The Art and Thought of the "Beowulf" Poet / / Leonard Neidorf.
In The Art and Thought of the "Beowulf" Poet, Leonard Neidorf explores the relationship between Beowulf and the legendary tradition that existed prior to its composition. The Beowulf poet inherited an amoral heroic tradition, which focused principally on heroes compelled by circumstances t...
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Superior document: | Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Complete eBook-Package 2023 |
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Place / Publishing House: | Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2023] ©2023 |
Year of Publication: | 2023 |
Language: | English |
Online Access: | |
Physical Description: | 1 online resource (216 p.) |
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Other title: | Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Kin-Slaying and Oath-Breaking -- Chapter 2 Courtesy and Courtliness -- Chapter 3 Monotheism and Monstrosity -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index |
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Summary: | In The Art and Thought of the "Beowulf" Poet, Leonard Neidorf explores the relationship between Beowulf and the legendary tradition that existed prior to its composition. The Beowulf poet inherited an amoral heroic tradition, which focused principally on heroes compelled by circumstances to commit horrendous deeds: fathers kill sons, brothers kill brothers, and wives kill husbands. Medieval Germanic poets relished the depiction of a hero's unyielding response to a cruel fate, but the Beowulf poet refused to construct an epic around this traditional plot. Focusing instead on a courteous and pious protagonist's fight against monsters, the poet creates a work that is deeply untraditional in both its plot and its values. In Beowulf, the kin-slayers and oath-breakers of antecedent tradition are confined to the background, while the poet fills the foreground with unconventional characters, who abstain from transgression, display courtly etiquette, and express monotheistic convictions. Comparing Beowulf with its medieval German and Scandinavian analogues, The Art and Thought of the "Beowulf" Poet argues that the poem's uniqueness reflects one poet's coherent plan for the moral renovation of an amoral heroic tradition. In Beowulf, Neidorf discerns the presence of a singular mind at work in the combination and modification of heroic, folkloric, hagiographical, and historical materials. Rather than perceive Beowulf as an impersonally generated object, Neidorf argues that it should be read as the considered result of one poet's ambition to produce a morally edifying, theologically palatable, and historically plausible epic out of material that could not independently constitute such a poem. |
Format: | Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. |
ISBN: | 9781501766923 9783110751833 9783111319292 9783111318912 9783111319186 9783111318264 |
DOI: | 10.1515/9781501766923?locatt=mode:legacy |
Access: | restricted access |
Hierarchical level: | Monograph |
Statement of Responsibility: | Leonard Neidorf. |