Dragon Slayer - Question 1 -

1. What genres do the following texts belong to, and how do their intended period contexts, purposes, and intended audiences differ?

Voluspa, Volsunga saga, Beowulf, the hobbit and the lord of the rings are texts in old English. Scholars and readers have said different genres for these texts, but overall, i thought it was a fantasy tale because usually, fantasy is not real and most of these stories are about the dragon slayer back then when the hero or god defeats the dragon to protect their herd or village. By reading this text for the first time, I enjoyed reading the different versions of the dragon slayer. Hopefully, it gave scholars and readers different views on each book. 

"Voluspa is an example of the mythic fiction genre, as the following references to gods from the poem illustrate: "Hear my words / you holy gods' (l.1) "By Odin's Will I will speak the ancient lore" (l.3). Other researchers and scholars had another view on this particular text, and they have described the genre of this text as  "Norse mythology." Darensuburg (2015) states from other scholars that Volsups (poem/song) was written when the pagan belief was firm towards Christianity ( "pre-Christians". In history sense, Norsh women worshipped the ancient gods as the protectors, and they would pray them to protect their men and their children and to keep their village safe and from the demons that want to enter in the early 11th century in Scandinavia. 

Whereas Volsunga saga is an example of "an example of "an Iceland legendary saga genre (Tvtropes, n.d.). Tvtropes (n.d.) probably said what they think they say, but i somehow disagree because Tvtropes (n.d.) again stated on the same post that this saga was written anonymous and which was written in the 13th century. Analysing this text, it showed some aspects of heroism, some related aspects and some mythic aspects (sign is Odin's some), which clearly states that Odin is a god. 

Beowulf, however, is an example of an old English epic genre. Merriam-Webster (n.d.) describes "epic genre" as a noun and defines it as " a long narrative poem" which includes, legendary and historical aspects like monsters, heroes and even gods. In short, Beowulf was probably written in 8th till 11th century (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). However, this text was also written in old English - in other words like Shakespeare. For example, in the Beowulf text, there was a word like "wyrd (fate)" and  "the death place ( violence)." Scholars and the audience liked how  Beowulf was written and how this text inspired directors and authors to create other films or book series like Lord of the rings series. Furthermore, Beowulf is a well-known text in the English literature in today's society, according to Shmoop Editorial Team (2008). 

Lastly, The Hobbit is an example of a Juvenile and fantasy genre. In other words, children's fantasy. According to David Boyles ( a university lecturer in English) defines on study.com that children fantasy is to describe a book that is written for younger viewers ( Juvenile). A fantasy genre is a genre where elements of fantastical creatures come to alive like monsters, vampires, werewolves and invented worlds. When J.R.R. Tolkien, his star wrote the Hobbit, he wanted to target a younger audience and wanted to illustrate his critical central points of growing up. In the story, the main character is faced off becoming a man, and he thinks like a child, and he goes through different conquest to discover who he is a person. Of course, at the end of the novel, he becomes a matured and wiser man for his village and people (David Boyles, n.d.). 

(589 words) 

Reference 

Boyles, D. (n.d.). The Hobbit Genre. Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-hobbit-genre.html

Darensburg, J. (2015, October 14). Völuspá-looza: Magic and Divination at the crossroads of  paganism and Christianity. Retrieved from https://jasondarensburg.wordpress.com/2015/10/12/voluspa-looza-magic-and-divination-at-the-crossroads-of-paganism-and-christianity-pt-1/

Merriam Webster. (n.d.). Definition of EPIC. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epic

Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). Beowulf. Retrieved March 17, 2019, from https://www.shmoop.com/beowulf/

TvTropes. (n.d.). The Saga of the Volsungs. Retrieved from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheSagaOfTheVolsungs