Sadness in the heart of the good one : the tone of Beowulf.

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Authors

Smith, Leah.

Issue Date

2014

Type

Thesis

Language

en_US

Keywords

Undergraduate research. , Undergraduate thesis.

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Abstract

"Although at the end of Beowulf the hero dies defeating a dragon, his victory is overshadowed by the gloom of the ending, which predicts the enslavement and extinction of his people. Beowulf critics have argued that the poet is using the doom of the Geats to criticize the hero or heroism. Whether they think that Beowulf should not have fought the dragon alone, or that he is the victim of old age, or that he should have left the Geats with an heir, their arguments ignore the fact that the death of the Geats is an essential part of the elegiac tone of the poem. By killing the Geats, the poet immortalizes the hero."

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ii, 156 leaves.
Bibliography: leaves 152-156.

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Publisher

Wheaton College (Norton, Mass.)

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