Beowulf, The Monsters And The Critics
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Beowulf, The Monsters And The Critics
"''Beowulf'': The Monsters and the Critics" was a 1936 lecture given by J. R. R. Tolkien on literary criticism on the Old English heroic epic poem ''Beowulf''. It was first published as a paper in the '' Proceedings of the British Academy'', and has since been reprinted in many collections. Tolkien argues that the original poem has almost been lost under the weight of the scholarship on it; that ''Beowulf'' must be seen as a poem, not just as a historical document; and that the quality of its verse and its structure give it a powerful effect. He rebuts suggestions that the poem is an epic or exciting narrative, likening it instead to a strong masonry structure built of blocks that fit together. He points out that the poem's theme is a serious one, mortality, and that the poem is in two parts: the first on Beowulf as a young man, defeating Grendel and his mother; the second on Beowulf in old age, going to his death fighting the dragon. The work has been praised by critics incl ...
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Beowulf The Monsters And The Critics 1936 Title Page
''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025. Scholars call the anonymous author the "''Beowulf'' poet". The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 6th century. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years later, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is mortally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a tower on a headland in his ...
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Work Of Art
A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature and music, these terms apply principally to tangible, physical forms of visual art: *An example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture. *Objects in the decorative arts or applied arts that have been designed for aesthetic appeal, as well as any functional purpose, such as a piece of jewellery, many ceramics and much folk art. *An object created for principally or entirely functional, religious or other non-aesthetic reasons which has come to be appreciated as art (often later, or by cultural outsiders). *A non-ephemeral photograph or film. *A work of installation art or conceptual art. Used more broadly, the term is less commonly applied to: *A fine work of architecture or landscape design *A production of live performance, such as ...
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Ritchie Girvan
Ritchie Girvan (1877 – c. 1958) was a Scottish literary scholar, author, and academic; throughout his career he was associated with the University of Glasgow, where he made his name studying the Old English poem ''Beowulf''. He is best known for his 1935 book ''Beowulf and the Seventh Century: Language and Content''. Life Girvan was born in Campbeltown, Argyllshire, Scotland in 1877; his mother was Mary Girvan of Milknowe Terrace, Campbeltown. Girvan began his studies at Glasgow in 1894, taking his MA in 1889. He became an English Language lecturer at the university in 1907, remaining there for the rest of his career; he was made professor in 1947. He was awarded an honorary LLD by the university in 1950, and served as Dean of Faculties between 1954 and 1958. ''Beowulf'' criticism Girvan is best known for his 1935 book ''Beowulf and the Seventh Century: Language and Content''; Reviewing the book for ''Modern Language Notes'' in 1938, Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie noted that Girvan ...
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Raymond Wilson Chambers
Raymond Wilson Chambers (12 November 1874 – 23 April 1942) was a British literary scholar, author, librarian and academic; throughout his career he was associated with University College London (UCL). Life Chambers was educated at University College, studying under such eminent scholars as W. P. Ker and A. E. Housman; he was Librarian at that institution from 1901 to 1922, and assistant professor in the English department, 1904–14. He served in World War I, with the Red Cross in France, and in Belgium with the YMCA/ B.E.F. Chambers became Quain Professor of English at UCL in 1922. Chambers wrote on a wide variety of subjects relating to English literature, history, and culture; notably, he worked on the Shakespearean additions to the play ''Sir Thomas More'', with Alfred W. Pollard and other scholars. His acclaimed 1935 biography, ''Thomas More'', was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Chambers and Tolkien Chambers was a friend of J.R.R. Tolkien and their car ...
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Summa Theologica
The ''Summa Theologiae'' or ''Summa Theologica'' (), often referred to simply as the ''Summa'', is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a scholasticism, scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church. It is a compendium of all of the main theology, theological teachings of the Catholic Church, intended to be an instructional guide for theology students, including Seminary, seminarians and the literate laity. Presenting the reasoning for almost all points of Christian theology in the West, topics of the ''Summa'' follow the following cycle: God; Creation, Man; teleology, Man's purpose; Christ; the Sacraments; and back to God. Thomas Aquinas#Late career and cessation of writing (1272–1274), Although unfinished, it is "one of the classics of the history of philosophy and one of the most influential works of Western literature." Moreover, the ''Summa'' remains Aquinas' "most perfect work, the fruit of his mature years, in which the thought of his whole life is con ...
