4 Epic

Dr. Debamitra kar

In this chapter you shall learn about: Different forms of narrative poems: ballad, heroic poem and epic Some examples of ancient oral epics Heroic poems: Battle of Maldon and Battle of Brunanburgh

Ballad is the simplest form of narrative poetry and the epic is the most complicated but they are related to one another: they both tell stories. The telling of the story is a kind of a process of remembering, for the ancient people did not have the practice of writing things and preserving them for future generations. Jordanes says while writing the history of the Goths: ‘what is history but an account of the actions of brave men’. In the oral tradition, as you have already seen, the bards or minstrels were entrusted with the work of recording events and, exploits and achievements of people of importance. All these three genres of poetry, rooted in oral tradition, perform mnemonic function unlike the lyrical or religious poems which usually have personal or didactic purpose. These poetical forms record the history of a nation and tribe and create a kind of identity for its people. For instance, look at the popularity of The Ramayana and The Mahabharata even in present day India. We still refer to the golden age of Rama-Rajya or talk about the villainy of Shakuni. These narratives, whose origin is enmeshed in a cobweb of history, legend and hegemonic beliefs, continue to colour our imagination. I use the term hegemony to make you cautious of the fact that any work of art, including history, is ultimately a document recorded by someone; thus it is edited and appended according to the taste of that particular person or his generation. Hence, it would be unwise on our part to take these oral epics either as the truthful account of the age or absolutely fantastical. They are an admixture of both realistic details and authorial fantasy. They represent the values of their age, their tribe or nation, and also the author’s brilliant imagination.

Different forms of narrative poems: ballad, heroic poem and epic

Ballad

Lays or songs with heroic themes are called ballads. The tradition of ballad is present in countries like England, France, Germany, Scandinavia and Rumania. They are composed in regular stanzas and are sung to a recurrent tune. (Bowra 39) They may also have refrains. Originally, they were accompanied by dance movements. Music is an important component of the ballad. It has a lyrical quality.

Ballads used to be communicated orally. In all probability it was first composed by a single author, who is unknown, and the subsequent singers, who learn the song, would introduce changes in both the tune and lyric. Thus many versions of the same ballad may exist. Typically, the popular ballad is dramatic, condensed and impersonal. The narrator begins with the climactic episode, and then tells the story by means of action and dialogue.

As the form is oral, some set formulae are used in a ballad that would help the singers to remember the text. Such formulaic pattern is common in all oral poetry, though the pattern may change according to the poetic need. In a ballad the usual formulae are: stock descriptive phrases, refrain and incremental repetition (a line or stanza is repeated but with an addition that advances the story).

Ballad became a popular literary type in the Romantic period. Some of the best known ones are: Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, Walter Scott’s ‘Proud Maisie’ and Keats’ ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’. Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads was published in 1798, which contained many first-person narrative ballads of Wordsworth and third-person narrative ballad by Coleridge. Modern day ballads may also deal with political or social issues.

Heroic Poem

Verse narrative of heroic deeds in the heroic age.

The demarcation between the heroic poem and epic is quite complicated; many scholars use the terms as one and the same. This stems from the fact that epics nurture a heroic temperament even if their subject matter is not strictly heroic: like the Paradise Lost (it has a Christian theme). Many scholars opine that it is better to define the heroic poem by its time of composition, which is the heroic age. But this would not solve the issue either, since the Iliad and the Odyssey are written in the heroic age but they are usually seen as epics and not heroic poems. Tillyard rightly observes when he says that we may continue to use the terms epic and heroic poem for the same thing but with certain limitations.

