MINSTRY OF HIGHER AND SECONDARY

SPECIALIZED EDUCATION OF

THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN

NAMANGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Murodullayeva Sevara Bahodirovna

SPECIFIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH FOLKLORE AND HEROISM IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

5A120101 – Adabiyotshunoslik (On branches of languages and research)

DISSERTATION

Presented to obtain master’s degree

Namangan – 2014

SPECIFIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH FOLKLORE AND HEROISM IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………2 CHAPTER I ENGLISH FOLKLORE – MARBLE LINK OF WORLD LITERATURE 1.1. Historical features of English folklore …………7 1.2. The most outstanding folklore examples in English literature

CHAPTER II “BEOWULF” – THE EARLIEST EPIC POEM IN ENGLISH FOLKLORE 2.1. Total overview to poem “Beowulf” 2.2. Overview to the literary significance of “Beowulf” 2.3. 2.3. Story of epic poem “Beowulf”

CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION Actuality of theme Under the leadership of our President Islam Karimov great changes happened in social and economical life of our state. On December 6, 2013 in Tashkent, in the Palace of International Forums solemn meeting devoted to the 21th anniversary of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan was held. The President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov made a speech at the event and summed up the year - the Year of the welfare and prosperity, as well as he proposed to declare 2014 - the Year of the healthy child (uzb. Sog'lom bola yili). The participants supported the proposal of the head of our state. "Our rapidly changing time, life itself put in front of us more and more extremely important and urgent tasks in the field of education of the young generation" - said in the speech Islam Karimov1. Uzbekistan has entered the Year of the Healthy Child. The government is getting prepared to approve a national program with the priority to medicine, primarily to the services is charge of maternal and child health as fundamentals in strengthening the nation’s gene pool. As Last years’ initiatives will undoubtedly be the platform for the implementation of a new range of measures. Much has been done, and good progress has been made, but there is still much to accomplish, reports Uzbekistan Today News Agency2. This The effectiveness of these measures have already been recognized at the international level. Thus, in a recent statement at the conclusion of the International Monetary Fund noted that Uzbekistan's economy continues to grow rapidly, with strong positions in the fiscal and external sector, stable banking system, low level of public debt, and a cautious approach to foreign borrowing protect the country from negative effects of the global crisis. Stressing that in 2011 the country's GDP grew by 8.3 percent, and for the first nine months of 2012 - up 8.2 percent, the IMF mission among key factors for sustainable economic

1 http://mfa.uz/en/press/news/wellbeing/ 2 http://www.jahonnews.uz/eng/events_and_dates/2014_year_of_healthy_child_2014/ development of Uzbekistan named and economic policy measures with a focus on domestic consumption and investment in leading role of the state. As a result, in recent years, thanks to the full support and strong incentives from the government significantly increased production, expanded the range of food and non-food products and the products manufactured by domestic enterprises. Moreover, not yielding as these products are cheaper than similar, imported by import. And as a consequence, more and more families are getting modern cars, furniture, refrigerators, televisions, washing machines and other household appliances, shoes, clothing, manufactured in Uzbekistan. And recently, as we reported in the country arranged production of mobile phones, the high demand for them is still extremely satisfied by imports3. In consistent realization of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Education”, National Program of Personnel Training, significant place is reserved for construction of new schools, academic lyceums, vocational colleges, higher education institutions, capital reconstruction and strengthening material-technical base of the existing ones, their provision with modern educational equipment4. The resolution of the President of Uzbekistan “On measures to further improve system of foreign languages teaching” dated from 10 December 2012 is being implemented in whole country. This document serves as an important guideline in development of new textbooks for teaching foreign languages, introduction of advanced teaching methods using modern pedagogical and information-communication technologies, education of a new generation to foreign languages, cardinal improvement of the system of training of specialists, fluent in these languages, creation of conditions and opportunities for wide use of information resources by students. Persistent works on raising awareness of the public concerning the essence and significance of the resolution, ensuring its execution are being carried out.

3 http://ruslanmedia.uz/news/view/606 4 http://www.gov.uz/en/press/society/17255 The interest, rose recently towards English language, the development of international relations on different levels has reasoned the desire to learn as much as possible about the country where this language originated as well as about its culture. Folklore refers to the tradition of telling tales and reliving legends amongst the individuals within a particular country, territory or tribe. This is usually done orally as older generations tell the stories to the younger members of their culture, keeping the traditions alive. As with all folklore, English legends are fantastical in nature, often referring to heroes, villains, ghosts, imps and fairies. England’s folklore has been enriched by several factors. First, its history has been a complex and convoluted one. It has seen many battles, losses, victories, religious revolutions, artistic renaissances and political upheavals. This gives its folklores an element of deep import and nostalgia; some sad, some tragic, and some undeniably comical. Secondly, England has been the land of refuge and desire for many different nations. As each one of these major groups has lived in it, they have left their cultural and historical marks, influencing the locals to a certain degree. With so many influences, the folklore has become a rich source of information, intrigue and resonance. Folklores differ from region to region. Each county has its own brand of fairies, goddesses, heroes, and so on. In times past, folklore was passed down orally, from generation to generation. In this way, it was preserved and protected, and formed an important part of the culture. The storytellers and listeners believed these tales to be true, basing many of their customs and rituals on protecting themselves, appeasing certain gods, keeping imps away, etc...However, as culture has developed and modernized, the folklores are being forgotten and discredited, losing their magical quality. Because it is such an important part of the country’s history, though, many historians are trying to preserve this element by recording as many tales as have been documented or remembered. Some popular folklore tales include: A nocturnal apparition associated with the devil, this character most commonly makes its appearance in the folklore of the British Isles. When the Black Dog ghost was seen, its observers would believe it to be an indication of imminent death. It was larger than a normal dog and its eyes glowed in the darkness of night. It was usually said to be seen in places at which executions had taken place, at crossroads and on old pathways. Tom Thumb is a thumb-sized hero that dates back to the 1500’s. Originally, he was intended to scare children, as horror tales about this tiny mite were told to them by their nursemaids, along with tales of witches, and so on. In the 17th century, tales of him portray him as a hero, rather than as a frightful villain. One of the best known English folklore characters in history, Robin Hood was a hero that stole from the rich and gave to the poor. He lived in Sherwood Forest with his Merry Men. As a gang, they would taunt and terrify the rich aristocrats, who had abused their power to become wealthy and powerful. They would steal their jewels and money and hand it out to those less fortunate. Since this time, many books, films and TV series have been made about this world- renowned folklore hero. The basic purpose of dissertation. Main purpose of research work is to study and research the features of English folklore. Theme of dissertation is included to scientific research plan of chair of English language and lexica and stylistics. Object of research. Main object of research is English folklore. Subject of research is analyses of English folklore in the development pf English literature. Aim and tasks of dissertation. We planned to fulfill the following tasks in research: In the first chapter we decided to make historical overview to role of folklore in the development of world literature. In the second chapter we analyzed the facts about great epic poem “Beowulf” which was the foundation stone of English literature. In the third chapter we planned to learn about literary heroes of English folklore. We tried to analyze some folk ballads/ In conclusion we tried to sum up our opinions. Methods of research. Research was carried on in the method of observation and comparative analyses. Scientific novelty of research. Though considerable scientific researches were carried in the field of literary trends and their history fundamental research on comparative observation of the history English folklore had not been done yet. Theoretical and practical value of research. The results of research can be useful in lessons n the history of literature, poetry theory and others in higher educational institutions. Practical conclusions can be used in further researches. Content of research. Dissertation consists of introduction, three chapters, conclusion and bibliography.

CHAPTER I ENGLISH FOLKLORE – MARBLE LINK OF WORLD LITERATURE 1.1. Historical features of English folklore English folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in England over a number of centuries. Some stories can be traced back to their roots, while the origin of others is uncertain or disputed. England abounds with folklore, in all forms, from such obvious manifestations as the traditional Robin Hood tales, the Brythonic-inspired Arthurian legend, to contemporary urban legends and facets of cryptozoology such as the Beast of Bodmin Moor5. Folktales employ certain characteristics or conventions common to virtually all tales. The most familiar involve the setting, character, plot, theme and conflict, and style. A. Setting

 Most folktale settings remove the tale from the real world, taking us to a time and place where animals talk, witches and wizards roam, and magic spells are commonplace.

 The settings are usually unimportant and described and referred to in vague terms (e.g., “Long ago in a land far away…” and “Once upon a time in a dark forest…”).

 Some settings reflect the typical landscape of the tale’s culture, for example, medieval Europe with its forests, castles, and cottages, Africa with its jungles, India and China with its splendid palaces. B. Character

 The characters in folk literature are usually flat, simple, and straightforward. They are typically either completely good or entirely evil and easy to identify. They do not internalize their feelings and seldom are plagued by mental torment.

5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_folklore  Motivation in folktale characters tends to be singular; that is, the characters are motivated by one overriding desire such as greed, love, fear, hatred, and jealousy.

 The characters are usually stereotypical, for example, wicked stepmothers, weak-willed fathers, jealous siblings, faithful friends. Physical appearance often readily defines the characters, but disguises are common.

 The hero or heroine is often isolated and is usually cast out into the open world or is apparently without any human friends. Evil, on the other hand, seems overwhelming. Therefore, the hero/heroine must be aided by supernatural forces, such as a magical object or an enchanted creature, to fight against evil forces. C. Plot

 Plots are generally shorter and simpler than in other genres of literature.

 The action tends to be formulaic. A journey is common (and is usually symbolic of the protagonist’s journey to self-discovery). Repetitious patterns are found, suggesting the ritual nature of folktales and perhaps to aid the storyteller in memorization; for example, events often occur in sets of three (e.g., three pigs, three bears, three sisters, three wishes),

 The action is concentrated, no lengthy explanations and descriptions. Conflicts are quickly established and events move swiftly to their conclusion. The action never slows down. Endings are almost always happy (“They lived happily ever after”). D. Theme and Conflict

 Themes in folk literature are usually quite simple, but serious and powerful. Folktale themes espousethe virtues of compassion, generosity, and humility over the vices of greed, selfishness, and excessive pride.

 Common folktale themes include the following (pp. 160-161): 1. The struggle to achieve autonomy or to break away from parents (“Beauty and the Beast”) 2. The undertaking of a rite of passage (“Rapunzel”) 3. The discovery of loneliness on a journey to maturity (“Hansel and Gretel”) 4. The anxiety over the failure to meet a parent’s expectations (“Jack and the Beanstalk”) 5. The anxiety over one’s displacement by another – the “new arrival” (“Cinderella”)

 These themes are at the very heart of growing up. Also, they are similar to the themes of Greek tragedy: Wisdom comes through suffering. For every benefit there is a condition; nothing in life comes without strings attached, responsibilities to be met, and bargains to be kept. E. Style

 The language is typically economical, with a minimal amount of description and a heavy reliance onformulaic patterns, e.g., conventional openings and closings.

 Repetitious phrases are common; they supply a rhythmical quality desirable in oral tales and perhaps aided in memorization the stories.

 Dialogue is frequently used; it captures the nature of the character speaking.

 Folktales often use a technique – stylized intensification, which occurs when, with each repetition, an element is further exaggerated or intensified. This has the effect of increasing the drama.

 Folktale motifs (i.e., recurring thematic elements) are quite prevalent; they may have served asmnemonic devices when the tales were still passed on orally. Examples of common motifs include journeys through dark forests, enchanted transformations, magical cures or other spells, encounters with helpful animals or mysterious creatures, foolish bargains, impossible tasks, clever deceptions, and so on.

 Some folktales have powerful visual images that we can readily identify, such as a glass slipper, a bean stalk, a spinning wheel, a poisoned apple, a red riding hood, a magic lamp, and a blue bird. These stark visual elements give the tales their enduring strength.

 Many folktale motifs (i.e., recurring thematic elements) are examples of magic: helpful animals, enchanted transformations, granted wishes, etc. The magic, when it appears, is always greeted by the characters with matter-of- factness. Characters acknowledge magic as a normal part of life without surprise or disbelief. This stylistic feature distances the folktale from reality, and it provides an important distinction between folk literature and literary/modern fantasy.

 Folktales often lift their heroes and heroines to higher and more refined levels where they remain beautiful, noble, and pure through the process of sublimation. Morris dance and related practices such as the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance preserve old English folk traditions, as do Mummers Plays. Pub names may preserve folk traditions. English folklore is largely drawn from Germanic, Celtic and Christian sources. Whereas some traditions were once believed across the whole of England, most belong to specific regions:

 Black dog - The black dog is essentially a nocturnal apparition, often said to be associated with the Devil, and its appearance was regarded as a portent of death. It is generally supposed to be larger than a normal dog, and often has large, glowing eyes. It is a common feature of British Isles and Northern European folklore6.