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Lai (poetic Form)
A ''lai'' (or ''lay lyrique'', "lyric lay", to distinguish it from a ''lai breton'') is a lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance. ''Lais'' were mainly composed in France and Germany, during the 13th and 14th centuries. The English term ''lay'' is a 13th-century loan from Old French ''lai''. The origin of the French term itself is unclear; perhaps it is itself a loan from German '' Leich'' (reflected in archaic or dialectal English ''lake'', "sport, play" and in modern Swedish (leker = to play). The terms ''note'', ''nota'' and ''notula'' (as used by Johannes de Grocheio) appear to have been synonyms for ''lai''. The poetic form of the ''lai'' usually has several stanzas, none of which have the same form. As a result, the accompanying music consists of sections which do not repeat. This distinguishes the lai from other common types of musically important verse of the period (for example, the rondeau and the ...
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Scare Quotes
Scare quotes (also called shudder quotes,Pinker, Steven. ''The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century''. Penguin (2014) sneer quotes, and quibble marks) are quotation marks that writers place around a word or phrase to signal that they are using it in an ironic, referential, or otherwise non-standard sense. Scare quotes may indicate that the author is using someone else's term, similar to preceding a phrase with the expression " so-called"; they may imply skepticism or disagreement, belief that the words are misused, or that the writer intends a meaning opposite to the words enclosed in quotes. Whether quotation marks are considered scare quotes depends on context because scare quotes are not visually different from actual quotations. The use of scare quotes is highly discouraged in formal or academic writing. History Elizabeth Anscombe coined the term ''scare quotes'' as it refers to punctuation marks in 1956 in an essay titled "Aristotle ...
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William Paton Ker By Johnstone Forbes-Robertson Univ Glasgow Hunterian Art Gallery
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ... after the Norman conquest of England in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." Shortened familiar versions in English include Will (given name), Will, Wills (given name), Wills, Willy, Willie, Bill (given name), Bill, and Billy (name), Billy. A common Irish people, Irish form is Liam. Scottish people, Scottish diminutives include Wull, Willie or Wullie (as in Oor Wullie or the play Douglas (play)#Theme ...
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Christopher Tolkien
Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (21 November 1924 – 16 January 2020) was an English academic editor, becoming a French citizen in later life. The son of author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien edited much of his father's posthumously published work, including ''The Silmarillion'' and the 12-volume (plus one volume of indexes) series ''The History of Middle-Earth''. Tolkien also drew the original maps for his father's ''The Lord of the Rings''. Outside his father's unfinished works, he edited three tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (with Nevill Coghill) and his father's translation of ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight''. Early life Tolkien was born in Leeds, England, the third of four children and youngest son of John Ronald Reuel and Edith Mary Tolkien (''née'' Bratt). He was educated at the Dragon School (Oxford) and later at The Oratory School. He entered the Royal Air Force in mid-1943 and was sent to South Africa for flight training, completing the el ...
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The Monsters And The Critics
"''Beowulf'': The Monsters and the Critics" was a 1936 lecture given by J. R. R. Tolkien on literary criticism on the Old English language, Old English heroic epic poem ''Beowulf''. It was first published as a paper in the ''Proceedings of the British Academy'', and has since been reprinted in many collections. Tolkien argues that the original poem has almost been lost under the weight of the scholarship on it; that ''Beowulf'' must be seen as a poem, not just as a historical document; and that the quality of its verse and its structure give it a powerful effect. He rebuts suggestions that the poem is an epic or exciting narrative, likening it instead to a strong masonry structure built of blocks that fit together. He points out that the poem's theme is a serious one, mortality, and that the poem is in two parts: the first on Beowulf as a young man, defeating Grendel and his mother; the second on Beowulf in old age, going to his death fighting The dragon (Beowulf), the dragon. ...
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Beowulf And The Critics
''Beowulf and the Critics by J. R. R. Tolkien'' is a 2002 book edited by Michael D. C. Drout that presents scholarly editions of the two manuscript versions of Tolkien's essays or lecture series "''Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...'' and the Critics", which served as the basis for the much shorter 1936 lecture " Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics". ''Beowulf and the Critics'' was awarded the 2003 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies. References Books of literary criticism Essays by J. R. R. Tolkien Tolkien studies 2002 non-fiction books {{lit-criticism-book-stub ...
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Manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has come to be understood to further include ''any'' written, typed, or word-processed copy of an author's work, as distinguished from the rendition as a printed version of the same. Before the arrival of printing, all documents and books were manuscripts. Manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, music notation, explanatory figures, or illustrations. Terminology The study of the writing in surviving manuscripts, the "hand", is termed palaeography (or paleography). The traditional abbreviations are MS for manuscript and MSS for manuscripts, while the forms MS., ms or ms. for singular, and MSS., mss or ms ...
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