The Importance of Literary Genre When Reading Beowulf and the Egil’s Saga

Given the variety of categories it encompasses, literature is a broad field with many facets.

However, certain genres are essential for deconstructing and understanding the meaning of literal material.

The genre of notification is an excellent illustration.

For instance, the epic form of autobiography is obvious when considering the similarities between Beowulf and the Egil’s Saga.

The goal of the autobiography genre is to convey a person’s or group’s history through a story that has been written and recounted by someone else, frequently in the form of a lesson that applies to other people’s lives.

Therefore, following the genre aforementioned, it is not only imperative to highlight the controversial encounters in the Beowulf and Egil’s Saga historical poems but also vital to analyze the essence of establishing an identity among the distinct characters.

The theme of identity is central in the poem of Beowulf.

The elements of individual reputation and ancestral heritage are the subjects pertinent to the theme of identity.

The poem sets a transparent background right from the introduction that very son belongs to their father (Christie 521).

Indeed, individual characters in the poem are not recognized by referring to themselves independently or introduce their personality without alluding to their respective ancestral lineage.

The historic bonds of kinships are the central features that persist on the bonding.

Individual characters revere ancestors who are perceived as heroic and successful, and they as well ensure to living to their standards or even better.

Even though identity is the core reason for building strong family bonds among the people, the concept of friendship remains essential for even stronger social relationships, like the case of the lineage of the Danish kings (Christie 531).

A good example is Shield Sheafson, an orphaned man, who lacks genetic identity and hence the pride of ancestral lineage, and the only element he could back on for identity was his efforts to emerge as a valiant and hence a true originator of the royal family of the Danish.

Among the people of the culture of Beowulf’s warrior tradition, death is an everyday encounter knocking at the door sooner than anticipated.

Consequently, people bank more on the legacy they leave behind after they are dead than the essence of being a life for long.

On the other hand, the Egil’s Saga is a poem that primarily focuses on the concept of skallagrimsons.

The story zooms in a geographical place notable the western Iceland.

The poem discusses the lives of Egil and Thorolf skallagrimson, which makes their migration into the new land, Norway, from their ancestral homeland Iceland (Stein 14).

Thorolf is privileged to pay a visit to the new area in Norway, where he meets his old friend Thorir and he makes friendship with a new individual unknowingly to him.

The new friend in the foreign country is one Erik Bloodaxe, the cherished son of Harald.

Similarly to Beowulf’s poem, the concept of identity comes out clearly here, whereby individuals are called by their relationship to others.

The saga then continues to describe the lives of Thorolf and Egil Skallagrimson, born in Iceland and finally building their way to Norway in maturity.

Thorolf visited Skallagrim’s old friend in Norway, He approached the prince with a new tone of love, and concern, presenting a new gift that attracted the attention of Eirik.

As we would later learn in the reading, Bloodaxe became a new king and Thorolf had to leave the country for home, that is Iceland.

He was given an award by the king, and he had to depart for a distanced journey.

He was given the axe by the king, nevertheless, in disguise, he never presented the same to his homeland, a move that helped avoid the controversial scenario that could escalate to harm between King Erik Bloodaxe and Skallagrim (Stein 64).

Egil is portrayed as a very mysterious character.

His boyhood was characterized by a mastery of prowess and extreme knowledge in poetry.

He towered above his peers in many aspects, considering that he had more energy than his age.

At the age of seven, Egil did the unexpected, as he committed murder.

He was engaging on of his father’s favorite workers and unfortunately hit him too hard to endure, and he fell on the ground leading to his demise expressly.

This incident among other was the beginning of controversy between him and his father, and the two were at loggerheads at numerous times.

Similar to Egil’s Saga, in Beowulf, there is extreme tension between the affiliated value systems and the code of heroism.

The Germanic heroic values and codes emphasize the concepts of courage, strength, and loyalty among the warriors (Stein 61).

The Warriors are anticipated to possess elements like generosity, political prowess in Kings, as well as hospitality (Christie 528).

On the other hand, women specifically are expected to embody aspects of ceremoniousness among themselves, and a good reputation should be possessed by all people.

All the knowledge and related discipline are desirable features that are emphasized among the people, and that all individuals should have, such reputations inside of and beyond the borders of their dynasty.

The moral judgments of the [people were to be ethically upright, and persistent with the expectations of the people.

Therefore, individual characters who seem to be against the values termed as essential are consistently in controversy with the social norms to be.

The points of controversy are highlighted in the poem when peculiar incidences contradicting the internal values are noted.

The poem is critical in offering incidences of loyalty, where conformity with the powers to be is anticipated and the reactions expected to meet the forces otherwise.

A good example is seen when the Frisian son and Danish brother are killed in the war, a situation that sends extreme grieve to the king, who had married the Danish Hildeburh (Stein 33).

The values are as well in contradiction with the religion of the medieval era, as whereas the values assert that honor is gained while somebody lives, the Christian religion argues that honor is a virtue of afterlife.

Indeed, while the values are maintained that people should fight rather than engage in the morning, the Christian teachings maintain that peace should be the core of human life and that coexisting in harmony is desirable for all people without necessarily appealing to force (Christie 522).

The voice in the poem, the person, clearly shows that he is a Christian, and the strain in his arguments clear indicates that he does not concur with the pagan beliefs of the storyline in the poem.

The theme of controversy is as well witnessed in the Egil’s saga.

Almost immediately Egil’s father had caused the death of his friend, Throlf came back to Iceland for visiting.

Even though Throlf was against the idea of going back to Norway with Egil, he forcibly insisted on the same.

In the same trip to Norway, Throlf was to be accompanied by Asgerd, his beloved wife, as he wanted to create the severed social bond between her and her people once again, being the uncle, Thorir and the father, Abajorn.

Later on, a strong friendship would take place between Egil and the son to Thoris, a very prominent personality in the Saga and a respected accolade to Egil’s (Stein 54).

Controversy escalates when Egil boycotts to attend the wedding in the pretext of being sick, and he is unfortunately killed by the steward of the king, Bard when he went running errands in Atloy.

Bard does not serve ale in the ceremony of Egil, nevertheless, on the arrival of the king and the queen, there is too much ale to be served without concern.

Therefore, Bard is a figure that shows the manifestation of discord and lack of cohesion and the characters in the poem.

Egil was angered and instigated the killing of Bard by a stab.

Erik orders an army of men to go hunting Egil for his life.

Nevertheless, he was not found, and Erik lost many of his men instead.

The controversy and the lack of peace in this poem practically mirror similar incidences of controversy for the moral values in the poem of Beowulf.

Indeed, the main encounters in the two poems are the background of the similarities between the two literal studies.

The themes of struggle and controversy tower above other elements in the poems.

It is clear that there is a struggle between the mighty and the less fortunate, the morals considered ethically upright in controversy with the religion, as well as the lack of agreement between central characters.

Works Cited

Christie, E. J. “”An Unfollowable World”: Beowulf, English Poetry, and the Phenomenalism of Language.“ Literature Compass, vol. 10, no. 7, 2013, pp. 519-534.

Stein, Robert. ”London, South Bank Centre: Bryars’s ‘From Egil’s Saga.’“ Tempo, vol. 59, no. 232, 2005, pp. 1-79.