 Boggart - A boggart is, depending on local or regional tradition, either a household spirit or a malevolent genius loci inhabiting fields, marshes or other topographical features. The household boggart causes things to disappear, milk to sour, and dogs to go lame. Always malevolent, the boggart will follow its family wherever they flee. In Northern England, at least, there was the belief that the boggart should never be named, for when the boggart was given a name, it would not be reasoned with nor persuaded, but would become uncontrollable and destructive.

6 Hutton, Ronald, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in England, 1999  Brownie - In folklore, a brownie is a type of hob, similar to a hobgoblin. Brownies are said to inhabit houses and aid in tasks around the house. However, they do not like to be seen and will only work at night, traditionally in exchange for small gifts or food. Among food, they especially enjoy porridge and honey. They usually abandon the house if their gifts are called payments, or if the owners of the house misuse them. Brownies make their homes in an unused part of the house.

 Chime hours - According to English folklore, those born at certain hours could see ghosts.

 Corn dolly - Corn dollies are a form of straw work made as part of harvest customs of Europe before mechanization. Before Christianisation, in traditional pagan European culture it was believed that the spirit of the corn lived amongst the crop, and that the harvest made it effectively homeless.

 Cunning folk - The term "cunning man" or "cunning woman" was most widely used in southern England and the Midlands, as well as in Wales. Such people were also frequently known across England as "wizards", "wise men".

 Dragons- Giant winged reptiles that breathe fire or poison.There are many dragon legends in England. Somerset and the North East being very rich.

 Drake's Drum - Shortly before he died, Drake ordered the drum to be taken to Buckland Abbey, where it still is today, and vowed that if England was ever in danger someone was to beat the drum and he would return to defend the country. According to legend it can be heard to beat at times when England is at war or significant national events take place.

 Dwarfs

 Elves

 Ettin

 English Country Dance - English Country Dance is a form of folk dance. It is a social dance form, which has earliest documented instances in the late 16th century.

 Flibbertigibbet  Green Man - A Green Man is a sculpture, drawing, or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves.

 Hag Stone Hag Stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it. Such stones have been discovered by archaeologists in both Britain and Egyp7t.

 Havelock the Dane

 Legend of the Mistletoe Bough - The Legend of the Mistletoe Bough is a ghost story which has been associated with many mansions and stately homes in England. The tale tells how a new bride, playing a game of hide-and-seek during her wedding breakfast, hid in a chest in an attic and was unable to escape. She was not discovered by her family and friends, and suffocated. The body was allegedly found many years later in the locked chest.

 Lob - The lubber fiend, Lob, lubberkin, lurdane or Lob Lie-By-The- Fire was a legendary creature of English folklore that was similar in attributes to the "brownie". He is typically described as a large, hairy man with a tail, who performs housework in exchange for a saucer of milk and a place in front of the fire. One story claims he is the giant son of a witch and the Devil.

 May Queen

 Maypole dance

 Maypole

 Oak Apple Day

 Ogres (or Trolls)

 Parish Ale

 Petrifying well

 Rabbit rabbit rabbit

 Redcap a groups of trolls, gobins, and even ugly elves with a red caps.

 Reynardine

 Robin Goodfellow is a troublesome elf or hobgoblin

7 Opie, Iona, and Peter Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, (2nd edn) 1997  Robin Hood – a legendary English hero.

 Saint Swithun - English weather lore

 Standing stones and chalk figures in the United Kingdom are the focus for folktales and beliefs.

 Tom Thumb

 Trooping the Colour is the best known English folk tradition in the world. Includes palace guards in their uniforms (Bearskin and red coats), the most widely recognised form of English folk costume, with traditional English tunes being played on huge brass bands.

 Wandering Jew

 Well dressing – An ancient practice of decorating wells in the Peak District and surrounding areas.

 Wild Hunt

 Will-o'-the-wisp A folk explanation of strange lights seen around marshes and bogs.

 Wyvern – Smaller relatives of dragons with two legs rather than four.

1.2. The most outstanding folklore examples in English literature The poem "Widsith," the wide goer or wanderer, is in part, at least, probably the oldest in our language. The author and the date of its composition are unknown; but the personal account of the minstrel's life belongs to the time before the Saxons first came to England.8[14] It expresses the wandering life of the gleeman, who goes forth into the world to abide here or there, according as he is rewarded for his singing. From the numerous references to rings and rewards, and from the praise given to generous givers, it would seem that literature as a paying profession began very early in our history, and also that the pay was barely sufficient to hold soul and body together. Of all our modern poets, Goldsmith wandering over Europe paying for his lodging with his songs is most suggestive of this first recorded singer of our race. His last lines read: Thus wandering, they who shape songs for men Pass over many lands, and tell their need, And speak their thanks, and ever, south or north, Meet someone skilled in songs and free in gifts, Who would be raised among his friends to fame And do brave deeds till light and life are gone. He who has thus wrought himself praise shall have A settled glory underneath the stars.[15]

DEOR'S LAMENT. In "Deor" we have another picture of the Saxon scop, or minstrel, not in glad wandering, but in manly sorrow. It seems that the scop's living depended entirely upon his power to please his chief, and that at any time he might be supplanted by a better poet. Deor had this experience, and comforts himself in a grim way by recalling various examples of men who have suffered more than himself. The poem is arranged in strophes, each one telling of some afflicted hero and ending with the same refrain: “His sorrow passed away; so will mine”. "Deor"

8 http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/2/3/10234 is much more poetic than "Widsith," and is the one perfect lyric of the Anglo- Saxon period.

Weland for a woman knew too well exile. Strong of soul that earl, sorrow sharp he bore; To companionship he had care and weary longing, Winter-freezing wretchedness. Woe he found again, again, After that Nithhad in a need had laid him-- Staggering sinew-wounds--sorrow-smitten man! “That he overwent; this also may I”. THE SEAFARER. The wonderful poem of "The Seafarer" seems to be in two distinct parts. The first shows the hardships of ocean life; but stronger than hardships is the subtle call of the sea. The second part is an allegory, in which the troubles of the seaman are symbols of the troubles of this life, and the call of the ocean is the call in the soul to be up and away to its true home with God. Whether the last was added by some monk who saw the allegorical possibilities of the first part, or whether some sea-loving Christian scop wrote both, is uncertain. Following are a few selected lines to show the spirit of the poem:

The hail flew in showers about me; and there I heard only The roar of the sea, ice-cold waves, and the song of the swan; For pastime the gannets' cry served me; the kittiwakes' chatter For laughter of men; and for mead drink the call of the sea mews. When storms on the rocky cliffs beat, then the terns, icy-feathered, Made answer; full oft the sea eagle forebodingly screamed, The eagle with pinions wave-wet.... The shadows of night became darker, it snowed from the north; The world was enchained by the frost; hail fell upon earth; 'T was the coldest of grain. Yet the thoughts of my heart now are throbbing To test the high streams, the salt waves in tumultuous play. Desire in my heart ever urges my spirit to wander, To seek out the home of the stranger in lands afar off. There is no one that dwells upon earth, so exalted in mind, But that he has always a longing, a sea-faring passion For what the Lord God shall bestow, be it honor or death. No heart for the harp has he, nor for acceptance of treasure, No pleasure has he in a wife, no delight in the world, Nor in aught save the roll of the billows; but always a longing, A yearning uneasiness, hastens him on to the sea. The woodlands are captured by blossoms, the hamlets grow fair, Broad meadows are beautiful, earth again bursts into life, And all stir the heart of the wanderer eager to journey, So he meditates going afar on the pathway of tides. The cuckoo, moreover, gives warning with sorrowful note, Summer's harbinger sings, and forebodes to the heart bitter sorrow. Now my spirit uneasily turns in the heart's narrow chamber, Now wanders forth over the tide, o'er the home of the whale, To the ends of the earth--and comes back to me. Eager and greedy, The lone wanderer screams, and resistlessly drives my soul onward, Over the whale-path, over the tracts of the sea. THE FIGHT AT FINNSBURGH AND WALDERE. Two other of our oldest poems well deserve mention. The "Fight at Finnsburgh" is a fragment of fifty lines, discovered on the inside of a piece of parchment drawn over the wooden covers of a book of homilies. It is a magnificent war song, describing with Homeric power the defense of a hall by Hnef[19] with sixty warriors, against the attack of Finn and his army. At midnight, when Hnef and his men are sleeping, they are surrounded by an army rushing in with fire and sword. Hnef springs to his feet at the first alarm and wakens his warriors with a call to action that rings like a bugle blast:

This no eastward dawning is, nor is here a dragon flying, Nor of this high hall are the horns a burning; But they rush upon us here--now the ravens sing, Growling is the gray wolf, grim the war-wood rattles, Shield to shaft is answering.

The fight lasts five days, but the fragment ends before we learn the outcome: The same fight is celebrated by Hrothgar's gleeman at the feast in Heorot, after the slaying of Grendel. "Waldere" is a fragment of two leaves, from which we get only a glimpse of the story of Waldere (Walter of Aquitaine) and his betrothed bride Hildgund, who were hostages at the court of Attila. They escaped with a great treasure, and in crossing the mountains were attacked by Gunther and his warriors, among whom was Walter's former comrade, Hagen. Walter fights them all and escapes. The same story was written in Latin in the tenth century, and is also part of the old German “Nibelungenlied”. Though the saga did not originate with the Anglo- Saxons, their version of it is the oldest that has come down to us. The chief significance of these "Waldere" fragments lies in the evidence they afford that our ancestors were familiar with the legends and poetry of other Germanic peoples.

CHAPTER II BEOWULF – THE EARLIEST EPIC POEM IN ENGLISH FOLKLORE 2.1. Total overview to poem “Beowulf” Beowulf9 is the conventional title of an Old English epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature due to the fact that it is the oldest surviving epic poem of Old English and also the earliest vernacular English literature.10 The whole poem survives in the manuscript known as the Nowell Codex, located in the British Library. Written in England, its composition by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet is dated between the 8th and the early 11th century. In 1731, the manuscript was badly damaged by a fire that swept through Ashburnham House in London that had a collection of medieval manuscripts assembled by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton. The poem's existence for its first seven centuries or so made no impression on writers and scholars, and besides a brief mention in a 1705 catalogue by Humfrey Wanley it was not studied until the end of the 18th century, and not published in its entirety until the 1815 edition prepared by the Icelandic-Danish scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin. In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats in Scandinavia, comes to the aid ofHroðgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall (in Heorot) has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland in Sweden and later becomes king of the Geats. After a period of fifty years has passed, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is fatally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants bury him in a tumulus, a burial mound, in Geatland. The events described in the poem take place in the late 5th century, after the Angles and Saxons had begun their migration to England, and before the

9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf 10 Aaij, Michel (2001), "Rev. of Owen-Crocker, The Four Funerals", South Atlantic Review 66 (4): 153–57 beginning of the 7th century, a time when the Anglo-Saxon people were either newly arrived or still in close contact with their Germanic kinsmen in Northern Germany and Scandinavia and possibly England. The poem may have been brought to England by people of Geatish origins. It has been suggested that Beowulf was first composed in the 7th century at Rendlesham in East Anglia, as the Sutton Hoo ship-burial also shows close connections with Scandinavia, and also that the East Anglian royal dynasty, the Wuffings, were descendants of the Geatish Wulfings. Others have associated this poem with the court of King Alfred, or with the court of King Canute. The poem deals with legends, was composed for entertainment, and does not separate between fictional elements and real historic events, such as the raid by King Hygelac into Frisia. Scholars generally agree that many of the personalities ofBeowulf also appear in Scandinavian sources (specific works designated in the following section). This does not only concern people (e.g., Healfdene, Hroðgar, Halga, Hroðulf, Eadgils and Ohthere), but also clans (e.g., Scyldings, Scylfings and Wulfings) and some of the events (e.g., the Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern). The dating of the events in the poem has been confirmed by archaeological excavations of the barrows indicated by Snorri Sturluson and by Swedish tradition as the graves of Ohthere (dated to c. 530) and his son Eadgils (dated to c. 575) in Uppland, Sweden. In Denmark, recent archaeological excavations at Lejre, where Scandinavian tradition located the seat of the Scyldings, i.e., Heorot, have revealed that a hall was built in the mid-6th century, exactly the time period of Beowulf. Three halls, each about 50 metres (164 feet) long, were found during the excavation. The majority view appears to be that people such as King Hroðgar and the Scyldings in Beowulf are based on real historical people from 6th-century Scandinavia. Like the Finnsburg Fragment and several shorter surviving poems, Beowulf has consequently been used as a source of information about Scandinavian personalities such as Eadgils and Hygelac, and about continental Germanic personalities such as Offa, king of the continental Angles. 19th-century archeological evidence may confirm elements of the Beowulf story. Eadgils was buried at Uppsala, according to Snorri Sturluson. When Eadgils' mound was excavated in 1874, the finds supported Beowulf and the sagas. They showed that a powerful man was buried in a large barrow, c 575, on a bear skin with two dogs and rich grave offerings. These remains include a Frankish sword adorned with gold and garnets and a tafl game with Roman pawns of ivory. He was dressed in a costly suit made of Frankish cloth with golden threads, and he wore a belt with a costly buckle. There were four cameos from the Middle East which were probably part of a casket. This would have been a burial fitting a king who was famous for his wealth in Old Norse sources. Ongenþeow's barrow (to the right in the photo) has not been excavated. The main protagonist, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hroðgar, the king of the Danes, whose great hall, Heorot, is plagued by the monster Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands and Grendel's mother with a sword of a giant that he found in her lair. Later in his life, Beowulf is himself king of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorised by a dragon whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound. He attacks the dragon with the help of his thegns or servants, but they do not succeed. Beowulf decides to follow the dragon into its lair, at Earnanæs, but only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf dares join him. Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but is mortally wounded. He is buried in a tumulus or burial mound, by the sea11. Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts. The poem also begins in medias res ("into the middle of affairs") or simply, "in the middle", which is a characteristic of the epics of antiquity. Although the poem begins with Beowulf's arrival, Grendel's attacks have been an ongoing event. An elaborate history of characters and their lineages is

