A Look Into An Analysis Of Beowulf

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James B. Kelly, the author of The Hero’s Quest in Beowulf, makes the case that Beowulf can be difficult to understand without knowing about certain literary terms and some background terms. Kelly starts of stating that, “Part of the challenge for the modern reader comes from the work’s having been written over a thousand years ago in an early, very different form of english” (132). By initiating the idea that Beowulf was written over millennium ago Kelly opens the idea that there are numerous literary devices that need to be understood to comprehend Beowolf. For instance Kelly discloses that Beowolf, “is written in alliterative verse. Each line of the poem has four stressed syllables, two in the first half of the line (the a-verse) and two in the second half (the b-verse), and a twice-used consonant in the a-verse usually repeats once in the b-verse of the same line” (132). Kelly also mentions that the author of Beowulf constantly uses compound nouns called Kennings (132). In addition to the shift in literary style that is present in Beowulf, Kelly also points out that there are man...

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