EPIC POETRY

- A narrative verse distinguished

by a long account of a hero’s
deeds and adventures.
- Have no known authors since
they are passed orally from
one generation to another
 ELEMENTS OF EPICS

1.SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH AND VALOR

2.LEGENDARY HERO
3.INVOLVEMENT OF THE SUPERNATURAL
4.OMNISCIENT NARRATION
5.EPIC STYLE OF WRITING
- FORMAL - POETIC
- LYRICAL - SOPHISTICATED
6. MULTIPLE SETTINGS
 CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EPIC HERO

1. Skilled, strong, and brave

2. Victorious in war
3. Gives importance to honor and glory
4. Fights demons, monsters, or temptations
5. Fair to his followers but cruel to his enemies
6. Welcomes challenges and problems
7. Descends into the unknown darkness
(underworld)
 LANGUAGE OF BEOWULF

1. ARCHAIC WORDS – no longer used in

everyday life
Ex. Such practice they used then,
Hope of the heathen; hell they remembered
In innermost spirit, God they knew not,
The true God they do not know.

HEATHEN is an offensive term that insults

someone’s way of life, lack of knowledge, or
nonbelief in tradition
 LANGUAGE OF BEOWULF

2. KENNINGS – combination of often hyphenated words, to

form a poetic expression used in place of a more familiar word.

Ex. Fearful in spirit, faint-mooded waxed he

FAINT-MOODED here means feeling weak

When he looks on the jewels, that a gem-giver found I

GEM-GIVER literally means the one who gives gems

 LANGUAGE OF BEOWULF

3. ALLITERATION – repetition of initial consonants of

words or of stressed syllables for a poetic effect

- also known as head rhyme or initial rhyme

Ex. Fell and frantic, and forced from their slumbers

Thirty of thanemen; hence he departed
Then was brought to his notice
Told him truly by token apparent
The hall-thane’s hatred: he held himself after
Further and faster who the foreman did baffle