11 Anderson, Sarah, ed. (2004), Introduction and historical/cultural contexts, Longman Cultural, ISBN 0-321-10720-9. spoken of, as well as their interactions with each other, debts owed and repaid, and deeds of valour. The warriors follow a manifest of rules on heroism called comitatus, which is the basis for all of the words, deeds, and actions. While earlier scholars (such as J.R.R. Tolkien in "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics") divided the poem in two parts, the first part relating the hero's adventures in his youth and the second his kingship and death, a view of the poem as structured in three parts is more frequently accepted by modern scholars. According to the latter view, as argued in 1980 by Jane Chance of Rice University, the fight with Grendel's mother acquires a separate quality, as a turning point in the narrative. (The Four Funerals in Beowulf and the Structure of the Poem, Manchester UP, 2000) proposed a different division and structure: she sees the poem as punctuated and organized by four funerals. Three are well-known: the ship funeral of Scyld, the funeral pyre on which Hildeburh places her brother and her son, and the funeral mound for Beowulf; in addition, Owen-Crocker argues that the so-called "Lay of the Last Survivor", ll. 2247–66, is also a funeral. Beowulf begins with the story of King Hrothgar, who constructed the great hall Heorot for his people. In it he, his wife Wealhþeow, and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating, until Grendel, a troll-like monster who is pained by the noise, attacks the hall and kills and devours many of Hrothgar warriors while they sleep. But Grendel does not touch the throne of Hroðgar, for it is described as being protected by the power of God. Hroðgar and his people, helpless against Grendel's attacks, abandon Heorot. Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland, hears of Hroðgar's troubles and with his king's permission leaves his homeland to help Hroðgar. Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. Beowulf bears no weapon because this would be an "unfair advantage" over the unarmed beast. After they fall asleep, Grendel enters the hall and attacks, devouring one of Beowulf's men. Beowulf has been feigning sleep and leaps up to clench Grendel's hand. The two battle until it seems as though the hall might collapse. Beowulf's retainers draw their swords and rush to his aid, but their blades cannot pierce Grendel's skin. Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel's arm from his body at the shoulder and Grendel runs to his home in the marshes and slowly dies. The next night, after celebrating Grendel's defeat, Hrothgar and his men sleep in Heorot. Grendel's mother, angered by the punishment of her son, appears and attacks the hall. She kills Hroðgar's most trusted warrior, Æschere, in revenge for Grendel's defeat. Hroðgar, Beowulf and their men track Grendel's mother to her lair under a lake. Beowulf prepares himself for battle; he is presented with a sword, Hrunting, by Unferth, a warrior who had doubted him and wishes to make amends. After stipulating a number of conditions to Hroðgar in case of his death (including the taking in of his kinsmen and the inheritance by Unferth of Beowulf's estate), Beowulf dives into the lake. He is swiftly detected and attacked by Grendel's mother. However, she is unable to harm Beowulf through his armour and drags him to the bottom of the lake. In a cavern containing Grendel's body and the remains of men that the two have killed, Grendel's mother and Beowulf engage in fierce combat. At first, Grendel's mother appears to prevail. Beowulf, finding that Hrunting cannot harm his foe, discards it in fury. Beowulf is again saved from his opponent's attack by his armour. Beowulf grabs a magical sword from Grendel's mother's treasure, and with it beheads her. Travelling further into the lair, Beowulf discovers Grendel's dying body and severs its head. The blade of the magic sword melts like ice when it touches Grendel's toxic blood, until only the hilt is left. This hilt is the only treasure that Beowulf carries out of the cavern, which he presents to Hroðgar upon his return to Heorot. Beowulf then returns to the surface and to his men at the "ninth hour" (l. 1600, "nōn", about 3pm). He returns to Heorot, where Hroðgar gives Beowulf many gifts, including (possibly) the sword Nægling, his family's heirloom. The hilt prompts a long reflection by the king, sometimes referred to as "Hrothgar's sermon", in which he urges Beowulf to be wary of pride and to reward his thanes. Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes king of his own people. One day, fifty years after Beowulf's battle with Grendel's mother, a slave steals a golden cup from the lair of an unnamed dragon at Earnaness. When the dragon sees that the cup has been stolen, it leaves its cave in a rage, burning everything in sight. Beowulf and his warriors come to fight the dragon, but Beowulf tells his men that he will fight the dragon alone and that they should wait on the barrow. Beowulf descends to do battle with the dragon but finds himself outmatched. His men, upon seeing this display and fearing for their lives, creep back into the woods. One of his men, however, Wiglaf, who finds great distress in seeing Beowulf's plight, comes to Beowulf's aid. The two slay the dragon, but Beowulf is mortally wounded. After Beowulf's death, he is ritually burned on a great pyre in Geatland while his people wail and mourn him. After, a barrow is built on his remains, which is able to be seen from the sea. (Beowulf Lines 2712-3182). Beowulf was written in England, but is set in Scandinavia. It has variously been dated to between the 8th and the early 11th centuries. It is an epic poem told in historical perspective; a story of epic events and of great people of a heroic past. Although its author is unknown, its themes and subject matter are rooted in Germanic heroic poetry, in Anglo-Saxon tradition recited and cultivated by Old English poets called scops12. Opinion differs as to whether the composition of the poem is contemporary with its transcription, or whether the poem was composed at an earlier time (possibly as one of the Bear's Son Tales) and orally transmitted for many years, and then transcribed at a later date. Lord[25][page needed] felt strongly the manuscript represents the transcription of a performance, though likely taken at more than one sitting. Kiernan argues on the basis of paleographical and codicological evidence, that the poem is contemporary with the manuscript. Kiernan's reasoning has in part to do with the much-discussed political context of the poem: it has been held by most scholars, until recently, that the poem was composed in the 8th century on the

12 Chadwick, Nora K. "The Monsters and Beowulf." The Anglo-Saxons: Studies in Some Aspects of Their History. Ed. Peter ed Clemoes. London: Bowes & Bowes, 1959. 171–203. assumption that a poem eliciting sympathy for the Danes could not have been composed by Anglo-Saxons during the Viking Ages of the 9th and 10th centuries, and that the poem celebrates the namesakes of 8th-century Mercian kings Kiernan argues against an 8th-century provenance because this would still require that the poem be transmitted by Anglo-Saxons through the Viking Age, holds that the paleographic and codicological evidence encourages the belief that Beowulf is an 11th-century composite poem, and states that Scribe A and Scribe B are the authors and that Scribe B is the more poignant of the two. This matches with the royal house of England in the early 11th Century being Danish, making the poem politically compatible with this time period. The view of J. R. R. Tolkien is that the poem retains a much too genuine memory of Anglo-Saxon paganism to have been composed more than a few generations after the completion of the Christianisation of England around AD 700. Tolkien's conviction that the poem dates to the 8th century is defended by Tom Shippey. The celebration of deeds of ancient Danish and Swedish heroes, the poem beginning with a tribute to the royal line of Danish kings, but written in the dominant literary dialect of Anglo-Saxon England, for a number of scholars points to the 11th century reign of Canute, the Danish king whose empire included all of these areas, and whose primary place of residence was in England, as the most likely time of the poem's creation, the poem being written as a celebration of the king's heroic royal ancestors, perhaps intended as a form of artistic flattery by one of his English courtiers. A suggestion made by John Mitchell Kemble (1849) and defended by Jäching (1976) puts a terminus post quem of the early 9th century on the Finnesburg episode at least. Kemble identifies the character of Hnæf son of Hoc with the historical Alamannic nobleman Hnabison of Huoching (d. ca. 788), worked into the earlier episode set in Frisia around AD 800 at the earliest. The 11th century date is due to scholars who argue that, rather than transcription of the tale from the oral tradition by a literate monk,Beowulf reflects an original interpretation of the story by the poet. Beowulf survives in a single manuscript dated on paleographical grounds to the late 10th or early 11th century. The manuscript measures 195 × 130 cm. The earliest known owner of the Beowulf manuscript, the 16th-century scholar Laurence Nowell, lends his name to the manuscript (Nowell Codex), though its official designation is "British Library, Cotton Vitellius A.XV" because it was one of Robert Bruce Cotton's holdings in the Cotton Library in the middle of the 17th century. Kevin Kiernan argues that Nowell most likely acquired it through William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, in 1563, when Nowell entered Cecil’s household as a tutor to his ward, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. It suffered damage in the Cotton Library fire at Ashburnham House in 1731. Since then, parts of the manuscript have crumbled along with many of the letters. Rebinding efforts, though saving the manuscript from much degeneration, have nonetheless covered up other letters of the poem, causing further loss. Kevin Kiernan, professor of English at the University of Kentucky, an expert in computer digitalisation and preservation of the manuscript, used fibre-optic backlighting to reveal lost letters of the poem. The poem is known only from this single manuscript, which is estimated to date from close to AD 1000. Kiernan has argued from an examination of the manuscript that it was the author's own working copy. He dated the work to the reign of Canute the Great (1016–1035). The poem appears in what is today called the Beowulf manuscript or Nowell Codex(British Library MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv), along with other works. The earliest extant reference to the first foliation of the Nowell Codex was made sometime between 1628 and 1650 by Franciscus Junius (the younger). The ownership of the codex before Nowell remains a mystery.] The Reverend Thomas Smith (1638–1710) and Humfrey Wanley (1672– 1726) each catalogued the Cotton library, in which the Nowell Codex was held. Smith’s catalogue appeared in 1696, and Waney’s in 1705.[31][page needed] The Beowulf manuscript itself is identified by name for the first time in an exchange of letters in 1700 between George Hickes, Wanley’s assistant, and Wanley. In the letter to Wanley, Hickes responds to an apparent charge against Smith, made by Wanley, that Smith had failed to mention the Beowulf script when cataloguing Cotton MS. Vitellius A. XV. Hickes replies to Wanley "I can find nothing yet of Beowulph." It has been theorised that Smith failed to mention the Beowulf manuscript because of his reliance on previous catalogues or because either he had no idea how to describe it or because it was temporarily out of the codex. The Beowulf manuscript was transcribed from an original by two scribes, one of whom wrote the first 1939 lines and a second who wrote the remainder, so the poem up to line 1939 is in one handwriting, whilst the rest of the poem is in another. The script of the second scribe is archaic.[ Both scribes proofread their work down to even the most minute error. The second scribe slaved over the poem for many years "with great reverence and care to restoration". The first scribe's revisions can be broken down into three categories "the removal of dittographic material; the restoration of material that was inadvertently omitted or was about to be omitted; and the conversion of legitimate, but contextually incorrect words to the contextually proper words. These three categories provide the most compelling evidence that the scribe was generally attentive to his work while he was copying, and that he later subjected his work to careful proofreading." The work of the second scribe bears a striking resemblance to the work of the first scribe of the Blickling homilies, and so much so that it is believed they derive from the same scriptorium.[From knowledge of books held in the library at Malmesbury Abbey and available as source works, and from the identification of certain words particular to the local dialect found in the text, the transcription may have been made there.13 However, for at least a century, some scholars have maintained that the description of Grendel’s lake in Beowulf was borrowed from St. Paul’s vision

13 Chickering, Howell D. (2002), "Beowulf and 'Heaneywulf': review", Kenyon Review, new series 24 (1): 160–78. of Hell in Homily 16 of the Blickling homilies.[11][page needed] Most intriguing in the many versions of the Beowulf FS is the transcription of alliterative verse. From the first scribe's edits, emenders such as Klaeber were forced to alter words for the sake of the poem. "The lack of alliteration in line 1981 forced Klaeber in his edition, for example, to change side (the scribe's correction) to heal. The latter scribe revealed not only astute mechanical editing, but also unbridled nourishment of the physical manuscript itself."[26] Icelandic scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin made the first transcriptions of the manuscript in 1786 and published the results in 1815, working under a historical research commission of the Danish government. He made one himself, and had another done by a professional copyist who knew no Anglo-Saxon. Since that time, the manuscript has crumbled further, and the Thorkelin transcripts remain a prized secondary source for Beowulf scholars. The recovery of at least 2000 letters can be attributed to these transcripts. Their accuracy has been called into question, however (e.g., by Chauncey Brewster Tinker in The Translations of Beowulf,[] a comprehensive survey of 19th-century translations and editions of Beowulf), and the extent to which the manuscript was actually more readable in Thorkelin's time is unclear.