In his book Heroic Poetry, C.M Bowra has used the term ‘heroic poem’ for a wide range of works including Greek Iliad, Odyssey, the Asiatic Gilgamesh, Anglo-Saxon Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon and The Battle of Brunanburh, Old German Hildrebrand, Norse poems Elder Edda, French Song of Roland and so on. You may find a similar list under ‘primary epics’ where it is told that these poems are of oral origin and they may have heroic qualities but lack certain literary attributes. Bowra has left out the secondary epics or literary epics like Virgil’s Aeneid, Spenser’s Faerie Queene or Milton’s Paradise Lost from his description. It is not to suggest that these poems lack in heroic quality but they are set apart by a more sophisticated style of narration. Thus heroic poetry can be seen as an evolutionary step towards the literary epic. Hence in our description the two terms would overlap. Our endeavour would not be to point out the deficiencies of the heroic poems but to see it as a genre in making of a yet greater literary form.

In his exhaustive discussion of the genre, Bowra lists the essential qualities of the heroic poem. Let us take a brief look at some of the important points so that we can see how the term overlaps with the epic.

1. ‘Heroic poetry is essentially narrative and is remarkable for its objective character. It creates its own world of the imagination in which men act on easily understood principles…’ (Bowra 4). The simplicity and imagination of the narrative is dependent on a particular kind of a world view in which people are remembered for their honour and martial prowess.
2. This poetry seems to be a ‘development of the narrative from the magical to a more anthropocentric outlook’ (8). The monsters of Beowulf would seem magical or unnatural to a modern reader but for the Anglo-Saxons, demons and monsters were an important part of their universe. It is anthropocentric in the sense that it shows the greatness that man can achieve. Though the gods may take part in the action, the ultimate hero is man. Iliad is about Achilles’ wrath and Beowulf is a man’s fight against the Wyrd or fate.
3. Heroic poetry is impersonal, objective and dramatic. Impersonal for it is not addressed to a single patron, objective for it has its own world of imagination to refer to and dramatic for it lacks criticisms and comments: it presents the events as it happened. The speeches are thus seen as an important part of the poem; they reveal the hero’s personality.
4. It is composed in a particular metre: for instance, the dactylic Hexameter of Homeric compositions, the line with four beats in Gilgamesh; or the accentual alliterative verse of the Anglo-Saxon poems.
5. Heroic poetry is essentially oral in nature; it is the spontaneous creation of the bards. Equally important is the presence of a sympathetic audience. It is a performance rather than a literary composition. The bard should keep his narration simple, thus unlike the writers of literary epics, he does not indulge in allusions or long-tailed similes. He employs some formulaic patterns like the fixed epithet or noun-adjective combination (dark death or blue sea), repetition, comparisons, and so on.
6. Heroic poetry usually depicts an action. The central principle is that the great man must go through an ordeal to prove his worth, and this would necessarily involve some kind of violent action. The poets refrain themselves from moralising, rather they concentrate on the details of the battles which their contemporary audience would immensely enjoy. The Iliad talks about the siege of Troy, Roland of the struggle between Charlemagne’s army and the great Saracens, Cid of wars in Spain against the moors or Beowulf of the fight with the monsters.
7. The action also reveals the importance of honour in the hero’s life. Honour is easily won by showing superiority to other men (Beowulf and Breca spend five days and five nights in the sea to show who the greater swimmer is) and hence there is always an element of competition. However, though indispensible, the competition is not intolerant.
8. The heroic narrative concentrates on the happy few and neglects the others. It is the story of the brave men, and thus others are easily excluded. Sometimes, common men and women are introduced, like Odysseus is identified by his nurse, but the poems remain firmly rooted in the monarchic or aristocratic tradition.
9. Heroic poetry usually does not end in a tragic note: it avoids the closure with the hero’s death, For instance, Achilles’ death is imminent but Homer does not describe it; and if defeat is shown, as in Battle of Maldon, it is counterbalanced by the achievement of personal honour. Death is seen as a challenge for it would abridge the hero’s time to fulfil his aim.
10. The heroic poems usually represent a polytheistic universe (Beowulf is an exception); here the gods are not regarded as essentially good, but they are simply the embodiments of power who govern human affairs. Sometimes, the poet takes the liberty to put the god in the wrong and place the hero against him.
11. The hero is a man with superior qualities—the qualities are not physical or magical powers but the qualities of the mind, his human virtues, and his strength of the mind. Each hero is different in his abilities, but their lust for honour remains the same. They are men of war, they possess tremendous physical power to destroy and perpetrate violence. Along with that he is a great leader. He is the representative of his people, their spokesperson and their exemplar. He usually serves his country or tribe or in some cases, religion. His heroism continues to inspire the people of that particular country or tribe or nation, long after the time of the heroic poetry has elapsed.
12. The heroic poetry usually portrays a realistic background; even when it depicts creatures as fantastical as the dragons or monsters, the details given are close to real life experiences, thus such fantasy become a part of the heroic world. The narrative also gives much importance to the arrival and departures of heroes which reveal the decorum of the society. The feasts and weapons also receive much poetic space revealing the splendour and generosity of the society. Another common narrative device is the description of the sea and the sailing. The genre also shows the friendship between the hero and his friend, who is no lesser to him in heroic valour. This friendship is balanced by the enmity between the hero and his antagonist.

