Masterpieces of English Literature

The world of English literature has produced many an(prenominal) diverse and astoundingly amazing whole kit. Two of the to the highest degree hailed establishs of literature to have graced the lives of readers passim the ages are Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the spirt Knight. These cardinal verse forms have been around for a expectant number of years and have created many ripples across the lake of prison term. Despite its old-fashioned roots, Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the kilobyte Knight strain to be regarded as two the superlative master valets of English literature.This essay will try to show the impact that these two disparate poems have had on English literature. It will show that in spite of the age of both poems, they embrace to be relevant up to this in truth day. This essay will show that it is genuinely much most-valu fitted to continue the reading, the shoot and the appreciation of these whole kit and caboodle, Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the common l and Knight, as well as the early(a) masterful objet darts of English literature that have been available to schools and readers for a rattling long epoch.BeowulfLet us first dissect the desperate poem, Beowulf, before we continue with the discussion of the importance of these two pieces. Beowulf was believed to have been write around the epoch 700 A.D. by an Anglo-Saxon poet. To this day, no one truly knows who wrote the poem further the last surviving manuscript of the poem was found to date stick out to the time 1000 A.D. and was speculated to have been in the hand of two different scribes. The original manuscript of Beowulf was written in the vernacular, Old English. (Melissa, 1997)The importance of this piece to the entirety of English literature is both very simple and complex. To indue it straightforwardly, Beowulf is the oldest surviving poem to have been written in Old English. This is of bully importance because all of the poems recovered from that era were found to have been written in Latin. (Anonymous, 2006)The importance of Beowulf in English literature, and in fact to the tout ensemble of world literature, is very clear even up to this very day. Because of the wars and battles uncivilised across Europe in those earlier decades, very few literary manuscripts were able to survive. Beowulf, in fact, is the beacon and representative of the meager ten percent of the poetry written in Old English that have survived up to today. (Meyerhoff, 2006) What sets Beowulf apart from its otherwise very few Old English counterparts is that it is an larger-than-life poem. In Britain, it has been accepted as a national epos. This is despite the debates and contestations regarding its meritoriousnesss as an epic poem.The mere fact that Beowulf has survived time and history and is available to us today among the very small population of Old English works is enough to prod us to continue in our appreciation and study of the piece. But another importanc e of the literary piece remains in just that fact, that it has survived an era from which only very few literary works have. This suggests that scholars and even simple individuals are able to take a glance at the culture and traditions of that time.Through Beowulf, we are able to recover what these individuals held as important and what factors, both literary and in reality, they took into consideration. We say this not in a mode that will suggest taking Beowulf word for word as a historical timeline but rather in a manner that suggests reading deeper into Beowulf and understanding the thoughts and the emotions of the author. One such aspect of the epic poem that sheds light upon the culture of the said time is its constant use of the fundament of Christianity. Although it is supposedly written in a pagan setting, the Christian melodic theme in the poem is highly evident and unmistakable to any of its readers. (Yeager, 1999)Perhaps the most amazing part about Beowulf as an epi c poem is its resilience as a literary piece. Even though it has much merit as an aged piece and as a standard letter carrier of Old English poetry, Beowulf would not have survived throughout time if it did not have any other merits. The most important aspect of the epic poem, to my mind, is the fact that despite its age, it quiet down continues to strike every reader deeply. It still calls forth the identical emotions among its readers.This is perhaps due to the way it was written. Although the events and places seen in the epic are strange to us, at the very core of the story, we find the same values and interests that are inherent in us even to this very day. Beowulf is so well-written that even to this day, it continues to enthrall and connect with its diverse readership. No offspring how old you are, no matter what country you come from, you are able to recognize the masterful workmanship put into creating Beowulf.Sir Gawain and the Green KnightAnother much acclaimed piece of English literature is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It was believed to have been written some time during the fourteenth century. It is considered to be a metrical romance, a romantic in the buffs report written in poetic form, about the life of Sir Gawain. (Weston, 1900)Gawain was one of the more(prenominal) talked about characters of the Arthurian tradition. He far outstrips many of King Arthurs knights in the number of romantic exploits written about his character. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knigh, Gawain exemplifies many of the virtues considered to be important in men of his stature. (Harper) This adds to the importance of the piece itself. With the different virtues that Sir Gawain is seen to have in the romantic poem, readers can easily see what the culture of the 14th century was like.The virtues and culture held to be of importance during that time are extolled clearly in the character of Sir Gawain and can easily be identified through his various actions and desc riptions in the poem. This is in contrast to other poems and literary pieces written about Gawain wherein he was portrayed as a flawed and even sometimes brutish character.The importance of this piece whitethorn lie in the fact that its author was able to keep up a play of words wherein the reader can derive some(prenominal) different interpretations. This allowed for many different reactions and critics regarding the piece. (Goodlad, 1987)This is probably what kept the piece vivacious for so long. With regards to literature, it has opened the way for readers to regard different pieces with more wariness, think these pieces as perhaps holding more interpretations than that initially viewed.It also holds much importance as a literary piece that defied the genre from which it came. alternatively of relinquishing to the trend of producing literary pieces that were straightforward and direct in their innovation of storylines and themes, Sir Gawain and the Green Knights wordplay and alliterative presentation brought a new style of writing to the fore. To this day, we can witness many new pieces of literature that have taken tot his style of writing providing readers with much more thought-provoking and reflection-inducing pieces. It is safe to say that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has through with(p) much to enrich English literature.ReferencesAnonymous. (2006). Beowulf. Spark Notes Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//www.sparknotes.com/lit/beowulf/context.htmlGoodlad, L. (1987) The Gamnes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Comitatus A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 18(1), Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//repositories.cdlib.org/cmrs/comitatus/vol18/iss1/art4Harper, R. Gawain. The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cphome.stmMeyerhoff, S. (2006). The Question of Genre in Byliny and Beowulf. The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies, 4, Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//www.sras.org/news2.phtml?m=629&print=1Snell, M. (1997) Beowulf. About.com Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//historymedren.about.com/od/beowulf/p/beowulf.htmWeston, J. L. (1900) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/sggk.htmYeager, R. (1999) Why Read Beowulf? Humanities, 20(2) Retrieved 7 January 2008 from http//www.neh.gov/news/ humanistic discipline/1999-03/yeager.html