Early Civilizations through Li
When a culture constantly evolves and changes it truly is a healthy culture indeed. Since the beginnings of the Pagan warriors to the skilled and accomplished craftsmen of the Renaissance, the European world was drastically transformed. The literature of every epoch indicates the profound cultural innovations. The Anglo-Saxon's inarguably most important piece of literature, Beowulf, is the story of a courageous, epic hero who fights Grendel, "A powerful monster, living down / In the darkness..." (Heaney, lines 1-2). The battle between Beowulf and the gruesome Grendel exhibits the everlasting conflict of good versus evil. This struggle between the brave and the malevolent is sustained in the medieval predicament for a model of ideal chivalry. "There was a Knight, a most distinguished man, / Who from the day on which he first began / To ride abroad had followed chivalry," (Chaucer, lines 43-45). Knights were treated with extreme admiration and sincerity as "The General Prologue" from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales mentions. Even though the clash of good versus evil is constant throughout all literature of any time, the moral code in each confrontation is of much more importance and is always held above pure strength. Rather
However, the Renaissance time period saw rulers fusing areas of land into powerful nations. As Christianity began to unite many regions of Europe, the overpowering existence of an impersonal fate is absent from the era's literature. The stories, tails, and poems of these three time periods prove they are each quite unique. Likewise, in the epic story of Beowulf, once again we read a description of the evil monster, Grendel, intrinsically woven with some Christian elements, as shown in the passage, "Conceived by a pair of those monsters born / Of Cain, murderous creatures banished / By God, punished forever for the crime / Of Abel's death. Military inventions and improvements, such as new infantry tactics, primary cannons, and the royal standing armies, all combined to decrease the conventional dominance of the mounted feudal Knights. The Anglo-Saxon culture forms a foundation of leadership among a small group of people called a tribe. A look at their most famous epic hero, Beowulf, shows a culture that valued will-power, ferocity, and strength when the idol is described as, ". Analogous to the importance of Anglo-Saxon leadership, the chivalric devotion to one's king is most perceptible in the Medieval period. than focusing on acts of bravery and action-packed battles, the Renaissance period was more focused on ideals of intelligence and the arts. Sonnets and rhyming verses were especially popular during this period. The Anglo-Saxon era set the way for years to come by forming a basic, yet intriguing, civilization to be shaped and molded into the world, as we know it today.
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Acceptance Essays