Epic

Epic is considered to be the second greatest form of art (next to tragedy) by Aristotle in his Poetics. In the strictest sense it is defined as ‘a long verse narrative, on a serious subject, told in a formal or elevated style, and centred on a heroic or quasi-divine figure, on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe or a nation or the entire human race’ (Abrams).

Qualities of an epic:

1. High seriousness: words must be used in particular way. The incidents involved are of cosmic importance, the heroes exhibit superhuman qualities.
2. Amplitude, breadth and inclusiveness: cannot have unity as tragedy would have, include more sides of life, tragedy is limited and concentrated, epic is greater in scope, placed in a wider context.
3. True epic creates heroic impression. This impression is created by ‘the control of a large material and the exercise of the conscious will. Heroic poetry often concerns actions in which men… rise through deliberate valour to a great height of resolution’. (Tillyard 11) The treatment of the theme is quite important: it must be sustained and heroic, and that would not always be limited to a heroic theme. Eg Dante’s Divine Comedy or Milton’s Paradise Lost.
4. Choric quality: the epic writer must express the feelings of a large group of people living in or near his time. The epic should not be limited to national or racial boundaries. It tells us how it feels to be alive at that point of time.
5. Epic must have a story, a well known story which has become a part of the mythology of the audience. Through the story, epic should express the ‘accepted unconscious metaphysic’ (Tillyard 13) of the age. However, every accepted unconscious metaphysic of every age cannot prompt an epic. Just as tragedy is only possible in the age of optimism, epic must show faith in the system of beliefs or way of life it represents.
6. The literary epic has some particular stylistic features or conventions, for instance: invocation (where the poet seeks the help of the muse to compose the song), argument, epic question, epic simile, and a grand style that befits the narration of an event of cosmic importance.

As you can see from the above list, that many features of the heroic poem and the epic would overlap. Many oral epics, like Beowulf or Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey would have the epic content but may lack certain stylistic features for they were oral compositions which were later written down. The oral poet cannot use the features of a written composition; he would rather follow the formulaic pattern that we have already discussed. Again, the literary epics would celebrate the same heroic valour that is a characteristic of the heroic poem. Thus, it is better to use the terms judiciously, after we have read the particular poem and have a thorough knowledge of its context and background. In the following section you will find very brief synopses of some oral epics that would help you to understand the nature of epic in the ancient times.

Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey

Homer was regarded in antiquity as the author primarily of the two epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Nothing much about his life is known—various dates are suggested, ranging from 12th century BCE to 8the century BCE. Modern scholars, using the evidence of history, archaeology and language, generally date the poems to the end of the 8th century BCE, long after the events of the Trojan War (beginning of 12th century BCE) and its aftermath. There are also two schools of scholars presenting two different views of the composition: the ‘separatists’ believe that the two poems were composed by two different persons, while the ‘unitarians’ think that the differences in the poems can be accounted for by their very different subject matter. Whether two poets or one, certain facts are beyond doubt: the poems were composed in an Ionian-speaking part of the Greek world; the Odyssey is the sequel of the Iliad; and the characters of the two poems refer to the same individuals. It has also been suggested that the epics were created out of a compilation of shorter poems or lays and Homer’s contribution is impossible to surmise. The formulaic pattern employed in the poems asserts their oral origin. It is possible that towards the eighth century when writing was reintroduced in Greece, Homer had the opportunity to meditate and perhaps dictate a longer and more complex version to a scribe. It was not a mere editorial exercise undertaken by him, for the poems show artistic unity and definite marks of craftsmanship of an individual genius.

The Iliad, which derives its name from Ilion, another name of Troy, is divided into 24 books in the Athenian version of the text that works as the source of all the modern manuscripts of Homer. The subject of the poem is wrath of Achilles, arising from an affront to his honour given by Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army at the siege of Troy and, and the tragic consequences of his wrath. The poem opens with the events that led to Achilles’ wrath. In order to appease the anger of the sun god Apollo Agamemnon had to release Chryseis, who was given to him as a gift of honour. He consents but takes Briseis, slave girl of Achilles, in her place. Angry Achilles refrains from helping the king in the war till the Trojans fire their ships and his friend Patroclus is killed by Hector, the greatest warrior in the Trojan army. Maddened with grief, Achilles joins the war and kills Hector and treats his dead body with gross outrage. The king of Troy begs Achilles to give back the body of his son, which he does and the poem ends with the funeral of Hector. Throughout the epic the Olympian Gods are divided in their sympathy to the two camps and they actively participate in the war.

The Odyssey, also divided into 24 books, tells the story of the return of Odysseus, the Greek hero, from the siege of Troy to his home in Ithaca and of the vengeance he took on the suitors of his wife, Penelope. Here Gods are not active participants, though in some cases they aid or hinder the return of the hero to his home. When the story opens, ten years have elapsed since the fall of Troy to the Greeks. All the Greek leaders have returned to their homes, or are dead, except Odysseus, who is in the island of Ogygia where the Goddess Calypso has detained him for seven years. Odysseus’ wife Penelope has no news of him but hoping that her husband is alive defers the choosing of her second husband from her many suitors who have thronged her palace. She insists that she must first finish weaving a shroud for her father-in-law. The task is never completed for every night she secretly unravels what she has woven during the day. Yet her trick is discovered and her son Telemachus goes out to find his father. Meanwhile, at Zeus’ order Calypso releases Odysseus, who builds a raft and sails on it for seventeen days until he reaches Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians. Here his raft is destroyed by a sea storm and he is saved by the Phaeacian princess and is taken to the palace. Odysseus reveals his name and recounts the various adventures that he has undertaken since he left Troy (Book 9-12) and reached Ogygia where Calypso received him and detained him for so many years (the situation of Book 1). After finishing his tale, Odysseus is carried in a Phaeacian ship to Ithaca, his home. With goddess Athena’s help, he disguises himself as a beggar and comes to know about the insolent and extravagant behaviour of the suitors. His nurse recognises him, in spite of the disguise, but at his request, keeps his identity secret. Penelope by this time has decided to marry a man who could string.

Odysseus’ bow and shoot an arrow through a line of twelve axe heads, hoping that such a feat could only be achieved by her husband. Disguised Odysseus completes the task, kills the suitors of his wife and convinces her of his identity.

Elder Edda

This is the first or poetic Edda (the other is known as prose Edda or Edda of Snorri) and is also known as Edda of Saemundr. It is a collection of mythological, gnomic, ethical, magical and heroic poems of Iceland, preserved in the manuscript called Codex Regius. These thirty odd poems represent the whole of  literary  documents  available  to  us  for  our knowledge of the Scandinavian religion. The poems, composed  probably  around  the  end  of  the  12th century, was handed down orally and written in the codex a century later.

