Sаmаrkаnd stаtе institutе оf fоrеign lаnguаgеs fоrеign lаnguаgе аnd litеrаturе

Hung around with helmets. Battle-shields,
With shining corselets, as he requested;
Then they laid in the midst of it the illustrious prince,
The weeping warriors, the beloved lord,
Then the warriors began to kindle on the cliff
The greatest of funeral fires: the wood-smoke rose up
Dark above the fire, the roaring flames,
Surrounded by lamentation – the tumult of the winds subsided – Till it had completely crushed the body, Hot in his breast. Sad in mind [8,100].
They complained of the sorrow of their hearts, the death of their liege-lord.
It can be observed that the language is forceful and expressive, conveying with the economy words the picture of the funeral pyre on the cliff top and the lamentation of the warriors for their old king. The language is direct, shorn of rhetorical figures but has the force of magnificent lyricism that melts the heart. The use of the compound words should be noted especially, together with that of the kenning, which skillfully handled took on the form of a compressed vivid statement of highly original language. Another feature of the style is the use of repetition and variation.
The story of the poem belongs to the pagan life of the Germanic tribes, but the poem itself was set down after the conversion of the English to Christianity, The new worship and the old heroic virtues are found in unison in the poem. But the
values of the poetry belong to an earlier pagan age, with a sense of endurance, of fate, and of unfailing courage revealing a spirit that is never completely recaptured in any later period. The heroic spirit painted in Beowulf can be seen in the short poem ‘Maldon’, written soon after the Battle of Maldon in 993: Thought must be harder: the heart, the keener.
Courage shall be greater as our strength grows less.
Beowulf’s character is an ample demonstration of this courage that grows while health fails. Nothing in Old English Literature can compare with Beowulf ; it has the size and dignity of a classical epic. Possibly its author whose handiwork the present poem is had read Virgil, or some of the later Latin epics.