Prose Edda

and Sauron. NORSE MYTHOLOGY INTRODUCTION The biggest influence upon Tolkien’s works is Norse mythology, particularly the Eddas of the North. The Eddas, separated into the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, are collections of Norse tales written in Iceland during the 13th century, with some stories traced back to the Viking Age. These poems contain the greatest source of Norse mythology, including stories of the Norse deities. Different from the Roman and Greek classical stories of gods and goddesses, the Eddas focus on the deities’ great deeds—or misdeeds—and special abilities, including their various prized possessions. One of the most prominent, yet mysterious, gods in Norse mythology is Odin, the battle god. Odin. Also known as the god of many names—over 200 names—Odin is represented by a number of identities, making him one of the most multi-faceted figures in Norse mythology. Primarily, Odin is described as the one-eyed god of war, wisdom, and secrets. Possessing both likable and dislikable qualities, Tolkien found parts of Odin’s characteristics fitting for both the protagonist and the antagonist of his saga. In the Prose Edda, Odin is described as the “highest and eldest of the Æsir: he rules all things, and mighty as are the other gods, they all serve him as children obey a father…Odin is called Allfather because he is father of all the gods” (Prose Edda, p. 34). As the main father figure in Norse mythology, Odin is the leader of the Æsir (Norse term for gods) and the…

Snorri’s Prologue in the Prose Edda uses a Christian perspective to examine the violence in God’s creation from a more Christian perspective and uses the Norse viewpoint of that same violence and creation in the Gylfaginning, making religion and beliefs tangible. Specifically, the Prologue gives its readers the underlying understanding to the creation stories by using Snorri’s Christian background and Biblical stories and the Gylfaginning offers a look on how the observations of nature created…

Both Odysseus and Telemachus play extremely pivotal and important roles in Homer’s The Odyssey. The phrase “like father like son” can easily describe the similarities between Odysseus and Telemachus’s characters. However, no human beings are exactly alike as both characters also share a great number of differences. So although Odysseus and Telemachus are both similar in the way that they’re great heroic warriors, they differ in craftiness and arrogance which reflect Ancient Greek values.…

Samuel Coleridge used figurative language and unorthodox verse structure to describe the tragic, lesson-filled past of a sailor and portray literary elements of Romanticism and its ideals. By using a non-traditional approach to verse structure, it shows Coleridge's choice to not compromise the meaning and thought process of each stanza by following a set pattern. This demonstrates the versatility and story-like dynamic of the poem making it all the more captivating to the reader. Through his use…

the chapbook in my hand and question what the contents may hold. I breathe a sigh as I open it and see the first poem titled “The Green Room”. I reassure myself by saying “the chapbook is safe, the author is a faceless entity” and I begin to read her words. “The Green Room” gave me a feeling of melancholy and I assumed that the chapbook would be a theme of childhood memories from the viewpoint of an adult. When she speaks of the “green carpet” I was able to see in my mind’s eye the shag carpet…

The Medieval Magic of Love In Gottfried Von Strassburg’s, Tristan, the paradoxical nature of love is established when we’re told that prudency inspires Queen Isolde to brew “a love drink so subtly devised and prepared, and endowed with such powers, that with whomever any man drank it…[t]hey would share one death and one life, one sorrow and one joy” (192). Using oxymorons Gottfried is able to show that love creates contradictory conditions that are difficult to resolve. Appearing almost magical…

after a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” (Wordsworth Preface 6). Wordsworth writes in syllable-rich sentences and likes to end his points with an artful three-syllable accompaniment. These accompaniments appears throughout the poem, for example, in the first line, Wordsworth ends with “late and soon” (Wordsworth 1) and later in the fifth line he ends with “a sordid boon” (Wordsworth 5). Wordsworth included these endings intentionally to keep a balanced flow to the poem. Wordsworth…

Poets use various poetic devices in their pieces to express more meaning than the words do alone. Each poem is different in the way it uses these poetic devices and illustrates an idea. Alfred Lord Tennyson and Edgar Allen Poe are two great poets with very different styles of poetry. Despite using some of the same literary techniques, they each incorporate poetic devices to express meaning in their poems. Both Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” and Poe’s “The Raven” use narrative,…

the converse, or by peculiarity both of incident and tone- afterward looking about me (or rather within) for such combinations of event, or tone, as shall best aid me in the construction of the effect.” (Poe, 2). While discussing Poe’s aesthetic theory, Kevin J. Hayes says the following: “Poe’s aesthetic theory is perhaps more remarkable for its effect than for its substance; more intriguing by virtue of its reception than for its content.” (Hayes, 45). After reading this, we can conclude that,…

Tichborne's Elegy – Literature analisys Tichborne's Elegy was supposedly written by himself before his execution, due to his involvement in the consipracy to assissinate Elizabeth I (P. Burns, J. Edge, 43) . In his poem he is using metaphors upon metaphors, together with antithesis to construct a poem that shows his frustration and regret. He uses a plain and simple language. In fact, the whole poem is based entirely on one syllable words. However, his use of one syllable words only add to the…