ENGL 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Culture Of Denmark, Dominant Ideology
Document Summary
Poem is set around 500 ad, though was written after. Was likely written after circling around in oral form (similar to the epics; iliad or odessy) The only copy that survived was a lone copy, around 1000 ad that copy was made from a former manuscript that has since been lost. Early 19th century, rst printings were inacurate due to the people unable to understand old. Beowulf had no readers until the early 1800"s. No one in chaucer"s life time would have been able to understand beowulf, nor could those in shakespeare"s time. This single manuscript was almost lost in a re. Poorly understood by antiquarians in the 1800s. Prevalent in popular culture; zeena the worrier . Many manuscripts were lost with the dissolution of the monastery. Prologue: makes fundamental thematic contributions to the text. Basic problem: pomstrosity [barbarity, savagery, evil] vs. hrothgor/ beowulf [civility, humanity, culture and godliness] Appears to be a dichotomy at rst, although is not.