It is convenient to classify the poems according to the God they celebrate: Odinn, Thorr, Freyr, Freyja and others. Standing apart is the heroic cycle concerning Sigurdr, who killed the dragon, Fafnir. The text is marked by concision, rapidity, providing no scope for lyricism, contemplation or meditation. The poems are mostly gnomic in nature, though there  is  an  elegy  concerning  the  proud  lovers Brynhildr and Gudrun. The most important poems are ‘Hávamál’ (a composite poem on the wisdom and the cult of friendship of the Vikings) and ‘Völuspá’ (mythical history of gods and the men from the beginning through the end of time).

Nibelunglied

In German mythology, the Nibelungen (sons of mist) are a race of dwarfs inhabiting the underground world and holding a treasure that symbolizes power. The most elaborate version of the Nibelungen cycle is the Nibelunglied, whose first part is situated in Gunther’s court, where Sigfried, the famous dragon slayer, after stealing the treasure, comes to ask for the hand of Kremhild, the sister of Gunther, king of Burgundy. Perceiving a threat to the Burgundian throne, Hagen, a vassal of the king decides to ruin Sigfried by leading him to dishonour Brünhild, the queen of Iceland. Sigfried is caught and killed, and the treasure is thrown into the Rhine. The second part tells of the vengeance of Kremhild, who had married Eztel (Attila), king of Huns, and asks her husband to invite Gunther and his brothers to his court. Huns and Burgundians end by killing each other, while Kremhild is killed by Hildebrand. The poem ends with a Klage or lament which can be found in most of the 34 manuscripts.

The subject matter of the Lied, appears in Norse sagas and Icelandic Eddas and goes back to the distant oral tradition. The Klage however is supposed to be composed by Konrad, a cleric in the Episcopal chancery of Passau. The theme presents the vision of a world centred on ideas of power and domination and honour perverted into the thirst for vengeance. The epic poem is composed in Middle High German.

Chanson de Roland

Preserved in the Digby 23 manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Chanson the Roland is the oldest and finest of the surviving chansons de geste (songs to celebrate the victory of the kings and heroes against the Saracens). Constructed like a drama, it depicts the story of the annihilation of Charlemagne’s rearguard, commanded by the emperor’s nephew Roland. Ganelon, the hero’s stepfather and jealous of his valour, betrays him and his companions to the Saracens (the name commonly given in the Christian West to the inhabitants of the Arab-Muslim empire). Warned by the call of Roland’s horn, Charlemagne returns to Roncevaux to mourn his nephew and avenge his death in a deadly confrontation with the enemy. Learning of his fiancé’s death Aude dies of grief, but the traitor is cruelly punished.

The epic is based on the ideals of the crusade and the exaltation of the vassal’s loyalty. At the same time, it uses the heroic ideals by making Roland adamant in not seeking Charlemagne’s help while there is still time. He apologizes for the heroism which in effect makes him lose the land he was entrusted to protect, but he sought after such ideals that were considered to be the most important achievements in his world view. The poem amalgamates both the heroic and Christian principles: Roland’s death is seen as martyrdom suffered for faith, the angels come to collect his body and celebrates Charlemagne’s decisive victory against the Saracens. The poem is based on a historical fact i.e., the ambush laid by the Basque or Gascon highlanders for Charlemagne’s army in 778, which caused serious losses. But the franks are here substituted by the enemies of faith. This change reflects how the poet was employing the heroic conventions to depict the Christian beliefs.

Heroic poems: Battle of Maldon and Brunanburgh

These two poems celebrating the two historical events of the Old English period would serve as an example of the existing tradition of composing heroic lays. They can be seen as the precursors to the more complex heroic epic like Beowulf.

