Sunday, March 17, 2019

Week 1-3 Questions- Nadine Mortaja



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.

Voluspa, volsunga saga, beowulf, the hobbit and lord of the rings all include some aspects of fantasy. Voluspa represents the norse mythology. The poem mentions unusual things like giants. In addition it mentions god's several times, which relate to the norse mythology. An example would be the beginning of the poem “Hear my words you holy god's” (1.1). Voluspa also mentions thor which relates to the norse mythology. “ Far-famed Thor, the son of Earth, the son of Odin, goes forth to fight the Snake. Midgard’s defender dies triumphant, but the human race no longer has a home: nine steps beyond the Serpent’s body, Thor, wounded, walks in pride.” (3.1). Volsunga Saga falls under the fairytale genre. It was written in Iceland in the thirteenth century by an unidentified author. The volsunga sagas main theme is power. It focuses on power and the consequences of it if you have power and if you don't have power. Beowulf is considered an old english poem. Some would even consider it a “epic poem”. It can be considered an epic poem because epics often focus on single heroic figures, which happens to be Beowulf. Epics also often involve heroic quests, as in Beowulf’s journey to Denmark. Some critics believed that the poem was a Christian allegory. Beowulf the champion of goodness and light against the forces of evil and darkness. The hobbit is placed under the “fantasy” category. The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear fantasy is Alice In Wonderland. Alice In Wonderland is filled with unrealistic things. Talking animals, a tree that takes you into another world, spells and positions, unknown creatures and people with huge heads and tiny bodies. The hobbit included supernatural beings like elves, trolls, dwarves, wizards and hobbits. It was catered to audiences like young adults.


References:

Encyclopedia Britannica. (2019). Beowulf. Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Beowulf

eNotes. (n.d.). Volsunga Saga Critical Essays. [online] Retrieved from: https://www.enotes.com/topics/volsunga-saga

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

Recently there has been a lot of movies/ TV shows bring back some of our favorite characters back to life and I’m not mad about it. One of the most shocking returns has been Jon Snow from Game of Thrones. Snow joined the Night’s watch and later on became a Lord Commander. He played a huge role in GOT (Game of Thrones). Snow was deeply wounded and appeared to be dead. Melisandre was practicing with magic and she was Snows only hope in coming back to life. She began by cleaning up his wounds and cutting his hair while throwing it into a pit of fire, meanwhile she was chanting a spell. She got a bucket of water and poured it on his hair and continued to chant the spell. There was no signs of him waking up. Eventually everyone left the room, but he woke up. Another example would be Loki in Thor The Dark World. Thor is in a fight and Loki saves him by impaling the foe with a blade. The enemy then grabs Loki and stabs him with the blade that's sticking out of his chest. Thor mourns for his brother but eventually leaves him on the ground. Thor is talking to Odin, he tells him he can't be the king of Asgard and leaves. After he leaves Odin turns into Loki revealing that Loki is still alive. The final example is Buffy in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Buffy plunged to her death in an attempt to keep a portal to hell from opening, but dies. Her friends held her a memorial. The next season her friend Willow who happens to be into magic, brings her back to life.

Norse mythology is a set of beliefs and stories shared by Northern Germanic tribes. It was passed on from one generation to the next in the form of poetry. There are different supernatural races in norse mythology some include Aesir, Vanir and Giants. Giants were considered terrible magicians. Aesir were primary races of god, they included Odin, Thor and Heimdall. Aging like humans, these gods would stay young by eating magic apples. Vanir were the second race of gods. Initially Vanir and Aesir were battling one another, but Vanir ended up being admitted into Asgard. Some major norse gods included Odin, Thor and Loki. Odin was the chief of god, master of wisdom, magic and poetry. Thor was the god of thunder. He had a magic hammer that would strike his targets but would always return to Thor. Loki was a giant but was allowed into Asgard. He caused a lot of problems, until the gods put him in a cage with a large venomous snake to torment him. Norse mythology is still used to this day. One of the authors that bought back the Norse gods was Neil Gaiman. He published a book titled “Norse Mythology”. Gaiman retells the ancient stories in a modern way and previously took up Norse mythic motifs. In addition Norse mythology's are still used by incorporating them with movies nowadays including the most famous one, Thor.

References:

Cliffsnotes.com. (n.d.). About Norse Mythology. [online] Retrieved from: https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/mythology/about-norse-mythology

Larrington, C. (2017). Norse gods make a comeback thanks to Neil Gaiman – here's why their appeal endures. [online] The Conversation. Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/norse-gods-make-a-comeback-thanks-to-neil-gaiman-heres-why-their-appeal-endures-73154

Norse mythology. (2018, July 2). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Norse_mythology&oldid=6180947.

The Norse Gods. (n.d.). Norse Mythology: A Brief Synopsis. [online] Retrieved from: https://thenorsegods.com/norse-mythology-a-brief-synopsis/

1 comment:

  1. hello there,
    I really like how your interpreted your favourite films and tv shows with different genres

    ReplyDelete