Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: The Importance of Literary Genre and Time Difference”They said that of all the male monarchs upon Earth / he was the adult male most gracious and fair-minded. / kindest to his people and keenest to win celebrity. ” ( Beowulf 97 ln. 3180-82 ) . This is a description of the great male monarch Beowulf. from the heroic poem verse form of the same name. “…Sir Gawain you are. / Whom all the universe worships. whereso you ride ; / Your award. your courtesy are higest acclaimed / By Godheads and by ladies. by all populating work forces. ” ( Sir Gawain 139 ln. 1226-29 ) . This is a description of Sir Gawain. from the romantic verse form Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Both of these heroes are evidently really extremely viewed by those around them. although about 600 old ages separates the authorship of the two manuscripts. Beowulf. an heroic poem verse form. and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. a romantic verse form. are two great literary plant. both with nameless and perchance infinite writers. separated by literary genre and 6oo old ages of social development.

Beowulf is an heroic poem. and as such follows certain features that are alone to this signifier of poesy. The key to any heroic poem is its hero and his defect ; the hero is required to hold a defect because the heroic poem is a signifier of serious and tragic poesy that allows for few blithe minutes. This peculiar heroic poem centres around a immature and eager adventurer named. of class. Beowulf. who is fueled by a desire to be remembered everlastingly as a great hero. His naming comes when “…a fiend out of snake pit. / began to work his immorality in the universe. / Grendel was the name of this inexorable devil / stalking the fens. marauding round the heath / and the desolate fens ; ” ( Beowulf 33 ln. 100-04 ) . Grendel besides brings in the first otherworldly component of the verse form. a characteristic particular to heroic poems ; this component is expanded upon when Beowulf Tells of many sea monsters he destroyed in his young person. subsequently when Grendel’s female parent seeks retaliation. and eventually when the great firedrake threatens Beowulf’s land.

The intent for highly long heroic poems such as Beowulf ( which is over 3000 lines. and likely thirster due to destroyed subdivisions of the original manuscript ) lies in tradition and saving. It is thought that the existent Beowulf lived around 450 A. D. . but the heroic poem was non recorded until about 700 A. D. – during this long spread. narratives of Beowulf were passed down orally. a tradition of the Anglo-saxons based upon the saving of their alone civilization. This civilization was a serious one because the times of the Anglo-saxons were highly unsafe – outside of their ain kin they had no 1 to swear as any foreigner was merely every bit likely to kill them as expression at them. lest he stop up slain foremost.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. in contrast to the heroic poem. is a love affair: a round and lighter version of the heroic poem based around a individual pursuit. Like the hero of the heroic poem. Gawain has a defect that leads to his weakness. but as the love affair is lighter it does non take to his decease. Gawain is a pure immature knight whose quest nowadayss itself upon the visual aspect of the Green Knight at a vacation banquet at King Arthur’s tribunal. As in the heroic poem. there is besides an component of the antic nowadays: “Great admiration grew in hall / At his chromaticity most unusual to see. / For adult male and cogwheel and all / Were green as viridity could be. ” ( Sir Gawain 117 ln 147-50 ) .

The manner of Sir Gawain follows the alliterative manner of Beowulf that makes it easier to execute orally. but the love affair largely serves to entertain instead than continue tradition or civilization. as is the intent of the heroic poem. This is likely because while 1375 ( the estimated clip of Sir Gawain’s entering ) was surely still a unsmooth clip for anyone survival-wise. it was a less animalistic clip than 700 A. D. as society had 600 old ages to develop in the meantime. Camelot is described as a comfortable topographic point with a expansive palace and many luxuries – in the clip of Beowulf the constructions that preserved the Anglo-saxons were more or less mammoth huts. Further. while Gawain does set out on a pursuit with his life on the line. there are no elephantine snakes assailing Camelot and eating its tribunal members out of malice.

To the Anglo-saxons in 700 A. D. . the comitatus was really of import as all the thanes had was each other ; the comitatus is besides of import in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. but on a lesser degree. This statement can be made because. although Sir Gawain sets out on a undertaking to continue his comitatus back at Camelot. he makes the escapade by himself ; Beowulf is invariably surrounded by his set of work forces. Beowulf does divide from his thanes when he battles Grendel and his female parent. but it is in the involvement of their immediate saving as the two monsters would merrily bolt up any of them. The desperate importance of the comitatus is besides seen in Beowulf through the subject of retaliation. which is non present in Sir Gawain. In 700 A. D. . it was every folk for itself and there was no fit signifier of jurisprudence or legal system: if a adult male was murdered. the lone reparations that could be made against his slayer were those belonging to wergild.

In the clip that Sir Gawain takes topographic point. there were full lands under the regulation of the leader versus little folks. and there was a better-established legal system for covering with offenses such as slaying. This legal system is besides apparent through the many contracts found in Sir Gawain. such as those between Gawain and the host during his stay: “‘And Gawain. ’ said the good host. ‘agree now to this: / Whatever I win in the forests I will give you at eve. / And all you have earned you must offer to me. ” ( Sir Gawain 137 ln 1105-07 ) . This peculiar contract besides draws off from the importance of the comitatus because it involves the involvement of merely two work forces – if Beowulf received such an offer. it is likely he would divide whatever he acquired amongst himself and his thanes.

Religion is an of import difference between the two novels and the times they were set in. In the clip of Beowulf Paganism was still commonly nowadays. In the clip of Sir Gawain Christianity was the widely accepted faith. Religion in general is much more present in Sir Gawain. as the full secret plan of the book revolves around Christian vacations and jubilations. Christianity affects even the garb of characters in the narrative. Sir Gawain’s shield shows that “he appropriately had / On the interior portion of his shield [ Mary’s ] image portrayed. / That when his expression on it lighted. he ne’er lost bosom. ” ( Sir Gawain 128 ln 648-50 ) . The ruin Gawain suffers besides has to make with his faith. as he puts religion in a charming baldric alternatively of in God. and in making so is belittled and shamed by the Green Knight. In Beowulf. there is reference of God. but simply in go throughing – it is obvious that faith is non every bit of import to the Anglo-saxons of 700 A. D. as is the comitatus. This goes back to the abrasiveness of the clip and the fact that all the religion the thanes had. they put in one another.

The chief factors that divide Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are literary genre and clip difference. Throughout the 600 old ages that separated the creative activity of the two manuscripts. society developed. the legal system developed. the accent on the comitatus changed. and the popular faith turned from Paganism to Christianity. While all of these factors altered the manner of authorship and the content of the two verse forms. the fact remains that Beowulf and Sir Gawain are two great literary heroes who strove to be all that they could.

Plants Cited

Greenblatt. Stephen. “Beowulf. ” The Norton Anthology of EnglishLiterature. 8th erectile dysfunction. 2006.

Greenblatt. Stephen. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. ” The Norton Anthology of EnglishLiterature. 8th erectile dysfunction. 2006.