1. What genres do the following texts belong to?
Voluspa, Volsunga Saga, Beowulf, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Voluspa
Mythology is defined as a body or collection of myths belonging to a people and addressing their origin, history, deities, ancestors, and heroes. Poetry could be defined as literature written in verse.Voluspa’s genre is a mythological Old Norse poem.
In Voluspa, Volva tells Othin, chief of the gods, of the creation of the world, of the origins of dwarves, and of the the first man and woman. She then goes on to tell of what is to come, the fate of the gods in the final battle.
Stanza 3. tells of a ‘a yawning gap,’ or in the critical reader translation, line 1 - ‘Nothing was there when time began.’ A place where there is no heaven or earth etc. The creation of the world is found in Stanza 4, when the sons of Burr (Othin (Odin), Vili, and Ve) lift the land, and the Æsir (deities) then established order in the cosmos by finding places for the sun, the moon and the stars, thereby starting the cycle of day and night.
The creation of man is told in stanza 17 (not included in our extracts) -
‘17. Then from the throng | did three come forth,
From the home of the gods, | the mighty and gracious;
Two without fate | on the land they found,
Ask and Embla, | empty of might’
Othin, Hönir and Lothur, (deities) create a man and woman.
Hœnir in an illustration from a 17th century Icelandic manuscript.
Deities are mentioned all throughout the Nordic poem. Stanza 1, line 1 ‘Hear my words, you holy gods.’ The poem is addressed to a god - Odin. Other gods mentioned include Loki (extract 2) and Thor (extract 3). As well as the gods above that helped Odin create mankind.
This ancient work tells of both the creation of mankind, and earth, and it tells of deities, therefore Voluspa is of the mythical genre. It is written in stanzas or verses, therefore it could also be defined as a poem.
References
Bellows, H. (1963). The poetic edda, volume I. Retrieved, March 14, 2013, from http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe03.htm
Terry, P. (Trans). (1990, 1996). Poems of the elder edda. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
Mythology. (2009). Retrieved, March 14, 2013 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mythology
Hey!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your statement; Mythology is defined as a body or collection of myths belonging to a people and addressing their origin, history, deities, ancestors etc...
Mythological texts are usually categorised as being text about Gods. The 'Mythology' of Gods, beliefs and history.
Epic Texts are texts that concern the deeds of heroes, like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. They usually have a storyline based on ‘Hero slays Dragon’ type theme.
The text in Voluspa is quite similar to that in the Bible. –Where the text is about the Gods, creation of the worlds, man and woman. It is its own version of a Creation Story.
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ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Voluspa clearly shouts out that it's a mythological poem even at the start of the verse. "Hear my words, ye holy gods". I didn't know about the creation part and it's really interesting to see it included! Thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteAs for Volusunga saga, I thought it was a little more difficult to pin what genre this was. At first, I was thinking "Epic" genre but then when I thought: "Wait, where did Fafnir come from?" and in Chapter XIV, Regin explains to Sigurd about Fafnir.
"...now Otter, my brother, was ever wont to enter into the force, and bring fish aland, and lay them one by one on the bank. And so it befell that Odin, Loki, and Hoenir, as they went their waysr..."
And I thought; Wait. Those are Gods right there. And then, in the chapter that we read in our readings, the old man with a long beard gives him the idea to dig a pit. It turns out that's Odin!
And in the previous chapters, Odin as himself or disguised as an old man appears quite frequently, changing the plot.
"...Odin hears their prayer..." (Chapter II)
"...Therewith out went the old man from the hall, and none knew who he was or whither he went..." (Chapter III)
"...there came a man into the fight clad in a blue cloak, and with a slouched hat on his head, one-eyed he was" (Chapter XI)
and so on.
So I was a little hesitant to place Volsunga saga as an epic genre as the Gods are involved in the story. But in the end, I will place Volsunga saga as an Epic Genre for the simple reasoning;
Volsunga saga is about the hero's deeds.