The Battle of Brunanburh

The Battle of Brunanburh, also spelt Brunnanburh, is an Old English poem of 73 lines included in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 937. It relates the victory of the Saxon king Athelstan over the allied army of Norse, Scots, and Strathclyde Briton invaders under the leadership of Olaf Guthfrithson, king of Dublin and claimant to the throne of York. The poem is probably a panegyric composed for Athelstan to celebrate his

victory. It describes the dead kings and earls on the battlefield and pictures the Norsemen slinking back to Dublin in their ships while their dead sons are being devoured by ravens and wolves. The poem claims that this was the greatest battle ever fought in England. Unlike The Battle of Maldon, it does not present the speeches of the English warriors but rather adheres to the narration of the incidents.

The Battle of Maldon

More than the victory it is the defeat that inspires greater poetic outburst. The Battle of  Maldon is such an example. The original manuscript of the poem was lost due to fire as a result of which the beginning and end of the poem is lost. The poem may have been composed around 10th century or early 11th, in the East Anglian dialect. It is a poetic description of the historical events of the battle of Maldon that took place in 991, between Byrhtnoth of Essex and the Danish chief Olaf Tryggvason, one of the most illustrious of the Viking leaders and later king of Norway. The Vikings had attacked the south coast of England. The poems shows the pride of the English chief, who allows the Vikings to cross a causeway at low tide, which seems to lead to their defeat and his death. The most debated word in the poem is ‘ofermōde’, which occurs in line 89. Literally ‘high spirits’ or ‘overconfidence’, ‘ofermōde’ is usually translated as ‘pride’, and occurs in Genesis poems when referring to Lucifer. Both Jonathan Glenn and Michael Alexander translate it as ‘arrogance’ and Bradley as “extravagant spirit”. The various translations show how the scholars have looked at the attitude of the hero, whose decision has led to the fall of his side.

The poem opens with the English force ready to engage in battle with the Danish army at the river Pante. A full-scale battle ensues in which Byrhtnoth is killed. Some of his retainers flee the battlefield but rest holds out in face of the crushing defeat. Thus in the final hour of defeat the English hold on to the spirit of heroism and courage. The poem is therefore regarded as the finest expression of heroic ideal. In face of a national crisis which took shape of the Danish attack, the poem serves as a call for battle, propaganda to unite the people against the foreign invaders. To quote Caie (‘The shorter Heroic Verse’ quoted in Traherne, p 141):

Its [the Germanic ideal’s] emergence in the 10th century… is undoubtedly connected with the political needs of the Saxon rulers to create a united kingdom by claiming a common Germanic heritage with a great past and ideals of loyalty to God and King. It nourished a sense of nostalgia for a time of fixed beliefs when men could be heroes and heroes were immortal. A time that never was—yet will be forever.

Both the poems, whether they celebrate victory or defeat, contain certain ideals that are central to heroic epic tradition, which you will again find while studying Beowulf. They are: celebration of the war and the heroic ideals, the blend of the pagan and Christian values, relationship between the lord and his thanes, the importance of the leader in the society, and the thirst for fame and glory in the battle.

To sum up: Ballad, heroic poem and epic are three types of narrative poetry. All epics are heroic poems for they celebrate the heroic spirit, but all heroic poems cannot be called epics for they may lack certain stylistic features. The epics are of two types: oral and written. Oral epics are later written down by clerics and thus interpolations are common. Battle of Maldon and Battle of Brunanburh are two examples of Old English heroic poems.

Reference

• Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th Edition. Singapore: Thomson Heinle, 2003.
• Bowra, C. M. Heroic Poetry. London: MacMillan, 1952
• Tillyrad, E. M. W. English Epic and Its Background. London: Oxford University Press, 1966.
• Traherne, Elaine (ed). Old and Middle English: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000.
• Vries, Jan de. Heroic Song and Heroic Legend. Trans by B. J. Timmer. London: Oxford University Press, 1963.
• http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/oecoursepack/maldon/
• http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/brunanburh/brun.html