2.2. Overview to the literary significance of “Beowulf” In 1805, Sharon Turner translated selected verses into modern English. This was followed in 1814 by John Josias Conybeare who published an edition "in English paraphrase and Latin verse translation."[ In 1815, Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin published the first complete edition in Latin. N. F. S. Grundtvig reviewed this edition in 1815 and created the first complete verse translation in Danish in 1820. In 1837, J. M. Kemble created an important literal translation in English.] In 1895, William Morris & A. J. Wyatt published the ninth English translation.[ In 1909, Francis Barton Gummere's full translation in "English imitative meter" was published, and was used as the text of Gareth Hinds's graphic novel based on Beowulf in 200714. During the early 20th century, Frederick Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg[] (which included the poem in Old English, an extensive glossary of Old English terms, and general background information) became the "central source used by graduate students for the study of the poem and by scholars and teachers as the basis of their translations." A great number of translations are available, in poetry and prose. Andy Orchard, in A Critical Companion to Beowulf, lists 33 "representative" translations in his bibliography, and it has been translated into at least 23 other languages.[ particular importance is Seamus Heaney's 1999 translation of the poem (referred to by Howell Chickering and many others as "Heaneywulf" which is included in The Norton Anthology of English Literature since the seventh edition, ensuring "a dominant position of Beowulf in the college classroom". Translating Beowulf is one of the subjects of the 2012 publication Beowulf at Kalamazoo, containing a section with 10 essays on translation, and a section with 22 reviews of Heaney's translation. J. R. R. Tolkien's long-awaited translation (edited by his son Christopher) will be published in Beowulf: A Translation and Commentaryon May 22, 2014.

14 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf The question of whether Beowulf was passed down through oral tradition prior to its present manuscript form has been the subject of much debate, and involves more than the mere matter of how it was composed. Rather, given the implications of the theory of oral-formulaic composition and oral tradition, the question concerns how the poem is to be understood, and what sorts of interpretations are legitimate. Scholarly discussion about Beowulf in the context of the oral tradition was extremely active throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The debate might be framed starkly as follows: on the one hand, we can hypothesise a poem put together from various tales concerning the hero (the Grendel episode, the Grendel's mother story, and the firedrake narrative). These fragments would be held for many years in tradition, and learned by apprenticeship from one generation of illiterate poets to the next. The poem is composed orally and extemporaneously, and the archive of tradition on which it draws is oral, pagan, Germanic, heroic, and tribal. On the other hand, one might posit a poem which is composed by a literate scribe, who acquired literacy by way of learning Latin (and absorbing Latinate culture and ways of thinking), probably a monk and therefore profoundly Christian in outlook. On this view, the pagan references would be a sort of decorative archaising. There is a third view that sees merit in both arguments above and attempts to bridge them, and so cannot be articulated as starkly as they can; it sees more than one Christianity and more than one attitude towards paganism at work in the poem, separated from each other by hundreds of years; it sees the poem as originally the product of a literate Christian author with one foot in the pagan world and one in the Christian, himself a convert perhaps or one whose forbears had been pagan, a poet who was conversant in both oral and literary milieus and was capable of a masterful "repurposing" of poetry from the oral tradition; this early Christian poet saw virtue manifest in a willingness to sacrifice oneself in a devotion to justice and in an attempt to aid and protect those in need of help and greater safety; good pagan men had trodden that noble path and so this poet presents pagan culture with equanimity and respect; yet overlaid upon this early Christian poet's composition are verses from a much later reformist "fire-and-brimstone" Christian poet who vilifies pagan practice as dark and sinful and who adds satanic aspects to its monsters. However, scholars such as DK Crowne have proposed the idea that the poem was passed down from reciter to reciter under the theory of oral-formulaic composition, which hypothesises that epic poems were (at least to some extent) improvised by whomever was reciting them. In his landmark work, The Singer of Tales, Albert Lord refers to the work of Francis P. Magoun and others, saying “the documentation is complete, thorough, and accurate. This exhaustive analysis is in itself sufficient to prove that Beowulf was composed orally.” Examination of Beowulf and other Anglo-Saxon poetry for evidence of oral- formulaic composition has met with mixed response. While "themes" (inherited narrative subunits for representing familiar classes of event, such as the "arming the hero",[ or the particularly well-studied "hero on the beach" theme) do exist across Anglo-Saxon and other Germanic works, some scholars conclude that Anglo-Saxon poetry is a mix of oral-formulaic and literate patterns, arguing that the poems both were composed on a word-by-word basis and followed larger formulae and patterns. Larry Benson argued that the interpretation of Beowulf as an entirely formulaic work diminishes the ability of the reader to analyze the poem in a unified manner, and with due attention to the poet’s creativity. Instead, he proposed that other pieces of Germanic literature contain "kernels of tradition" from which Beowulf borrows and expands upon. A few years later, Ann Watts published a book in which she argued against the imperfect application of traditional, Homeric, oral-formulaic theory to Anglo-Saxon poetry. She also argued that the two traditions are not comparable and should not be regarded as such. Thomas Gardner agreed with Watts, in a paper published four years later which argued that the Beowulf text is of too varied a nature to be completely constructed from formulae and themes. John Miles Foley held, specifically with reference to the Beowulf debate, that while comparative work was both necessary and valid, it must be conducted with a view to the particularities of a given tradition; Foley argued with a view to developments of oral traditional theory that do not assume, or depend upon, finally unverifiable assumptions about composition, and that discard the oral/literate dichotomy focused on composition in favor of a more fluid continuum of traditionality and textuality. Finally, in the view of Ursula Schaefer, the question of whether the poem was "oral" or "literate" becomes something of a red herring. In this model, the poem is created, and is interpretable, within both noetic horizons. Schaefer’s concept of "vocality" offers neither a compromise nor a synthesis of the views which see the poem as on the one hand Germanic, pagan, and oral and on the other Latin-derived, Christian, and literate, but, as stated by Monika Otter: "...a 'tertium quid', a modality that participates in both oral and literate culture yet also has a logic and aesthetic of its own." An Old English poem such as Beowulf is very different from modern poetry. Anglo-Saxon poets typically used alliterative verse, a form ofverse that uses alliteration as the principal structuring device to unify lines of poetry, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme, a tool which is used rather infrequently. This is a technique in which the first half of the line (the a-verse) is linked to the second half (the b-verse) through similarity in initial sound. In addition, the two halves are divided by a caesura: "Oft Scyld Scefing \\ sceaþena þreatum" (l. 4). This is a form of accentual verse, as opposed to our accentual-syllabic verse. There are four beats in every line – and two in every half-line. The poet has a choice of epithets or formulae to use in order to fulfill the alliteration. When speaking or reading Old English poetry, it is important to remember for alliterative purposes that many of the letters are not pronounced the same way as they are in modern English. The letter "h", for example, is always pronounced (Hroðgar: HROTH-gar), and the digraph "cg" is pronounced like "dj", as in the word "edge". Both f and s vary in pronunciation depending on their phonetic environment. Between vowels or voiced consonants, they are voiced, sounding like modern v and z, respectively. Otherwise they are unvoiced, like modern f in "fat" and s in "sat". Some letters which are no longer found in modern English, such as thorn, þ, and eth, ð – representing both pronunciations of modern English "th", as in "thing" and "this" – are used extensively both in the original manuscript and in modern English editions. The voicing of these characters echoes that of f and s. Both are voiced (as in "this") between other voiced sounds: oðer, laþleas, suþern. Otherwise they are unvoiced (as in "thing"): þunor, suð, soþfæst.

2.3. Story of epic poem “Beowulf” 15 At a time when the Spear Danes were without a king, a ship came sailing into their harbor. It was filled with treasures and weapons of war; and in the midst of these warlike things was a baby sleeping. No man sailed the ship; it came of itself, bringing the child, whose name was Scyld. Now Scyld grew and became a mighty warrior, and led the Spear Danes for many years, and was their king. When his son Beowulf had become strong and wise enough to rule, then Wyrd (Fate), who speaks but once to any man, came and stood at hand; and it was time for Scyld to go. This is how they buried him: Then Scyld departed, at word of Wyrd spoken, The hero to go to the home of the gods. Sadly they bore him to brink of the ocean, Comrades, still heeding his word of command. There rode in the harbor the prince's ship, ready, With prow curving proudly and shining sails set. Shipward they bore him, their hero beloved; The mighty they laid at the foot of the mast. Treasures were there from far and near gathered, Byrnies of battle, armor and swords; Never a keel sailed out of a harbor So splendidly tricked with the trappings of war. They heaped on his bosom a hoard of bright jewels To fare with him forth on the flood's great breast. No less gift they gave than the Unknown provided, When alone, as a child, he came in from the mere. High o'er his head waved a bright golden standard-- Now let the waves bear their wealth to the holm. Sad-souled they gave back its gift to the ocean, Mournful their mood as he sailed out to sea.

15 EBook of English Literature, by William J. Long ISO-8859-1 "And no man," says the poet, "neither counselor nor hero, can tell who received that lading." One of Scyld's descendants was Hrothgar, king of the Danes; and with him the story of our Beowulf begins. Hrothgar in his old age had built near the sea a mead hall called Heorot, the most splendid hall in the whole world, where the king and his thanes gathered nightly to feast and to listen to the songs of his gleemen. One night, as they were all sleeping, a frightful monster, Grendel, broke into the hall, killed thirty of the sleeping warriors, and carried off their bodies to devour them in his lair under the sea. The appalling visit was speedily repeated, and fear and death reigned in the great hall. The warriors fought at first; but fled when they discovered that no weapon could harm the monster. Heorot was left deserted and silent. For twelve winters Grendel's horrible raids continued, and joy was changed to mourning among the Spear Danes. At last the rumor of Grendel crossed over the sea to the land of the Geats, where a young hero dwelt in the house of his uncle, King Hygelac. Beowulf was his name, a man of immense strength and courage, and a mighty swimmer who had developed his powers fighting the "nickers," whales, walruses and seals, in the icebound northern ocean. When he heard the story, Beowulf was stirred to go and fight the monster and free the Danes, who were his father's friends. With fourteen companions he crosses the sea. There is an excellent bit of ocean poetry here and we get a vivid idea of the hospitality of a brave people by following the poet's description of Beowulf's meeting with King Hrothgar and Queen Wealhtheow, and of the joy and feasting and story-telling in Heorot. The picture of Wealhtheow passing the mead cup to the warriors with her own hand is a noble one, and plainly indicates the reverence paid by these strong men to their wives and mothers. Night comes on; the fear of Grendel is again upon the Danes, and all withdraw after the king has warned Beowulf of the frightful danger of sleeping in the hall. But Beowulf lies down with his warriors, saying proudly that, since weapons will not avail against the monster, he will grapple with him bare handed and trust to a warrior's strength. Forth from the fens, from the misty moorlands, Grendel came gliding--God's wrath[5] he bore-- Came under clouds, until he saw clearly, Glittering with gold plates, the mead hall of men. Down fell the door, though fastened with fire bands; Open it sprang at the stroke of his paw. Swollen with rage burst in the bale-bringer; Flamed in his eyes a fierce light, likest fire. At the sight of men again sleeping in the hall, Grendel laughs in his heart, thinking of his feast. He seizes the nearest sleeper, crushes his "bone case" with a bite, tears him limb from limb, and swallows him. Then he creeps to the couch of Beowulf and stretches out a claw, only to find it clutched in a grip of steel. A sudden terror strikes the monster's heart. He roars, struggles, tries to jerk his arm free; but Beowulf leaps to his feet and grapples his enemy bare handed. To and fro they surge. Tables are overturned; golden benches ripped from their fastenings; the whole building quakes, and only its iron bands keep it from falling to pieces. Beowulf's companions are on their feet now, hacking vainly at the monster with swords and battle-axes, adding their shouts to the crashing of furniture and the howling "war song" of Grendel. Outside in the town the Danes stand shivering at the uproar. Slowly the monster struggles to the door, dragging Beowulf, whose fingers crack with the strain, but who never relaxes his first grip. Suddenly a wide wound opens in the monster's side; the sinews snap; the whole arm is wrenched off at the shoulder; and Grendel escapes shrieking across the moor, and plunges into the sea to die.

