The Anglo-Saxon Epic Heroes
The epic hero embodies the value of ideas of a particular society. They undertake long, dangerous journeys, or quest, to achieve something of a great value to themselves or their people. Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and Hector are epic heroes with the characteristics of going on a journey and risking death for the glory and for the greater good of society. Beowulf must protect a community by defeating a gruesome monster that seeks to destroy Herot hall. Gilgamesh is on a quest with his friend Enkidu to battle the monster Humbaba. The Trojan hero, Hector, who kills Patroclus, battles with Achilles one-on-one.
Beowulf is going on a journey and risking his life to defeat Grendel in Herot hall. As everyone enjoys life, Grendel is steaming mad with hatred for the humans. After Grendel comes storming in, he starts to snatch people left and right, destroying the hall. The great warrior hears what is happening. He goes to Denmark with some of his strongest men to defeat the shepherd of evil, guardian of crime. The hero has to now leave the land of Geats (Sweden) to battle, risking his life for an entire community. "The infamous killer fought for his freed, wanting no flesh but retreat, desiring nothing but escape; his claws had been caught, he was trapped" (line 53). Grendel and Beowulf are now wrestling around Herot hall, fighting each other. The Danes wants to help their great leader fight this big, brave monster, but Grendel is being unharmed with the magic he holds. At this point, Beowulf is risking death while he fights Grendel. The monster's shoulder was chopped; bones and muscles were broken. This defeat makes Beowulf a hero. He ended the grief, sorrow, and the suffering forced on Hrothgar's helpless people by a bloodthirsty friend. To boast his victorious battle with Grendel, Beowulf decides to hang up the monster's arm, claw, shoulder, and all. Beowulf went through battle so he can continue to have the frame of being noticed and the ego of being the great warrior of the Geats. Gilgamesh is the next hero that is risking life and death to protect his society. Part god, and part human, Gilgamash will perform the deed of destroying the cedar forest of and the evil giant Humbaba. "I meet. I want to prove him not the awesome thing we think he is and that the boundaries set up by gods are not unbreakable. I will defeat him in his cedar forest. The youth of Uruk need his fight. They have grown soft and restless" (lines 26-32), is the speech he gives to the elders letting them know that he is there hero and that the journey to win the battle with the giant will be victorious for the good of everyone. The brave hero isn't going on this journey alone. As the battle goes on, Gilgamesh is ready for battle. He raises and ax and struck at the great cedar. Instantly, Humbaba races to see what is happening. Now the ironic part is that Gilgamesh boasted in the past about defeating the giant and now he is scared. Gilgamesh has defeated the giant with his ax and watches as he plea for his life. Finally this horrible battle is over and the head of Humbaba is swinging from a tree. The last epic hero is Hector - the honorable warrior-prince of the Trojans. The conflict is between him and Achilles, the enemy. The god Apollo assists Hector. Apollo is the sun god and his name is Phoebus. Everything started when Hector kills a soldier named Patrochus. Achilles is enraged and seeks revenge because the Greeks believed that a soul could not be rested until the body was buried with proper rituals. Hector is running around the city way from Achilles. He is trying to run for the Dardan Gates, but Achilles isn't allowing that to happen. Zeus uses his scales of judgment to decide the fates of Achilles and Hector. Hector is doomed to die since everyone wants him died. Athena tricks Hector into thinking that she is Deiphobus, one of his brothers. "No more running from you in fear, Achilles! Not as before. Three times I flee around the great city of Priam - I laced courage then to stand your onslaught. Now my spirit stirs me to meet you face-to-face. Now kill or be killed!" (lines 73-77). Hector is stating that he is willing to be the brave warrior. Hector realizes that Athena had tricked him blind. Finally, Hector went t to the House of Death and the Trojans are left alone with no hero. Achilles goes and cause trouble with the Trojans to see what they will do since the hero is dead. In conclusion, Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and Hector went on a journey to help their society. Beowulf has the superhuman strength and reflects the highest ideas of his culture - the Anglo-Saxon culture of ancient England. Despite the differences at several points in their adventure, Gilgamesh and Enkidu defeated the giant Humbaba and their attitudes changed as well. Hector died as he tried to keep his life and save the Trojans during the war against the Greeks. These three Anglo-Saxon heroes did a good deed, went to battle, risk their life to save their community, kept their ego, and overcame evil over good. April Showers I had a plan to write make this post on how the English language should be the official language of this country. I'm sure it will stir up a debate. In my paper I wrote last semester, I stated that the language should be official in America. I should share it with you a bit later. Of course that may start up people saying they rather want this country to have more than one official language such as the other countries across the seas. Should the United States have English as the official language? Like Yasir said in his post about the racism discussion I normally will have something to say