1. What genres do the following texts belong to?
Voluspa, Volsunga Saga, Beowulf, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Give some examples from these texts that support your identification (for example: "Voluspa is an example of the _____ genre, as the following references to gods from the poem illustrate: "Hear my words / you holy gods' (l.1) "By Odin's Will I'll speak the ancient lore" (l.3), etc).
2. What are some possible features of residual (or "secondary") orality preserved in Voluspa, according to the criteria Ong (1982) advances?
3. Identify a central incident that happens in at least four of the above texts, and discuss how it is both similar and different in each example (remember to site from the original texts).
4. How did Tolkien draw on the Old Norse and Old English texts in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels? Provide some concrete examples.
5. Discuss how Tolkien's use of "tradition" (e.g. older literary sources) differs from the techniques and agendas of modernism (see Week 7 in your Reader).
6. What place do the old myths have in the modern world?
7. How does the film Beowulf and Grendel "problematise" the hero-myth of Beowulf ?
8. Discuss what you think any of these texts desire (in the sense of their intention, how they wish to be received, what pleasures they offer).
(Does anyone know how to get the blog to not have a black background?)
ReplyDelete1. 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.
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
How did Tolkien draw on the Old Norse and Old English texts in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fantasy novels? Provide some concrete examples.
ReplyDeleteSome of the races Tolkien uses in his stories are apart the nine worlds of Asgarth, mentioned in Old Norse mythology such as Voluspa. Elves, Dwarves and Men occupy three of the worlds, and are three of the races mentioned in Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit.
Tolkien also draws from Old Norse texts when naming his Dwarves and other characters.
Stanzas 11-16 of Voluspa catalogue the names of the Dwarves after telling of their origin. All of the Dwarven names in the Hobbit are from this catalogue, such as
13. Fili, Kili,
15. Dori, Ori,
Some of the Dwarven names have special meanings such as Gandalf, which means Magic Elf, and is used to name Tolkiens Grey Wizard in both Hobbit and LOTR.
Dvalvin, in Voluspa, seems to have given Dwarves magic runes, accounting for their great craftsmanship. Dwarves in LOTR also have these things.
In Fafnismol, The Ballad of Fafnir, the story is that some of the Dwarfs left the rocks and the mountains to find a new home, but it isn’t explained why. Perhaps Tolkien read this, and in the Hobbit, was inspired to invent a reason for Dwarfs to do that.
References:
Bellows, H. (1963). The poetic edda, volume I. Retrieved, March 28, 2013, from http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe03.htm
Fafnismol, the ballad of fafnir. Retrieved, March 28, 2013, from http://www.kindredkreators.org/PoeticEdda_Bellows1936.pdf