Dragon Slayer Week 1-3

What genres do the following texts belong to?

Voluspa, Volsunga Saga, Beowulf, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

Each of the texts above can be placed into different genres from my own understanding. (Feel free to correct me I am wrong.)

Voluspa

The first text, Voluspa, can be seen as a mythological poem. Firstly, it is a myth because the text focuses on Gods.

“Hear my words, you holy gods.”  (Extract 1.a, Line 1)

“By Odin’s will, I’ll speak the ancient lore” (Extract 1.a Line 3)

 As we read on, we begin to notice that Extract 1 is about the creation of the Norse mythological world.
“I know how nine roots form nine worlds” (Extract 1.a. Line 7)

And it was the Gods themselves who created it.

“Then Bur’s sons lifted up the land and made Midgard” (Extract 1.a. Line 13-14)

The text also has Gods as the protagonist/hero.

“Far famed Thor, the son of Earth, the son of Odin, goes forth to fight the snake.” (Extract 3. Line 1-2)

Secondly, it is a poem because the text consists of stanzas. It follows a certain poetic scheme throughout the text. We have a clear understanding of this even from the first stanza.

“Hear my words, you holy gods,

Great me and humble   sons of Heimdall;

By Odin’s will, I’ll speak the ancient lore,

The oldest of all   that I remember.”  (Extract 1.a, Line 1-4)

Throughout the extracts, the text is broken up into multiple stanzas similar to the first one. They don’t necessarily follow a rhyme scheme. However, each line in the stanza is presented in two parts, parted by a comma, or a noticeable blank spacing.

Therefore, I believe this text fits into the genre of a mythological poem perfectly. For it consists of Gods and is written in a poetic style.

Volsunga Saga

The second text, Volsunga Saga, is a saga. A saga is a very long story/tale which depicts man as the hero instead of the Gods (the Gods are still involved but are not the protagonists).

In the extracts of Volsunga that we were given, it tells the tale of Sigurd who confronts the dragon, Fafnir. The hero of a saga is brave, courageous and admirable, and Sigurd was just that.

“Sigurd neither trembled nor was adrad at the roaring of him.” (Line 28)

A saga also tells the tale of heroic deeds and feats of man; in this case, it is about Sigurd slaying Fafnir, the dragon.

“So whenas the worm crept over the pits, Sigurd thrust his sword under his left shoulder.”(Line 30)

The text also has similarities to a narrative prose by the way it is presented. It flows freely unlike a poem which has a structure. It also has dialogue.

“But Sigurd said, “What will betide me, if I be before the blood of the worm?””(Line 11)

The way that Volsunga is written strikes similarities to the modern fantasy novel. Volsunga Saga may very well be one of the earliest forms of prose writing which influenced the narratives of today.

Beowulf

Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon “epic” narrative. An epic consists of man as the protagonist, which is similar to a saga, however, there are no Gods involved at all. An epic also consists of heroic deeds and near-impossible feats.

Beowulf follows a man named Beowulf as the protagonist.

From my prior knowledge, I know that Beowulf killed the beast, Grendel and Grendel’s mother, which earned him respect among men.

“The wide kingdom reverted to Beowulf. He ruled it well for fifty winters, grew old and wise as warden of the land.”

He was then crowned king, as stated in the extracts that we were given.

“The dragon began to belch out flames and burn bright homesteads; there was a hot glow that scared everyone.”

Slaying the dragon was Beowulf’s last heroic deed. He showed signs of a true hero by confronting the dragon even when everyone else was scared.

The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings

The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings fall into the genre of fantasy novels. They are written by J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit can be seen as a prequel to The Lord of the Rings. Fantasy novels usually have a supernatural/fantastical element to the story. E.g. magic.

They also involve fictional characters and locations.

“Now if you wish, like the dwarves, to hear news of Smaug, you must go back again to the evening when he smashed the door and flew off in rage, two days before.” (The Hobbit, Chapter XIV)

Dwarves are a fictional race in fantasy; they are usually depicted as short, bearded men, who are stout and strong. Smaug, on the other hand, is the name of the dragon in The Hobbit.

From the extract from The Hobbit, we can see that it shares similarities to the Norse/Anglo-Saxon texts. The protagonists set out on a journey, and go through many challenges, and eventually defeats the “bad guy” at the end.

“The black arrow sped straight from the string, straight for the hollow by the left breast where the foreleg was flung wide.”

“With a shriek that deafened men, felled trees and split stone, Smaug shot spouting into the air, turned over and crashed down from on high in ruin.” (The Hobbit, Chapter XIV)

In this case (much like Volsunga), The hero slays the dragon.