Beowulf first exults in his night's work; then he hangs the huge arm with its terrible claws from a cross-beam over the king's seat, as one would hang up a bear's skin after a hunt. At daylight came the Danes; and all day long, in the intervals of singing, story-telling, speech making, and gift giving, they return to wonder at the mighty "grip of Grendel" and to rejoice in Beowulf's victory. When night falls a great feast is spread in Heorot, and the Danes sleep once more in the great hall. At midnight comes another monster, a horrible, half-human creature, mother of Grendel, raging to avenge her offspring. She thunders at the door; the Danes leap up and grasp their weapons; but the monster enters, seizes Aeschere, who is friend and adviser of the king, and rushes away with him over the fens. The old scenes of sorrow are reviewed in the morning; but Beowulf says simply: Sorrow not, wise man. It is better for each That his friend he avenge than that he mourn much. Each of us shall the end await Of worldly life: let him who may gain Honor ere death. That is for a warrior, When he is dead, afterwards best. Arise, kingdom's guardian! Let us quickly go To view the track of Grendel's kinsman. I promise it thee: he will not escape, Nor in earth's bosom, nor in mountain-wood, Nor in ocean's depths, go where he will. Then he girds himself for the new fight and follows the track of the second enemy across the fens. Here is Hrothgar's description of the place where live the monsters, "spirits of elsewhere," as he calls them: They inhabit The dim land that gives shelter to the wolf, The windy headlands, perilous fen paths, Where, under mountain mist, the stream flows down And floods the ground. Not far hence, but a mile, The mere stands, over which hang death-chill groves, A wood fast-rooted overshades the flood; There every night a ghastly miracle Is seen, fire in the water. No man knows, Not the most wise, the bottom of that mere. The firm-horned heath-stalker, the hart, when pressed, Wearied by hounds, and hunted from afar, Will rather die of thirst upon its bank Than bend his head to it. It is unholy. Dark to the clouds its yeasty waves mount up When wind stirs hateful tempest, till the air Grows dreary, and the heavens pour down tears. Beowulf plunges into the horrible place, while his companions wait for him oh the shore. For a long time he sinks through the flood; then, as he reaches bottom, Grendel's mother rushes out upon him and drags him into a cave, where sea monsters swarm at him from behind and gnash his armor with their tusks. The edge of his sword is turned with the mighty blow he deals the “merewif”; but it harms not the monster. Casting the weapon aside, he grips her and tries to hurl her down, while her claws and teeth clash upon his corslet but cannot penetrate the steel rings. She throws her bulk upon him, crushes him down, draws a short sword and plunges it at him; but again his splendid byrnie saves him. He is wearied now, and oppressed. Suddenly, as his eye sweeps the cave, he catches sight of a magic sword, made by the giants long ago, too heavy for warriors to wield. Struggling up he seizes the weapon, whirls it and brings down a crashing blow upon the monster's neck. It smashes through the ring bones; the “merewif” falls, and the fight is won. The cave is full of treasures; but Beowulf heeds them not, for near him lies Grendel, dead from the wound received the previous night. Again Beowulf swings the great sword and strikes off his enemy's head; and lo, as the venomous blood touches the sword blade, the steel melts like ice before the fire, and only the hilt is left in Beowulf's hand. Taking the hilt and the head, the hero enters the ocean and mounts up to the shore. Only his own faithful band were waiting there; for the Danes, seeing the ocean bubble with fresh blood, thought it was all over with the hero and had gone home. And there they were, mourning in Heorot, when Beowulf returned with the monstrous head of Grendel carried on a spear shaft by four of his stoutest followers. In the last part of the poem there is another great fight. Beowulf is now an old man; he has reigned for fifty years, beloved by all his people. He has overcome every enemy but one, a fire dragon keeping watch over an enormous treasure hidden among the mountains. One day a wanderer stumbles upon the enchanted cave and, entering, takes a jeweled cup while the firedrake sleeps heavily. That same night the dragon, in a frightful rage, belching forth fire and smoke, rushes down upon the nearest villages, leaving a trail of death and terror behind him. Again Beowulf goes forth to champion his people. As he approaches the dragon's cave, he has a presentiment that death lurks within: Sat on the headland there the warrior king; Farewell he said to hearth-companions true, The gold-friend of the Geats; his mind was sad, Death-ready, restless. And Wyrd was drawing nigh, Who now must meet and touch the aged man, To seek the treasure that his soul had saved And separate his body from his life. There is a flash of illumination, like that which comes to a dying man, in which his mind runs back over his long life and sees something of profound meaning in the elemental sorrow moving side by side with magnificent courage. Then follows the fight with the firedrake, in which Beowulf, wrapped in fire and smoke, is helped by the heroism of Wiglaf, one of his companions. The dragon is slain, but the fire has entered Beowulf's lungs and he knows that Wyrd is at hand. This is his thought, while Wiglaf removes his battered armor: "One deep regret I have: that to a son I may not give the armor I have worn, To bear it after me. For fifty years I ruled these people well, and not a king Of those who dwell around me, dared oppress Or meet me with his hosts. At home I waited For the time that Wyrd controls. Mine own I kept, Nor quarrels sought, nor ever falsely swore. Now, wounded sore, I wait for joy to come." He sends Wiglaf into the firedrake's cave, who finds it filled with rare treasures and, most wonderful of all, a golden banner from which light proceeds and illumines all the darkness. But Wiglaf cares little for the treasures; his mind is full of his dying chief. He fills his hands with costly ornaments and hurries to throw them at his hero's feet. The old man looks with sorrow at the gold, thanks the "Lord of all" that by death he has gained more riches for his people, and tells his faithful thane how his body shall be burned on the Whale ness, or headland: "My life is well paid for this hoard; and now Care for the people's needs. I may no more Be with them. Bid the warriors raise a barrow After the burning, on the ness by the sea, On Hronesness, which shall rise high and be For a remembrance to my people. Seafarers Who from afar over the mists of waters Drive foamy keels may call it Beowulf's Mount Hereafter." Then the hero from his neck Put off a golden collar; to his thane, To the young warrior, gave it with his helm, Armlet and corslet; bade him use them well. "Thou art the last Waegmunding of our race, For fate has swept my kinsmen all away. Earls in their strength are to their Maker gone, And I must follow them." Beowulf was still living when Wiglaf sent a messenger hurriedly to his people; when they came they found him dead, and the huge dragon dead on the sand beside him. Then the Goth's people reared a mighty pile With shields and armour hung, as he had asked, And in the midst the warriors laid their lord, Lamenting. Then the warriors on the mount Kindled a mighty bale fire; the smoke rose Black from the Swedish pine, the sound of flame Mingled with sound of weeping; ... while smoke Spread over heaven. Then upon the hill The people of the Weders wrought a mound, High, broad, and to be seen far out at sea. In ten days they had built and walled it in As the wise thought most worthy; placed in it Rings, jewels, other treasures from the hoard. They left the riches, golden joy of earls, In dust, for earth to hold; where yet it lies, Useless as ever. Then about the mound The warriors rode, and raised a mournful song For their dead king; exalted his brave deeds, Holding it fit men honour their liege lord, Praise him and love him when his soul is fled. Thus the [Geat's] people, sharers of his hearth, Mourned their chief's fall, praised him, of kings, of men The mildest and the kindest, and to all His people gentlest, yearning for their praise. One is tempted to linger over the details of the magnificent ending: the unselfish heroism of Beowulf, the great prototype of King Alfred; the generous grief of his people, ignoring gold and jewels in the thought of the greater treasure they had lost; the memorial mound on the low cliff, which would cause every returning mariner to steer a straight course to harbor in the remembrance of his dead hero; and the pure poetry which marks every noble line. But the epic is great enough and simple enough to speak for itself. Search the literatures of the world, and you will find no other such picture of a brave man's death. Concerning the history of “Beowulf” a whole library has been written, and scholars still differ too radically for us to express a positive judgment. This much, however, is clear,--that there existed, at the time the poem was composed, various northern legends of Beowa, a half-divine hero, and the monster Grendel. The latter has been interpreted in various ways,--sometimes as a bear, and again as the malaria of the marsh lands. For those interested in symbols the simplest interpretation of these myths is to regard Beowulf's successive fights with the three dragons as the overcoming, first, of the overwhelming danger of the sea, which was beaten back by the dykes; second, the conquering of the sea itself, when men learned to sail upon it; and third, the conflict with the hostile forces of nature, which are overcome at last by man's indomitable will and perseverance. All this is purely mythical; but there are historical incidents to reckon with. About the year 520 a certain northern chief, called by the chronicler Chochilaicus (who is generally identified with the Hygelac of the epic), led a huge plundering expedition up the Rhine. After a succession of battles he was overcome by the Franks, but--and now we enter a legendary region once more--not until a gigantic nephew of Hygelac had performed heroic feats of valor, and had saved the remnants of the host by a marvelous feat of swimming. The majority of scholars now hold that these historical events and personages were celebrated in the epic; but some still assert that the events which gave a foundation for “Beowulf” occurred wholly on English soil, where the poem itself was undoubtedly written. The rhythm of “Beowulf” and indeed of all our earliest poetry depended upon accent and alliteration; that is, the beginning of two or more words in the same line with the same sound or letter. The lines were made up of two short halves, separated by a pause. No rime was used; but a musical effect was produced by giving each half line two strongly accented syllables. Each full line, therefore, had four accents, three of which (i.e. two in the first half, and one in the second) usually began with the same sound or letter. The musical effect was heightened by the harp with which the gleeman accompanied his singing.. The poetical form will be seen clearly in the following selection from the wonderfully realistic description of the fens haunted by Grendel. It will need only one or two readings aloud to show that many of these strange-looking words are practically the same as those we still use, though many of the vowel sounds were pronounced differently by our ancestors.

CHAPTER III ROBIN HOOD – MARBLE EXAMPLE OF ENGLISH HEROISM 3.1. Cenerel overview to tho plot of story Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore, and, according to legend, was also a highly skilled archer and swordsman. Although such behaviour was not part of his original character, since the beginning of the 19th century he has become known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes.The origin of the legend is asserted by some to have been actual outlaws, or ballads or tales of outlaws16. Robin Hood became a popular folk figure in the medieval period, continuing through to modern literature, films and television. In the earliest sources, Robin Hood is a yeoman, but he was often later portrayed as an aristocrat wrongfully dispossessed of his lands and made into an outlaw by an unscrupulous sheriff.17 In popular culture, Robin Hood and his band of "merry men" are usually portrayed as living in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire, where much of the action in the early ballads takes place. So does the very first recorded Robin Hood song, four lines from the early 15th century, beginning: "Robyn hode in scherewode stod." However, the overall picture from the surviving early ballads and other early references suggest that Robin Hood may have been based in the Barnsdale area of what is now South Yorkshire (which borders Nottinghamshire). Other people point to a variety of locations as Robin's "true" home both inside Yorkshire and elsewhere, with the abundance of places named for Robin causing further confusion. A tradition dating back at least to the end of the 16th century gives his birthplace as Loxley, Sheffield in South Yorkshire, while the site of Robin Hood's Well in Skellow, South Yorkshire, has been associated with

16 C. Holt, Robin Hood, Thames and Hudson, 1989, pp. 184–185 17 The Child Ballads 117 "A Gest of Robyn Hode" (c 1450) Robin Hood since at least 1422. Records show a man named Robin Hood lived in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in the 13th and 14th centuries. His grave has been claimed to be at Kirklees Priory in Clifton, West Yorkshire, as implied by the 18th- century version of Robin Hood's Death, and there is a headstone of dubious authenticity. The first clear reference to "rhymes of Robin Hood" is from Line 5396 of the late-14th-century poem Piers Plowman, but the earliest surviving copies of the narrative ballads that tell his story date to the 15th century, or the first decade of the 16th century. In these early accounts, Robin Hood's partisanship of the lower classes, his Marianism and associated special regard for women, his outstanding skill as an archer, his anti-clericalism, and his particular animosity towards the Sheriff of Nottingham are already clear.] Little John, Much the Miller's Son and Will Scarlet (as Will "Scarlok" or "Scathelocke") all appear, although not yet Maid Marian or Friar Tuck. It is not certain what should be made of these latter two absences as it is known that Friar Tuck, for one, has been part of the legend since at least the later 15th century. In popular culture, Robin Hood is typically seen as a contemporary and supporter of the late-12th-century king Richard the Lionheart, Robin being driven to outlawry during the misrule of Richard's brother John while Richard was away at the Third Crusade. This view first gained currency in the 16th century. It is not supported by the earliest ballads. The early compilation, A Gest of Robyn Hode, names the king as "Edward"; and while it does show Robin Hood accepting the King's pardon, he later repudiates it and returns to the greenwood. The oldest surviving ballad, Robin Hood and the Monk, gives even less support to the picture of Robin Hood as a partisan of the true king. The setting of the early ballads is usually attributed by scholars to either the 13th century or the 14th, although it is recognised they are not necessarily historically consistent18.

