beowulf is an anti-hero. Therefore, there is no choice without his death. Beowulf feels that he wants to end his life too.
Reference: Squirrell, N. (2012). Beowulf [Web log post]. Retrieved March 17, 2016 from http://nicolassquirrell.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/differences-between-movie-and-poem.html
You are right abou these differences, Faye, but the major way the film problematises the original story is by suggestions that the 'monsters' are merely reacting to the loss of their homeland. Beowulf is an invader!
Delete
ReplyDelete6) What place do the old myths have in the modern world?
First of all what exactly is a myth?, myths are stories that have no basis or no way of telling where they came from, what time period they came from or who told them originally, also myths contain supernatural events and they seek to explain natural phenomena in some form or another. They are usually traditional or religious stories and have some form of supernatural beings or deities mentioned in them; for example in maori mythology- the Taniwha or Ranginui.
Myths in today’s world are important because they give us, as humans some sort understanding into things that may (or may not have happened) before most of us walked this earth. They makes our various cultures better and give us something to choose to believe in.
They also have a role to play in keeping up tradition. Many maori myths (and legends) are passed down from one generation to another. Imagine what the maori culture would be without all those myths. Their culture and beliefs would not be the same. Also another good example; is the chinese mythology revolving around dragons, dragons to them are good creatures, they bring abundance and prosperity, unlike the negative view dragons have in western culture; that all dragons should be killed or locked away,because they are vicious creatures, not friendly and wise like Chinese mythological dragons.
You have the idea, Vanessa but your answer is a bit general. There are many film and books that use the old myths you could have mentioned, including Thor and of course, the Tolkien stories!
Delete4. How did Tolkien draw in the Old Norse and Old English texts in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels? Provide some concrete examples.
ReplyDeleteTolkien strived to rediscover the lost mythological history of English tradition during a period when traditionalism was being ousted by concepts of modernism. He attempted to recreate a representation of this history through his work. By taking aspects of Norse mythology e.g the ring (Volsunga Saga), he made an attempt to reconstruct a new rich English mythical history.
Norse Mythology can be seen as his main influence, for instance the use of the term ‘Middle Earth’ stems directly from the word ‘Midgard’ from Norse Mythology as one of the three levels holding the nine worlds. Midgard is the Middle World, hence Middle Earth, with Men, Dwarves and Dark Elves as its inhabitants. (Wettstein, n.d.) Similarly, Valinor formed from the world Asgard, the highest level within the Norse world. Its inhabitants were Gods, outlined as a place of “bliss and joy” (Wettstein, n.d.) and creating a contrast to Midgard, with this concept emulated by Tolkien between Middle Earth and Valinor.
Works Cited
Wettstein, M. (n.d.). Norse Elements in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien . Retrieved from Academia : http://www.academia.edu/228734/Norse_Elements_in_the_work_of_J.R.R._Tolkien
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)
ReplyDeleteIn the texts Voluspa, Volsunga Saga, Beowulf and The Hobbit one central incident that is seen across these texts would be the slaying of a monstaer – the classic hero vs. beast. In all these texts there is a protagonist who bravely defeats a dragon. Although the motives behind the epic battle between the texts are somewhat different the context that a dragon was slayed remains the same. However, there is a slight twist in plot between the fate of the dragon slayers in Volsunga Saga (Sigurd) and The Hobbit (Bard) opposed to Beowulf and Thor. Although all heroes defeated a dragon, not all lived to relish victory – both Thor and Beowulf died after the battle. I found this very interesting or rather shocking as contemporary world heroes as we know never die. Prior to reading these texts I had no idea that the original Thor actually fell in his last battle as he is very much alive today.
.4. How did Tolkien draw in the Old Norse and Old English texts in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels? Provide some concrete examples.
After reading a few of the Old Norse and Old English texts you could almost imediately see a lot of similarities within Tolkiens Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels. For instance, the dragon living beneath the mountains in The Hobbit in a sense is a retold version of Beowulf. The more direct links being the secret passage to the dragon’s gold filled lair discovered by an un named man. He then stole a golden goblet to which had the angered dragon wreak havoc to a neighbouring town. After hearing of a such an ordeal Beowulf is then tasked to slay the beast of which he does. Similarly, this is seen in Hobbit with the exception of Bilbo being the unnamed man and Bard being the dragon slayer.
Following that is the whole idea of the cursed ring in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkein had clearly pulled these ideas from the Volsunga Saga where Fafnir had murdered his own father for the possession of the cursed ring and then retreats deep within the mountains and turns in to a dragon. These links identified are only a few of the many Tolkien had extracted from these old mythological stories and turned into a modern day fantasy.
References
Heaney, S. (1999) (trans). Beowulf: a new translation. London: Penguin.
Morris, W. and Magnussun, E. (Trans.) (1888). The Story of the Volsungs (Volsunga Saga). London: Walter Scott Press
Terry, P. (trans). (1990, 1966). Poems of the Elder Edda. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
Glenn, Jonathan A. (1991). "To Translate a Hero: The Hobbit as Beowulf Retold." PAPA 17: 13-34
ReplyDelete8. 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).
*Sorry this is soo late, but at least I've done it now.*
Beowulf (the movie)
I think the aim of this movie was to take the viewer away to a time where mythical creatures actually did exist and to educate people about them. How the movie as a visual text wanted to be received I believe is with an open mind, which is how I approached and received it. The intention and moral of the storyline behind the movie, I strongly believe was to teach people that lying has consequences, and sometimes the consequences are big; in the case of this story the protagonist-Beowulf dies
Beowulf lies to the king after going to try and kill the mother of Grendel. So in the end he dies fighting the dragon that Grendel’s mother has summoned to wreak havoc on the land. The pleasures that experienced while watching the film were 1; when Grendel’s mother is laying his dead and mangled body on the concrete tablet in the pond inside her lair. This made me feel good because finally the monster was ridden from the kingdom and 2; towards the end of the film, when Beowulf has served the ultimate punishment for his sin of lying to the whole kingdom. He tumbles off of the cliff with the dragon and lands in the sand. With a missing arm he slowly bleeds out, and waits to die. That moment that made me feel saddened, however only momentarily, because I soon realised that justice had prevailed and he was paying for what he had done to the kingdom.