Beowulf and Grettir's Saga

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Recommended: The influence of cultural differences

Beowulf and Grettir's Saga

IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT, someone or something, is murdering the local townsfolk. As fate provides, a stranger marches into the local bar announcing his intention to kill the menacing outlaw. The fiend returns to the scene of his crimes, and, as predicted, the outsider fights and mortally wounds the brute, which limps off to a hidden lair. The hero and his comrade(s) track the wounded villain to an underwater cave and the ensuing fray results in the death of the criminal's sidekick. The stranger/hero explores the cave, discovering the carcass of the original fugitive, treasure and booty. Meanwhile, the stranger's posse thinks the hero is dead and abandons him. The hero's surprising return marks the end of his mission. Excluding the underwater cave, the plot line of Beowulf and Grettir's Saga is the premise for countless songs, sagas, epics, stories and movies (especially western and horror films). Likewise, Christianity contains the story of a redeemer rescuing mankind from evil. Although these two oral tales contain similar action sequences, differences can be found in the details and underlying moral tenor. Elemental distinctions include seasonal differences, the role of women, the actual fight scenes, the style of the combatants and their foes, how plunder is qualified, and what happens to the hero at the end of his mission. Even as the details differ, the dogmatic tonal shift can be discovered by looking at how the differing communities act in relation to what they say, and noting the variation of the characters' attitudes, from the older Beowulf's world of a pagan society working to integrate Christianity, to Grettir's Christian population, whose older heroic heathens are cast out.

Dating o...

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Hesiod. Theogony. Trans. Richard Lattimore. Ann Arbor: U of MI P, 1991.

Isaak, Mark. "Flood Stories from Around the World." The Talk. Origins Archive. 4 July 2004. <http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html>

Killings, Douglas B. "Introduction". The Saga of Grettir the Strong (Grettir's Saga). Online Medieval and Classical Library Release #9. 28 June 2004. <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Grettir/>

Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. Rolfe Humphries. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1983.

The Saga of Grettir the Strong (Grettir's Saga). Online Medieval and Classical Library Release #9. 28 June 2004. 1-19. <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Grettir/gr64-81.html>

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