This thesis analyses and interprets the famous Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf with regard to two main topics of the medieval epic poetry: the topics of courage and death. Theoretical background contains a description of medieval epic poetry and its functions. Furthermore, the introduction contains a description of English medieval epic poetry in historical and religious context (perception of death and afterlife with regard to the mixture of paganism and Christianity, meaning of heroism and heroic virtues - loyalty, pride, honour, persistency, determination, suppression of fear, willingness to help, sacrifice). Another chapter focuses on the creation of Beowulf itself and on the content and the form. The analysis draws on the Czech translation by J. Čermák. It focuses on the hero of the poem and it tries to find particular examples of the above mentioned virtues in three important passages of the poem (the fights with Grendel, with his mother and with the dragon). Another section deals with the image of death (the topics of burial, fateful disasters connected with monsters, fights), the question of afterlife, and with the function of the cyclic structure of epic poems (the never ending cycle of life and death) The thesis also tries to interpret the literary influence of the poem and its topicality.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:396480 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | DROBIL, Jaroslav |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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