18 Robin Hood and the Monk. Records also show that he lived in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in the 13th and 14th centuries. From Child's edition of the ballad, online at Sacred Texts, 119A: Robin Hood and the Monk Stanza 16 The early ballads are also quite clear on Robin Hood's social status: he is a yeoman. While the precise meaning of this term changed over time, including free retainers of an aristocrat and small landholders, it always referred to commoners. The essence of it in the present context was "neither a knight nor a peasant or 'husbonde' but something in between". Artisans (such as millers) were among those regarded as "yeomen" in the 14th century.[] From the 16th century on, there were attempts to elevate Robin Hood to the nobility and in two extremely influential plays Anthony Munday presented him at the very end of the 16th century as the Earl of Huntingdon, as he is still commonly presented in modern times. As well as ballads, the legend was also transmitted by "Robin Hood games" or plays that were an important part of the late medieval and early modern May Day festivities. The first record of a Robin Hood game was in 1426 in Exeter, but the reference does not indicate how old or widespread this custom was at the time. The Robin Hood games are known to have flourished in the later 15th and 16th centuries. It is commonly stated as fact that Maid Marian and a jolly friar (at least partly identifiable with Friar Tuck) entered the legend through the May Games. The early ballads link Robin Hood to identifiable real places and many are convinced that he was a real person, more or less accurately portrayed. A number of theories as to the identity of "the real Robin Hood" have their supporters. Some of these theories posit that "Robin Hood" or "Robert Hood" or the like was his actual name; others suggest that this may have been merely a nickname disguising a medieval bandit perhaps known to history under another name. One historian claims Robin Hood was a pseudonym by which the ancient Lords of Wellow, Nottinghamshire, were once known. It is interesting that the village has such a strong connection withmaypole celebrations, considering Robin Hood's links with the same thing. At the same time it is possible that Robin Hood has always been a fictional character; the folklorist Francis James Child declared "Robin Hood is absolutely a creation of the ballad-muse" and this view has been neither proven or disproven. Another view is that Robin Hood's origins must be sought in folklore or mythology;] Despite the frequent Christian references in the early ballads, Robin Hood has been claimed for the pagan witch-cult supposed by Margaret Murray to have existed in medieval Europe. The oldest references to Robin Hood are not historical records, or even ballads recounting his exploits, but hints and allusions found in various works. From 1228 onward, the names 'Robinhood', 'Robehod' or 'Robbehod' occur in the rolls of several English Justices. The majority of these references date from the late 13th century. Between 1261 and 1300, there are at least eight references to 'Rabunhod' in various regions across England, from Berkshire in the south to York in the north. In a petition presented to Parliament in 1439, the name is used to describe an itinerant felon. The petition cites one Piers Venables of Aston, Derbyshire, "who having no liflode, ne sufficeante of goodes, gadered and assembled unto him many misdoers, beynge of his clothynge, and, in manere of insurrection, wente into the wodes in that countrie, like as it hadde be Robyn Hude and his meyne." The name was still used to describe sedition and treachery in 1605, when Guy Fawkes and his associates were branded "Robin Hoods" by Robert Cecil. The first allusion to a literary tradition of Robin Hood tales occurs in William Langland's Piers Plowman (c. 1362–c. 1386) in which Sloth, the lazy priest, confesses: "I kan [know] not parfitly [perfectly] my Paternoster as the preest it singeth,/ But I kan rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre." The first mention of a quasi-historical Robin Hood is given in Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Chronicle, written in about 1420. The following lines occur with little contextualisation under the year 1283: Lytil Jhon and Robyne Hude Wayth-men ware commendyd gude In Yngil-wode and Barnysdale Thai oysyd all this tyme thare trawale. The next notice is a statement in the Scotichronicon, composed by John of Fordun between 1377 and 1384, and revised by Walter Bower in about 1440. Among Bower's many interpolations is a passage that directly refers to Robin. It is inserted after Fordun's account of the defeat of Simon de Montfort and the punishment of his adherents. Robin is represented as a fighter for de Montfort's cause. This was in fact true of the historical outlaw of Sherwood Forest Roger Godberd, whose points of similarity to the Robin Hood of the ballads have often been noted. Bower writes: Then [c. 1266] arose the famous murderer, Robert Hood, as well as Little John, together with their accomplices from among the disinherited, whom the foolish populace are so inordinately fond of celebrating both in tragedies and comedies, and about whom they are delighted to hear the jesters and minstrels sing above all other ballads. The word translated here as "murderer" is the Latin siccarius, from the Latin for "knife". Bower goes on to tell a story about Robin Hood in which he refuses to flee from his enemies while hearing Mass in the greenwood, and then gains a surprise victory over them, apparently as a reward for his piety. Another reference, discovered by Julian Luxford in 2009, appears in the margin of the "Polychronicon" in the Eton College library. Written around the year 1460 by a monk in Latin, it says: Around this time, according to popular opinion, a certain outlaw named Robin Hood, with his accomplices, infested Sherwood and other law-abiding areas of England with continuous robberies19. William Shakespeare makes reference to Robin Hood in his late-16th- century play The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of his earliest. In it, the character Valentine is banished from Milan and driven out through the forest where he is approached by outlaws who, upon meeting him, desire him as their leader. They

19 "Robin Hood – Evidence for Yorkshire". Icons.org.uk. 24 October 2007. comment, "By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar, This fellow were a king for our wild faction!" Robin Hood is also mentioned in As You Like It. When asked about the exiled Duke Senior, the character of Charles says that he is "already in the forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England." Another reference is provided by Thomas Gale, Dean of York (c. 1635– 1702), but this comes nearly four hundred years after the events it describes: [Robin Hood's] death is stated by Ritson to have taken place on 18 November 1247, about the 87th year of his age; but according to the following inscription found among the papers of the Dean of York...the death occurred a month later. In this inscription, which bears evidence of high antiquity, Robin Hood is described as Earl of Huntington – his claim to which title has been as hotly contested as any disputed peerage upon record. Hear undernead dis laitl stean Lais Robert Earl of Huntingun Near arcir der as hie sa geud An pipl kauld im Robin Heud Sic utlaws as hi an is men Vil England nivr si agen. Obiit 24 Kal Dekembris 1247 In Modern English: Here underneath this little stone Lies Robert Earl of Huntington Never archer there as he so good And people called him Robin Hood Such outlaws as him and his men Will England never see again This inscription also appears on a grave in the grounds of Kirklees Priory near Kirklees Hall (see below). Robert is largely fictional by this time. The Gale note is inaccurate. The medieval texts do not refer to him directly, but mediate their allusions through a body of accounts and reports: for Langland, Robin exists principally in "rimes", for Bower, "comedies and tragedies", while for Wyntoun he is "commendyd gude". Even in a legal context, where one would expect to find verifiable references to Robert, he is primarily a symbol, a generalised outlaw-figure rather than an individual. Consequently, in the medieval period itself, Robin Hood already belongs more to literature than to history. In fact, in an anonymous song called Woman of c. 1412, he is treated in precisely this manner – as a joke, a figure that the audience will instantly recognise as imaginary: He that made this songe full good, Came of the northe and the sothern blode, And somewhat kyne to Robert Hoad.

3.2. Overwiev to scientific works done on ballad “Robin Hood” While J.C. Holt (1989:55) argues for a "historical" Robin Hood placed in the 13th century, other authors have sought the origins of the character in mythology or folklore, from fairies or other mythological origins. The "mythological theory" does go back to at least to 1584, when Reginald Scotidentified Robin Hood with the Germanic goblin "Hudgin" or Hodekin and associated him with Robin Goodfellow. Maurice Keen provides a brief summary and useful critique of the view that Robin Hood had mythological origins. A. J. Pollard (2004) stressed the symbolical significance of the "perpetual springtime" of the ballads. Other modern authors reject this line of argument as untenable. While Robin Hood and his men often show great skill in archery, swordplay and disguise, they are no more exaggerated than those characters in other ballads, such as Kinmont Willie, which were based on historical events. A "Robin and Marion" figured in 13th-century French "pastourelles" (of whichJeu de Robin et Marion c. 1280 is a literary version) and presided over the French May festivities, "this Robin and Marion tended to preside, in the intervals of the attempted seduction of the latter by a series of knights, over a variety of rustic pastimes." In the Jeu de Robin and Marion, Robin and his companions have to rescue Marion from the clutches of a "lustful knight". Dobson and Taylor in their survey of the legend, in which they reject the mythological theory, nevertheless regard it as "highly probable" that this French Robin's name and functions travelled to the English May Games where they fused with the Robin Hood legend. The origin of the legend is claimed by some to have stemmed from actual outlaws, or from tales of outlaws, such as Hereward the Wake, Eustace the Monk, Fulk FitzWarin and William Wallace.20 Hereward appears in a ballad much like Robin Hood and the Potter, and as the Hereward ballad is older, it appears to be the source. The ballad Adam Bell, Clym of the Cloughe and Wyllyam of Cloudeslee runs parallel to Robin Hood and the Monk, but it is not clear whether