Sure, Gods come out and they have important roles in the world, but ultimately, the saga is about the deeds of men. They may be half gods, as Sigi (Sigurd's ancestor) was Odin's son and if we get really nitty gritty about what 'defines' a person as a 'god', perhaps Sigi and his son Rerir could be kind of gods, but I feel like the opening line of the story:
"Here begins the tale, and tells of a man who was named Sigi..." I feel like the tale was meant to be about men. And sure, they may have Odin as their ancestor, but aside from their courage and strength, they don't seem to possess any 'godly powers'. This saga focuses around the mortal aspect of Sigi and his children's struggles and adventures, making me place this saga in the Epic genre rather than mythological.
Another point that helped me decide this saga was an Epic Genre was comparing it to Voluspa, an mythological poem pointed out by Che and Holli above.
Voluspa seems like it doesn't really focus on even one God, but covers the entire world transcending through time. It mentions several gods, worlds, past and future. Where Volsunga saga, while it does transcend through time and goes through places, it sticks to Sigi's lineage and stays with them. It isn't about building the universe but just one lineage in this place where they happened to live. The scale is lot smaller compared to Voluspa
(Continues below... the site won't let me publish it because it's too long?)
Another difference I found between Voluspa and Volsunga was the length/details it covered the event.
ReplyDeleteThe two parts which I thought was almost a parallel event between Voluspa and Volsunga was Thor vs The snake and Sigurd Vs Fafnir. Thor's feat is probably more grand than Sigurd's were, but it is kept short and compact; we don't even know what Thor said to the snake. While Sigurd's fight and dialogue with Fafnir is drawn out and long. You are made to feel Sigurd achieved a great victory and he earned it. Thor on the other hand, sure he killed the snake that destroyed the world, but we only get "The son of Odin, goes forth to fight the snake. Midgard's defender dies triumphant,"
While Sigurd's birth, growth, meeting Regin, hearing Regin's tale, getting a sword, getting a blessing and so on until he finally kills Fafnir stretches from chapter 13 to 18.
The story focuses on how our hero came to slay the beast, how he slayed it and what he did afterwards, where such detail is missing from mythological poems like Voluspa.
Therefore, Volsunga Saga? It has to be epic genre! Sorry it's a little long! But what do you guys think?
Bah I forgot reference!:
ReplyDeleteWilliam Morris and Eirikr Magnusson, (1888), The Story of the Volsungs. Retrieved, March 18, 2013 from http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/vlsng/
Terry,P. (Trans).(1990, 1966) Poems of Elder Edda. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Hey Che,
ReplyDeleteWhile admittedly this isn't a particularly scholarly contribution to your post, I did want to say well done on such a thorough analysis, and I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts.
James.
I think you guys definitely analyzed both Voluspa and Volsunga incredibly well. I agree that Voluspa is a mythological poem. Even before we discussed it in class, it was very clear because of all the reference to the god, earth and other beings of the universe.
ReplyDeleteKim, I think you were very right in your depiction of Volsunga. I also sit on that line of not knowing if it should be considered as epic or not. I agree with you and think that yes, it should be considered as epic. The way that I decipher from one to the other which was noted in a lecture was that the Epic works are often much more drawn out. So while there are multiple similarities between Voluspa and Volsunga, in comparison it is clear to see that Volsunga has much more detail.
For example, in stanza 8 on page 6 in Volsunga it says,
"When the dragon awoke, trouble flared again.
He rippled down the rock, writhing with anger
when he saw the footprints of the prowler who had
stolen too close to his dreaming head.
So may a man not marked by fate
easily escape exile and woe
by the grace of God."
It is easily to see the amount of detail and description which is given to this event. It could have easily been written with out all the descriptive words such as rippled or writhing and really cut down to the bare minimum. With that, it proves that this narrative does contain the characteristic of being drawn out.
I agree that Volsunga is Epic, or an epic saga.
ReplyDeleteLord of the Rings and the Hobbit are both of the High Fantasy genre. High Fantasy or Epic Fantasy is a sub-genre of Fantasy Fiction where the story is taking place in a world different to our own.
Which is in comparison to low fantasy, which is fantasy by it's characters or themes, but low because it's set in our world.
For example LOTR and the Hobbit are set in Middle Earth, whereas Harry Potter is set in our world, making it low fantasy.
Although, I'm sure someone could expand more on why it's just fantasy in the first place haha.
@James - Thanks :)