Beasts of Time

Apocalyptic Beowulf

• Author(s): Edward L. Risden,
• Publisher: P. Lang
• Pages: 165
• ISBN_10: 0820423343
  ISBN_13: 9780820423340
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Foreign Language Study / English as a Second Language , Language Arts & Disciplines / General , Language Arts & Disciplines / Reference , Literary Criticism / General , Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh , Literary Criticism / Ancient & Classical , Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory , Literary Criticism / Medieval , Literary Criticism / Poetry , Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / General , Poetry / Subjects & Themes / Inspirational & Religious , Religion / Eschatology ,

Description:... Over time the reputation of Beowulf as a poem continues to rise. Extant in only one manuscript, yet perhaps the most studied of English poems, it represents a remarkable text and artifact: the first European vernacular epic. And like much of the work of its age, Beowulf exhibits a strong native strain of apocalypticism, a pervasive awareness of the imminence of end-times. The chief source of its apocalyptic power, the poem's beasts, haunts the reader; one cannot depart the poem without a sense that the monsters and heroes continue their battle into the present and beyond.