20 Molyneux-Smith, Tony. 1998. Robin Hood and the Lords of Wellow. Nottingham: Nottingham County Council Leisure Services Department either one is the source for the other, or whether they merely show that such tales were told of outlaws. Some early Robin Hood stories appear to be unique, such as the story wherein Robin gives a knight, generally called Richard at the Lee, money to pay off his mortgage to an abbot, but this may merely indicate that no parallels have survived. There are a number of theories that attempt to identify a historical Robin Hood. A difficulty with any such historical search is that "Robert" was in medieval England a very common given name, and "Robin" (or Robyn), especially in the 13th century, was its very common diminutive. The surname "Hood" (or Hude or Hode etc.), referring ultimately to the head-covering, was also fairly common. Unsurprisingly, therefore, there are a number of people called "Robert Hood" or "Robin Hood" to be found in medieval records. Some of them are on record for having fallen afoul of the law, but this is not necessarily significant to the legend. The early ballads give a number of possible historical clues: notably, the Gest names the reigning king as "Edward", but the ballads cannot be assumed to be reliable in such details. This is of little help as in addition to King Edward I who took the throne in 1272 with an Edward on the throne until the death of Edward III in 1377, you have Edward the Elder (900–924), Edward the Martyr (975–978) and Edward the Confessor (1042–1066) On the other hand, what appears to be the first known example of "Robin Hood" as stock name for an outlaw dates to 1262 in Berkshire, where the surname "Robehod" was applied to a man apparently because he had been outlawed. This could suggest two main possibilities: either that an early form of the Robin Hood legend was already well established in the mid-13th century; or alternatively that the name "Robin Hood" preceded the outlaw hero that we know; so that the "Robin Hood" of legend was so called because that was seen as an appropriate name for an outlaw. It has long been suggested, notably by John Maddicott, that "Robin Hood" was a stock alias used by thieves. The 1911Encyclopædia Britannica remarks that 'hood' was a common dialectical form of 'wood'; and that the outlaw's name has been given as "Robin Wood".[ There are indeed a number of references to Robin Hood as Robin Wood, or Whood, or Whod, from the 16th and 17th centuries. The earliest recorded example, in connection with May games in Somerset, dates from 1518. One well-known theory of origin was proposed by Joseph Hunter in 1852. Hunter identified the outlaw with a "Robyn Hode" recorded as employed by Edward II in 1323 during the king's progress through Lancashire. This Robyn Hode was identified with (one or more people called) Robert Hood living in Wakefield before and after that time. Comparing the available records with especially the Gest and also other ballads, Hunter developed a fairly detailed theory according to which Robin Hood was an adherent of the rebel Earl of Lancaster, defeated at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322. According to this theory, Robin Hood was pardoned and employed by the king in 1323. (The Gest does relate that Robin Hood was pardoned by "King Edward" and taken into his service.) The theory supplies Robin Hood with a wife, Matilda, thought to be the origin of Maid Marian, and Hunter also conjectured that the author of the Gest may have been the religious poet Richard Rolle (1290– 1349), who lived in the village of Hampole in Barnsdale. This theory has long been recognised to have serious problems, one of the most serious being that "Robin Hood" and similar names were already used as nicknames for outlaws in the 13th century. Another is that there is no direct evidence that Hunter's Hood had ever been an outlaw or any kind of criminal or rebel at all; the theory is built on conjecture and coincidence of detail.[56] Finally, recent research has shown that Hunter's Robyn Hood had been employed by the king at an earlier stage, thus casting doubt on this Robyn Hood's supposed earlier career as outlaw and rebel. Another theory identifies him with the historical outlaw Roger Godberd, who was a die-hard supporter of Simon de Montfort, which would place Robin Hood around the 1260s. There are certainly parallels between Godberd's career and that of Robin Hood as he appears in the Gest. John Maddicott has called Godberd "that prototype Robin Hood". Some problems with this theory are that there is no evidence that Godberd was ever known as Robin Hood and no sign in the early Robin Hood ballads of the specific concerns of de Montfort's revolt. Another well-known theory, first proposed by the historian L. V. D. Owen in 1936 and more recently floated by J.C. Holt and others, is that the original Robin Hood might be identified with an outlawed Robert Hood, or Hod, or Hobbehod, all apparently the same man, referred to in nine successive Yorkshire Pipe Rolls between 1226 and 1234. There is no evidence however that this Robert Hood, although an outlaw, was also a bandit. The earliest surviving text of a Robin Hood ballad is "Robin Hood and the Monk".] This is preserved in Cambridge Universitymanuscript Ff.5.48. It was written shortly after 1450. It contains many of the elements still associated with the legend, from the Nottingham setting to the bitter enmity between Robin and the local sheriff. The first printed version is A Gest of Robyn Hode (c. 1475), a collection of separate stories which attempts to unite the episodes into a single continuous narrative.] After this comes "Robin Hood and the Potter", contained in a manuscript of c. 1503. "The Potter" is markedly different in tone from "The Monk": whereas the earlier tale is "a thriller"[27] the latter is more comic, its plot involving trickery and cunning rather than straightforward force. The difference between the two texts recalls Bower's claim that Robin-tales may be both 'comedies and tragedies'. Other early texts are dramatic pieces such as the fragmentary Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham (c. 1472). These are particularly noteworthy as they show Robin's integration into May Day rituals towards the end of the Middle Ages; Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham, among other points of interest, contains the earliest reference to Friar Tuck. The plots of neither "the Monk" nor "the Potter" are included in the Gest; and neither is the plot of "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" which is probably at least as old as those two ballads although preserved in a more recent copy. Each of these three ballads survived in a single copy, so it is unclear how much of the medieval legend has survived, and what has survived may not be typical of the medieval legend. It has been argued that the fact that the surviving ballads were preserved in written form in itself makes it unlikely they were typical; in particular stories with an interest for the gentry were by this view more likely to be preserved. The story of Robin's aid to the "poor knight" that takes up much of the Gest may be an example. The character of Robin in these first texts is rougher edged than in his later incarnations. In "Robin Hood and the Monk", for example, he is shown as quick tempered and violent, assaulting Little John for defeating him in an archery contest; in the same ballad Much the Miller's Son casually kills a "little page" in the course of rescuing Robin Hood from prison. No extant ballad actually shows Robin Hood "giving to the poor", although in a "A Gest of Robyn Hode" Robin does make a large loan to an unfortunate knight which he does not in the end require to be repaid; and later in the same ballad Robin Hood states his intention of giving money to the next traveller to come down the road if he happens to be poor. Of my good he shall haue some, Yf he be a por man. As it happens the next traveller is not poor, but it seems in context that Robin Hood is stating a general policy. From the beginning Robin Hood is on the side of the poor; the Gest quotes Robin Hood as instructing his men that when they rob: loke ye do no husbonde harme That tilleth with his ploughe. No more ye shall no gode yeman That walketh by gren-wode shawe; Ne no knyght ne no squyer That wol be a gode felawe. And in its final lines the Gest sums up: he was a good outlawe, And dyde pore men moch god. Within Robin Hood's band medieval forms of courtesy rather than modern ideals of equality are generally in evidence. In the early ballads Robin's men usually kneel before him in strict obedience: in A Gest of Robyn Hode the king even observes that "His men are more at his byddynge/Then my men be at myn." Their social status, as yeomen, is shown by their weapons; they use swords rather than quarterstaffs. The only character to use a quarterstaff in the early ballads is the potter, and Robin Hood does not take to a staff until the 18th century Robin Hood and Little John. The political and social assumptions underlying the early Robin Hood ballads have long been controversial. It has been influentially argued by J. C. Holt that the Robin Hood legend was cultivated in the households of the gentry, and that it would be mistaken to see in him a figure of peasant revolt. He is not a peasant but a yeoman, and his tales make no mention of the complaints of the peasants, such as oppressive taxes. He appears not so much as a revolt against societal standards as an embodiment of them, being generous, pious, and courteous, opposed to stingy, worldly, and churlish foes. Other scholars have by contrast stressed the subversive aspects of the legend, and see in the medieval Robin Hood ballads a plebeian literature hostile to the feudal order. Although the term "Merry Men" belongs to a later period, the ballads do name several of Robin's companions.[75] These include Will Scarlet (or Scathlock), Much the Miller's Son, and Little John – who was called "little" as a joke, as he was quite the opposite.[76] Even though the band is regularly described as being over a hundred men, usually only three or four are specified. Some appear only once or twice in a ballad: Will Stutely in Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly and Robin Hood and Little John; David of Doncaster in Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow; Gilbert with the White Hand in A Gest of Robyn Hode; and Arthur a Blandin Robin Hood and the Tanner.[76] Printed versions of the Robin Hood ballads, generally based on the Gest, appear in the early 16th century, shortly after the introduction of printing in England. Later that century Robin is promoted to the level of nobleman: he is styled Earl of Huntingdon, Robert of Locksley, or Robert Fitz Ooth. In the early ballads, by contrast, he was a member of the yeoman classes, which included common freeholders possessing a small landed estate. By the early 15th century at the latest, Robin Hood had become associated with May Day celebrations, with revellers dressing as Robin or as members of his band for the festivities. This was not common throughout England, but in some regions the custom lasted until Elizabethan times, and during the reign of Henry VIII, was briefly popular at court. Robin was often allocated the role of a May King, presiding over games and processions, but plays were also performed with the characters in the roles, sometimes performed at church ales, a means by which churches raised funds. A complaint of 1492, brought to the Star Chamber, accuses men of acting riotously by coming to a fair as Robin Hood and his men; the accused defended themselves on the grounds that the practice was a long-standing custom to raise money for churches, and they had not acted riotously but peaceably. It is from the association with the May Games that Robin's romantic attachment to Maid Marian (or Marion) apparently stems. The naming of Marian may have come from the French pastoral play of c. 1280, the Jeu de Robin et Marion, although this play is distinct from the English legends. Both Robin and Marian were certainly associated with May Day festivities in England (as was Friar Tuck), but these may have been originally two distinct types of performance – Alexander Barclay in his Ship of Fools, writing in c. 1500, refers to "some merry fytte of Maid Marian or else of Robin Hood" – but the characters were brought together. Marian did not immediately gain the unquestioned role; in Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor, and Marriage, his sweetheart is 'Clorinda the Queen of the Shepherdesses'. Clorinda survives in some later stories as an alias of Marian. Robin Hood and King Richard the Lionheart In the 16th century, Robin Hood is given a specific historical setting. Up until this point there was little interest in exactly when Robin's adventures took place. The original ballads refer at various points to "King Edward", without stipulating whether this is Edward I, Edward II, orEdward III. Hood may thus have been active at any point between 1272 and 1377. However, during the 16th century the stories become fixed to the 1190s, the period in whichKing Richard was absent from the country, fighting in the crusades. This date is first proposed by John Mair in his Historia Majoris Britanniæ (1521), and gains popular acceptance by the end of the century. Giving Robin an aristocratic title and female love interest (Maid Marian), and placing him in the historical context of the true king's absence, all represent moves to domesticate his legend and reconcile it to ruling powers. In this, his legend is similar to that of King Arthur, which morphed from a dangerous masculine story to a more comfortable, chivalrous romance under the troubadours serving Eleanor of Aquitaine. From the 16th century on, the legend of Robin Hood is often used to promote the hereditary ruling class, romance, and religious piety. The "criminal" element is retained to provide dramatic colour, rather than as a real challenge to convention. The idea of Robin Hood as a high-minded Saxon fighting Norman lords also originates in the 19th century. The most notable contributions to this idea of Robin are Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry's Histoire de la Conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands(1825) and Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1819).

Connections to existing locations In modern versions of the legend, Robin Hood is said to have taken up residence in the verdant Sherwood Forest in the county of Nottinghamshire. For this reason the people of present-day Nottinghamshire have a special affinity with Robin Hood, often claiming him as the symbol of their county. For example, major road signs entering the shire depict Robin Hood with his bow and arrow, welcoming people to 'Robin Hood County'. BBC Radio Nottingham also uses the phrase 'Robin Hood County' on its regular programmes. The Robin Hood Way runs through Nottinghamshire and the county is home to literally thousands of other places, roads, inns and objects bearing Robin's name.[citation needed] Specific sites linked to Robin Hood include the Major Oak tree, claimed to have been used by him as a hideout, Robin Hood's Well, located near Newstead Abbey (within the boundaries of Sherwood Forest), and the Church of St. Mary in the village of Edwinstowe, where Robin and Maid Marian are historically thought to have wed. To reinforce this belief, the University of Nottingham in 2010 has begun the Nottingham Caves Survey with the goal "to increase the tourist potential of these sites". The project "will use a 3D laser scanner to produce a three dimensional record of more than 450 sandstone caves around Nottingham". However, the Nottingham setting is a matter of some contention. While the Sheriff of Nottingham and the town itself appear in early ballads, and Sherwood is specifically mentioned in the early ballad Robin Hood and the Monk, certain of the original ballads (even those with Nottingham references) locate Robin on occasion in Barnsdale (the area between Pontefract and Doncaster), approximately fifty miles north of Nottingham, in the county of Yorkshire; furthermore, it has been suggested that the ballads placed in this area are far more geographically specific and accurate. This is reinforced for some by the alleged similarity of Locksley to the area of Loxley, South Yorkshire, in Sheffield, where in nearby Tideswell, which was the "Kings Larder" in the Royal Forest of the Peak, a record of the appearance of a "Robert de Lockesly" in court is found, dated 1245. As "Robert" and its diminutives were amongst the most common of names at the time, and also since it was usual for men to adopt the name of their hometown ("De Lockesly" means simply, "Of [or from] Lockesly"), the record could just as easily be referring to any man from the area named Robert. Although it cannot be proven whether or not this is the man himself, it is further believed by some that Robin had a brother called Thomas – an assertion with no documentary evidence whatsoever to support it in any of the stories, tales or ballads. If the Robert mentioned above was indeed Robin Hood, and if he did have a brother named Thomas, then consideration of the following reference may lend this theory a modicum of credence: 24) No. 389, f0- 78. Ascension Day, 29 H. III., Nic Meverill, with John Kantia, on the one part, and Henry de Leke. Henry released to Nicholas and John 5 m. rent, which he received from Nicolas and John and Robert de Lockesly for his life from the lands of Gellery, in consideration of receiving from each of them 2M (2 marks). only, the said Henry to live at table with one of them and to receive 2M. annually from the other. T., Sampson de Leke, Magister Peter Meverill, Roger de Lockesly, John de Leke, Robert fil Umfred, Rico de Newland, Richard Meverill. (25) No. 402, p. 80 b. Thomas de Lockesly bound himself that he would not sell his lands at Leke, which Nicolas Meveril had rendered to him, under a penalty of L40 (40 pounds). A pound was 240 silver pence, and a mark was 160 silver pence (i.e., 13 shillings and fourpence). It is again, however, equally likely that Nicolas, John, Robert and Thomas were simply members of a family which came from the area. In Barnsdale Forest, Yorkshire, there is a well known as Robin Hood's Well (by the side of the Great North Road), a Little John's Well(near Hampole) and a Robin Hood's stream (in Highfields Wood at Woodlands). There is something of a modern movement amongst Yorkshire residents to attempt to claim the legend of Robin Hood, to the extent that South Yorkshire's new airport, on the site of the redeveloped RAF Finningley airbase near Doncaster, although ironically in the historic county of Nottinghamshire, has been given the name Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield. In the city centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, at 71 Vicar Lane, is a retail clothing store operated by Hugo Boss. This was the previous location of a pub/music venue known as The Duchess of York which was previously known as the Robin Hood. During an interior refurbishment, wallpaper was removed to reveal a wall mural depicting Robin Hood and his Merry Men in the small snug of the pub. The Landlord at the time, Robin Dover, was photographed standing next to the mural which was published in The Yorkshire Evening Post. There have been further claims made that he is from Swannington in Leicestershire or Loxley, Warwickshire. This debate is hardly surprising of course, given the considerable value that the Robin Hood legend has for local tourism. The Sheriff of Nottingham also had jurisdiction in Derbyshire that was known as the "Shire of the Deer", and this is where the Royal Forest of the Peak is found, which roughly corresponds to today's Peak District National Park. The Royal Forest included Bakewell, Tideswell, Castleton, Ladybower and the Derwent Valley near Loxley. The Sheriff of Nottingham possessed property near Loxley, amongst other places both far and wide including Hazlebadge Hall, Peveril Castle and Haddon Hall. Mercia, to which Nottingham belonged, came to within three miles of Sheffield City Centre. But before the Law of the Normans was the Law of the Danes, The Danelaw had a similar boundary to that of Mercia but had a population of Free Peasantry which were known to have resisted the Norman occupation. Many outlaws could have been created by the refusal to recognise Norman Forest Law. The supposed grave of Little John can be found in Hathersage, also in the Peak District. Robin Hood himself was once thought to have been buried in the grounds of Kirklees Priorybetween Brighouse and Mirfield in West Yorkshire, although for the reasons given above this theory has now largely been abandoned. There is an elaborate grave there with the inscription referred to above. The story said that the Prioress was a relative of Robin's. Robin was ill and staying at the Priory where the Prioress was supposedly caring for him. However, she betrayed him, his health worsened, and he eventually died there. Before he died, he told Little John (or possibly another of his Merry Men) where to bury him. He shot an arrow from the Priory window, and where the arrow landed was to be the site of his grave. The grave with the inscription is within sight of the ruins of the Kirklees Priory, behind the Three Nuns pub in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. The grave can be visited on occasional organised walks, organised byCalderdale Council Tourist Information office. Further indications of the legend's connection with West Yorkshire (and particularly Calderdale) are noted in the fact that there are pubs called the Robin Hood in both nearby Brighouse and at Cragg Vale; higher up in the Pennines beyond Halifax, where Robin Hood Rocks can also be found. Robin Hood Hill is near Outwood, West Yorkshire, not far from Lofthouse. There is a village in West Yorkshire calledRobin Hood, on the A61 between Leeds and Wakefield and close to Rothwell and Lofthouse. Considering these references to Robin Hood, it is not surprising that the people of both South and West Yorkshire lay some claim to Robin Hood, who, if he existed, could easily have roamed between Nottingham, Lincoln, Doncaster and right into West Yorkshire. There are also modern theories that Robin Hood was in fact Welsh, and was called Rybyn Hod.[] In fact, the Welsh city of Swansea has in recent years been known as "Hodsville" in reference to the mythical figure. Sites around Swansea that lend credence to this theory include Rybyn Hod's Hatshop, Rybyn Hod's Stoop, Rybyn Hod's Wad (a thicket of trees located off Rifleman's Row) and Rybyn Hod's Fortress, which according to local legend was on the site of the current Morriston Tabernacle. A British Army Territorial (reserves) battalion formed in Nottingham in 1859 was known as The Robin Hood Battalion through various reorganisations until the "Robin Hood" name finally disappeared in 1992. With the 1881 Childers Reforms that linked regular and reserve units into regimental families, the Robin Hood Battalion became part of The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment). A Neolithic causewayed enclosure on Salisbury Plain has acquired the name Robin Hood's Ball, although had Robin Hood existed it is doubtful that he would have travelled so far south.