about some type of issue or my opinion to share. Today it rained and I got soaked walking to and from my 11:30 a.m. class this morning. I am just glad it did not rain while I had my 8:00 a.m. class. All in all, it turned out to be an awesome day. Tomorrow the Memphis vs. UCLA game is during the evening. I'm a slight nervous since I had a nightmare about our Tigers losing the game. I guess it was those chips I ate before bed. I hope they WIN and go on to Monday's game. It will be so exciting to tell people I go to THE University of Memphis!! Lately, I have found myself reading, or discovering, different blogs and bloggers on various topics; especially those who are teachers or just blog to rant/vent their anger. However, most of the blogs are pretty good. Next month I should be getting the Atlantic Monthly and Harper's magazines in the mail. I will be getting both magazines for the next year. I look forward to seeing the different articles and columns they will be written. It is good to see the different writing styles of the writers and being able to see how they can relate to me writing. We should read everything and find the meaning and purpose of an article. That is something Wendy always wants us to do. I wished I did not have three to four papers due over the next two weeks before the last day of class, but they have to get done for a grade. The good thing with one of the paper is that I get to see the play Animal Farm at the U of M Theater. I've read the book in high school, saw the animated and live action version (with real, talking animals), and wrote a term paper during my senior year in high school. So much, much writing needs to be done before school is out. Go! Tigers! Go!
A Positive Influence There are millions of people that I know. Out of everyone, there's one particular person that has a positive influence in my life. This wonderful lady is JoAnn Hollenbach. She is my retired Honors Humanities teacher. I must say there can be several reasons why I chose this person. Ms. Hollenbach taught me as well as others to broaden our horizon. She wanted also wanted me to be open-minded and to have a voice, and to enjoy life.
Since I have graduated from Raleigh-Egypt High, I want to go beyond just living in Memphis, to go out and learn more. I can remember Ms. Hollenbach teaching a lesson about Italy and how she would travel and expand her thinking. This lesson impacted me because I want to go out and visit other countries and learn about their ways of living and a new viewpoint of other cultures. This one lesson Ms. Hollenbach taught me is always on my mind. I will call this a goal in life. The next positive value is Ms. Hollenbach teaching me not to have a closed mind, but to see a better way of thinking. This influenced me to be prepared for the different reactions, beliefs, opinions, and ways of life from other cultural people. I believe it is a good thing to be able to state my opinion and show the world that I have a voice. She influenced me not be dumb or stupid; therefore, I have the eagerness to learn more and gain more knowledge. Knowledge is power! The last thing that led her to influence me is to go out and enjoy life. She didn't want me to just be left out in the world, but to have this young spirit and to know that I am somebody. To me, enjoying life is making myself happy. For example, relaxing, watching TV, reading, going out to learn more education ideas, seeing theatrical productions, and knowing that I am happy allow me to know that I enjoy life. Ms. JoAnn Hollenbach influenced me in several ways from expanding my horizon, being open-minded, and wanting to know more to have a voice that allows me to let others know how I think and feel. I Want to Write a Book & Get it Published "The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything." ~ John Irving I have not done anything outside writing besides this blogging and collecting my grades each week. I want to get a book published. Why kind of book you ask? I'm not sure. I can write about anything, I can talk about life, I can write about aliens coming to take humans back to Mars. I can write about anything that sparks pen to paper. I have not forgotten about attending college to be a teacher. That is a career that will fit me. I look at it as teachers as with the job of helping the world out producing more professional students. Last month, I wrote how thinking can cease creativity. Writers do need a bit of time to find something to write. Some posts before that I wrote on how reading, thinking, and writing is important. These skills are important to a writer. You train yourself to be a better writer when you read. Do you agree? Friday I wrote about the three writers that came to the University. They talked on the subject of how they write and how they came about writing on baseball, being in a country during the time of war, and how language evolved from the past to today. I also posted a descriptive piece that I had written in my English class last semester. I had to think for bit to get very creative to write about an elderly lady's attic. The paragraph as it is called is a piece of fiction work. I have never been in an attic so dusty or antique. I had to be very detailed so that the reader can picture themselves actually walking around the attic. I still have my portfolio of my essays from last semester. As I look over them, they are good essays and set the expectation of my level of writing skills. There are essays that I will keep and just look back upon. They could be added to the book I want to write and get published. "Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer. " ~ Ray Bradbury
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