A CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE FIRST ENGLISH EPIC "BEOWULF"

Subject Areas : Sport Management

Pushpa VK ¹

1 - Islamic Azad University Ahvaz Branch, Department of English, Ahvaz, Iran.

Received: 2016-07-25 Accepted : 2016-07-25 Published : 2016-03-20

Keywords:

Abstract :

  Beowulf is the first known English epic which preserves the history, myth, culture and some basic human values of people from the past and present, though Beowulf is often considered as the archetypal of an Anglo-Saxon literary work depicting the pagan life of the Scandinavians. But a close analysis of their culture presents another perspective of history. Some epic characters even elevate themselves to mystic levels of honor and bliss. The purpose of this study was to trace and pinpoint how the Beowulf’s poet attributed ethical thoughts and motives and intervened the mystical nature of religion into the pagan life of women. The research focused its attention on the way the Beowulf poet interweaved the life of the women characters and mystical values beyond all religious restrictions and fused them into the basic structure of the epic, Beowulf.

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