3.3. Controbution of Roben Hood to other ballads Ballads are the oldest existing form of the Robin Hood legends, although none of them are recorded at the time of the first allusions to him, and many are much later. They share many common features, often opening with praise of the greenwood and relying heavily on disguise as a plot device, but include a wide variation in tone and plot. The ballads below are sorted into three groups, very roughly according to date of first known free-standing copy. Ballads whose first recorded version appears (usually incomplete) in the Percy Folio may appear in later versions and may be much older than the mid-17th century when the Folio was compiled. Any ballad may be older than the oldest copy which happens to survive, or descended from a lost older ballad. For example, the plot of Robin Hood's Death, found in the Percy Folio, is summarised in the 15th-century A Gest of Robyn Hode, and it also appears in an 18th-century version. Early ballads (i.e., surviving in 15th- or early-16th-century copies)[edit] A Gest of Robyn Hode Robin Hood and the Monk Robin Hood and the Potter Ballads appearing in 17th-century Percy Folio NB. The first two ballads listed here (the "Death" and "Gisborne"), although preserved in 17th century copies, are generally agreed to preserve the substance of late medieval ballads. The third (the "Curtal Friar") and the fourth (the "Butcher"), also probably have late medieval origins. Robin Hood's Death Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar Robin Hood and the Butcher Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield Robin Hood and Queen Katherine Other ballads[edit] A True Tale of Robin Hood Robin Hood and the Bishop Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon Robin Hood and the Ranger Robin Hood and the Scotchman Robin Hood and the Tanner Robin Hood and the Tinker Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight Robin Hood Newly Revived Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor, and Marriage Robin Hood's Chase Robin Hood's Delight Robin Hood's Golden Prize Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood The Noble Fisherman Some ballads, such as Erlinton, feature Robin Hood in some variants, where the folk hero appears to be added to a ballad pre-existing him and in which he does not fit very well. He was added to one variant of Rose Red and the White Lily, apparently on no more connection than that one hero of the other variants is named "Brown Robin." Francis James Child indeed retitled Child ballad 102; though it was titled The Birth of Robin Hood, its clear lack of connection with the Robin Hood cycle (and connection with other, unrelated ballads) led him to title it Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter in his collection21. Popular culture Main characters of the folklore Robin Hood (a.k.a. Robin of Loxley or Locksley) The band of "Merry Men" Little John

21 Luxford, Julian M. (2009). "An English chronicle entry on Robin Hood". Journal of Medieval History 35 (1): 70– 76.doi:10.1016/j.jmedhist.2009.01.002.

Friar Tuck Will Scarlett Alan-a-Dale Much the Miller's Son Maid Marian King Richard the Lionheart Prince John Sir Guy of Gisbourne The Sheriff of Nottingham

CONCLUSION Folklore refers to the tradition of telling tales and reliving legends amongst the individuals within a particular country, territory or tribe. This is usually done orally as older generations tell the stories to the younger members of their culture, keeping the traditions alive. As with all folklore, English legends are fantastical in nature, often referring to heroes, villains, ghosts, imps and fairies. England’s folklore has been enriched by several factors. First, its history has been a complex and convoluted one. It has seen many battles, losses, victories, religious revolutions, artistic renaissances and political upheavals. This gives its folklores an element of deep import and nostalgia; some sad, some tragic, and some undeniably comical. Secondly, England has been the land of refuge and desire for many different nations. As each one of these major groups has lived in it, they have left their cultural and historical marks, influencing the locals to a certain degree. With so many influences, the folklore has become a rich source of information, intrigue and resonance. Folklores differ from region to region. Each county has its own brand of fairies, goddesses, heroes, and so on. In times past, folklore was passed down orally, from generation to generation. In this way, it was preserved and protected, and formed an important part of the culture. The storytellers and listeners believed these tales to be true, basing many of their customs and rituals on protecting themselves, appeasing certain gods, keeping imps away, etc...However, as culture has developed and modernized, the folklores are being forgotten and discredited, losing their magical quality. Because it is such an important part of the country’s history, though, many historians are trying to preserve this element by recording as many tales as have been documented or remembered. English folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in England over a number of centuries. Some stories can be traced back to their roots, while the origin of others is uncertain or disputed. England abounds with folklore, in all forms, from such obvious manifestations as the traditional Robin Hood tales, the Brythonic-inspired Arthurian legend, to contemporary urban legends and facets of cryptozoology such as the Beast of Bodmin Moor22. Folktales employ certain characteristics or conventions common to virtually all tales. The most familiar involve the setting, character, plot, theme and conflict, and style. A. Setting

 Most folktale settings remove the tale from the real world, taking us to a time and place where animals talk, witches and wizards roam, and magic spells are commonplace.

 The settings are usually unimportant and described and referred to in vague terms (e.g., “Long ago in a land far away…” and “Once upon a time in a dark forest…”).

 Some settings reflect the typical landscape of the tale’s culture, for example, medieval Europe with its forests, castles, and cottages, Africa with its jungles, India and China with its splendid palaces. B. Character

 The characters in folk literature are usually flat, simple, and straightforward. They are typically either completely good or entirely evil and easy to identify. They do not internalize their feelings and seldom are plagued by mental torment.

 Motivation in folktale characters tends to be singular; that is, the characters are motivated by one overriding desire such as greed, love, fear, hatred, and jealousy.

 The characters are usually stereotypical, for example, wicked stepmothers, weak-willed fathers, jealous siblings, faithful friends. Physical appearance often readily defines the characters, but disguises are common.

 The hero or heroine is often isolated and is usually cast out into the open world or is apparently without any human friends. Evil, on the other hand, seems overwhelming. Therefore, the hero/heroine must be aided by supernatural forces, such as a magical object or an enchanted creature, to fight against evil forces.

22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_folklore C. Plot

 Plots are generally shorter and simpler than in other genres of literature.

 The action tends to be formulaic. A journey is common (and is usually symbolic of the protagonist’s journey to self-discovery). Repetitious patterns are found, suggesting the ritual nature of folktales and perhaps to aid the storyteller in memorization; for example, events often occur in sets of three (e.g., three pigs, three bears, three sisters, three wishes),

 The action is concentrated, no lengthy explanations and descriptions. Conflicts are quickly established and events move swiftly to their conclusion. The action never slows down. Endings are almost always happy (“They lived happily ever after”). D. Theme and Conflict

 Themes in folk literature are usually quite simple, but serious and powerful. Folktale themes espousethe virtues of compassion, generosity, and humility over the vices of greed, selfishness, and excessive pride.

 Common folktale themes include the following (pp. 160-161): 6. The struggle to achieve autonomy or to break away from parents (“Beauty and the Beast”) 7. The undertaking of a rite of passage (“Rapunzel”) 8. The discovery of loneliness on a journey to maturity (“Hansel and Gretel”) 9. The anxiety over the failure to meet a parent’s expectations (“Jack and the Beanstalk”) 10. The anxiety over one’s displacement by another – the “new arrival” (“Cinderella”)

 These themes are at the very heart of growing up. Also, they are similar to the themes of Greek tragedy: Wisdom comes through suffering. For every benefit there is a condition; nothing in life comes without strings attached, responsibilities to be met, and bargains to be kept. E. Style  The language is typically economical, with a minimal amount of description and a heavy reliance onformulaic patterns, e.g., conventional openings and closings.

 Repetitious phrases are common; they supply a rhythmical quality desirable in oral tales and perhaps aided in memorization the stories.

 Dialogue is frequently used; it captures the nature of the character speaking.

 Folktales often use a technique – stylized intensification, which occurs when, with each repetition, an element is further exaggerated or intensified. This has the effect of increasing the drama.

 Folktale motifs (i.e., recurring thematic elements) are quite prevalent; they may have served asmnemonic devices when the tales were still passed on orally. Examples of common motifs include journeys through dark forests, enchanted transformations, magical cures or other spells, encounters with helpful animals or mysterious creatures, foolish bargains, impossible tasks, clever deceptions, and so on.

 Some folktales have powerful visual images that we can readily identify, such as a glass slipper, a bean stalk, a spinning wheel, a poisoned apple, a red riding hood, a magic lamp, and a blue bird. These stark visual elements give the tales their enduring strength.

 Many folktale motifs (i.e., recurring thematic elements) are examples of magic: helpful animals, enchanted transformations, granted wishes, etc. The magic, when it appears, is always greeted by the characters with matter-of- factness. Characters acknowledge magic as a normal part of life without surprise or disbelief. This stylistic feature distances the folktale from reality, and it provides an important distinction between folk literature and literary/modern fantasy.

 Folktales often lift their heroes and heroines to higher and more refined levels where they remain beautiful, noble, and pure through the process of sublimation. Beowulf23 is the conventional title of an Old English epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature due to the fact that it is the oldest surviving epic poem of Old English and also the earliest vernacular English literature.24 The whole poem survives in the manuscript known as the Nowell Codex, located in the British Library. Written in England, its composition by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet is dated between the 8th and the early 11th century. In 1731, the manuscript was badly damaged by a fire that swept through Ashburnham House in London that had a collection of medieval manuscripts assembled by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton. The poem's existence for its first seven centuries or so made no impression on writers and scholars, and besides a brief mention in a 1705 catalogue by Humfrey Wanley it was not studied until the end of the 18th century, and not published in its entirety until the 1815 edition prepared by the Icelandic-Danish scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin. Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore, and, according to legend, was also a highly skilled archer and swordsman. Although such behaviour was not part of his original character, since the beginning of the 19th century he has become known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes.The origin of the legend is asserted by some to have been actual outlaws, or ballads or tales of outlaws25. Robin Hood became a popular folk figure in the medieval period, continuing through to modern literature, films and television. In the earliest sources, Robin Hood is a yeoman, but he was often later portrayed as an aristocrat wrongfully dispossessed of his lands and made into an outlaw by an unscrupulous sheriff.26

23 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf 24 Aaij, Michel (2001), "Rev. of Owen-Crocker, The Four Funerals", South Atlantic Review 66 (4): 153–57

25 C. Holt, Robin Hood, Thames and Hudson, 1989, pp. 184–185 26 The Child Ballads 117 "A Gest of Robyn Hode" (c 1450) In popular culture, Robin Hood and his band of "merry men" are usually portrayed as living in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire, where much of the action in the early ballads takes place. So does the very first recorded Robin Hood song, four lines from the early 15th century, beginning: "Robyn hode in scherewode stod." However, the overall picture from the surviving early ballads and other early references suggest that Robin Hood may have been based in the Barnsdale area of what is now South Yorkshire (which borders Nottinghamshire). Other people point to a variety of locations as Robin's "true" home both inside Yorkshire and elsewhere, with the abundance of places named for Robin causing further confusion. A tradition dating back at least to the end of the 16th century gives his birthplace as Loxley, Sheffield in South Yorkshire, while the site of Robin Hood's Well in Skellow, South Yorkshire, has been associated with Robin Hood since at least 1422. Records show a man named Robin Hood lived in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in the 13th and 14th centuries. His grave has been claimed to be at Kirklees Priory in Clifton, West Yorkshire, as implied by the 18th- century version of Robin Hood's Death, and there is a headstone of dubious authenticity.

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