Dragons & Slayers: Week 1-3

Literature and Desire 

Blog post 1

Week 1-3 

Dragons and Slayers 

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 Lord of the Rings

It is apparent that there are consistent fantasy themes throughout each of the texts. Unlike fairytale’s and folklore, fantasy has many components present in the texts. Defined by Attebery (1980) fantasy includes anything that goes against what the author believes to be natural. This meaning any content that is out of the ordinary or the impossible made possible is fantasy. This may include creatures such as dragons, fairies or witches and magical objects such as wands, hammers or rings. It is clear that Voluspa, Beowulf, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings all have at least one of these components present. 

‘Voluspa’ a poem from Norse mythology tells the creation story of the world, the destruction and the rebirth. The mention of giants, gods, Bur’s sons creating the world and the first people Ash and Embla demonstrates the obscurity into what is deemed the impossible made possible. As this poem is one of the oldest in English literature I found it more difficult to distinguish many fantasy conventions in comparison to the other texts. This being as the fantasy genre was not prevalent in society at the time. Therefore, these are mythological, legends or folklore. 

Beowulf however, is much more evident in the aspect that there are more creatures and adventures he must fore take in order to defeat the monster.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is obvious with the characters ranging from hobbits, halflings, elves, knights, immortals, the list goes on. As well as the idea of magic heavily present throughout the stories. 

To pinpoint the difference between intended audiences I was able to make two discussions. During the 8^thand 11^thcentury the earliest literature texts were scripted such as Voluspa and Beowulf (Wikipedia. N.d). This leads me to believe that the texts were more so intended for adults to make sense of the world rather than children as there was a lack of children literature before the 18^thcentury (Grenby. 2014). 

When Tolkien began writing The Hobbit, it is believed that he wrote the story for his children, however, it is speculated that he simply shared the story with his children while it was still in development (Martinez. 2011). This leads me to believe that the story was intended for a young adult audience who are able to understand the novel to the extent of its greatness.   

Attebery, B. (1980). The Fantasy Tradition In America Literature: From Irving to Le Guin.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

6. Identify some recent films, TV shows and/or games which have brought back some of the old gods and heroes from obscurity. What place do the old myths have in the modern world?

Norse mythology has been preserved and adapted throughout history through novels, films, series and games. Of course there are direct adaptions of specific stories such as the 2007 film Beowulf, however, many of which draw inspiration from the myths and legends of Norse mythology. You are able to find Norse figures and concepts within multiple media, specifically within the fantasy genre, demonstrating its stance within our modern world. 

One of the most recognized great author Tolkien played a huge role in preserving Norse mythology stories as he was able to translate many into modern English, such as Beowulf. It is no surprise after he undertook translating the stories, he would soon move on to writing the very well recognized novel The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series. Along with the great success of these epic novels this created a reemergence of the fantasy genre (Wikipedia. N.d). The popularity of the novels highlighted elements of the fantasy world influencing the perception of what fantasy was. This included many of the creatures we are familiar with today that in fact derive from Norse mythology such as elves, dwarves and dragons/serpents (NewWorldEncyclopedia. 2018). 

Gods and heroes from Norse mythology indeed have spurred inspiration for authors in the past and today creating novels such as Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard trilogy by Rick Riordan. 

Many writings such as novels and comics have been adapted into films, such as Marvels Thor, Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and The 13^thWarrior is based off Crichton’s Eater of the Dead. Along with films there are also series such as Vikings that have concepts adapted from Norse Mythology. 

References:

Grenby, M.O (2014) The origin of children’s literature. Retrieved March 12, 2019. From https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-childrens-literature

Heaney, S. (1999) (trans). Beowulf: a new translation. London: Penguin, 

Martinez, M. (2011) Why did J. R. R. Tolkien write The Hobbit? Retrieved March 11, 2019. From https://middle-earth.xenite.org/why-did-jrr-tolkien-write-the-hobbit/

NewWorldEncyclopedia. (2018) Norse mythology. Retrieved March 10, 2019. From http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Norse_Mythology#Modern_popular_culture

Terry, P. (trans). (1990, 1966). Poems of the Elder Edda. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 

Tolkien, J.R.R. (1997; 1937). The Hobbit, London: HarperCollins 

Tolkien, J.R.R. (1993;1954). The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. London, HarperCollins 

Wikipedia (n.d) J. R. R. Tolkien. Retrieved March 11, 2019. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien

Wikipedia (n.d) Early medieval literature. Retrieved March 12, 2019. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_medieval_literature