beowulf and song of roland学习

Karlomagno finds Roland dead (XIV. mendeko miniatura)
Plot
For seven years, the valiant Christian king Charlemagne has made war against the Saracens in Spain . Roland, a courageous knight and Charlemagne's nephew ,,fights in Spain and dies defending a pass in the Pyrenees.
Song of Roland
La Chanson de Roland
Roland pledges loyalty to the ki phases of The Song of Roland in one picture
Historical background
The Beowulf Poet
• The poet is the oldest surviving English epic poem, written sometime in the 7th or 8th century. • The poem reflects established Christian tradition • Allusions to the Old Testament • Beowulf is a Redeemer who is sent by God to save man from sin • The price of salvation is life itself • Correspondences between Beowulf’s death and the death of Christ
Plot
"Beowulf" It is about the great Scandinavian hero Beowulf's journey to free Denmark by slaying the ogre, Grendel who always eats warriors of the king ,so the king asked beowulf for help.,beowulf fights with it and made it wounded badly then it died after rushed out to the marshes. Grendel's mother wants to take the revenge for the death of her son.so she seized ,beowulf, followed the bloody trail ,this time they fight under the water ,that's the dwelling of the monster'mother,also they had a big fight,at last , beowulf cut off the heads of the monster and his mother.After he finished the mission, he went back home where he ruled as king for fifty years.
Beowulf
Background
• Composed around 700 A.D. • The story had been in circulation as an oral narrative for many years before it was written. • The action of the poem takes place around 500 AD • Poet is reviving the heroic language, style and values and pagan values of ancient Germanic oral poetry • The poem deals with ancient Germanic forebears, the Danes and the Geats • Only a single manuscript of the poem survived the AngloSaxon era. In the 1700’s it was nearly destroyed in a fire • It was not until 1936 when the Oxford scholar J.R.R> Tolkien published a paper on the poem that is became popular.
Image of the devastation of the frank troops (from a book of the song of Roland)
Major Themes
Good and Evil Loyalty and Vassalage The Benevolent God The Will of God and Man's Place Duty
the last part of the poem tells that one of beowulf's subjects stole some of the treasure which had been guarding for three hundred years by a dragon ,the dragon can breath fire.so our hero sought the dragon in his cave and killed it.but beowulf mortally wounded,and died . at last ,according to his will,the people followed his instruction how to bury his body and how to rule the country after his death.they buried his ash under a tremendous mound and piled the earth and stones so high that the mound thereafter became a beacon for the seafarers who sailed along the coast,thus ,even after his death,beowulf continued to serve people
Public Domain picture from: /wiki/Image:Ravana.jpg
The Character of Beowulf
• He fights for personal honor, but is committed to service to his own people and humanity. • A superhuman who remains recognizable • Contrast old and young Beowulf • Beowulf as savior
The story told in the poem is based on a historical incident, the Battle of Roncevaux Pass on 15 August 778, in which the rear guard of Charlemagne's withdrawing Franks, escorting a rich collection of booty gathered during a campaign in Spain, was attacked by Basques.
The Song of Roland ( La Chanson de Roland) is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. It exists in various different manuscript versions which testify to its enormous and enduring popularity in the 12th to 14th centuries . The epic poem is the first and most outstanding example of the chanson de geste, a literary form that flourished between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries and celebrated the legendary deeds of a hero .