A presentation on epics and mock epics including summary of Beowulf and battle of the frogs and mice.You can also attach a video of the battle of the frogs and mice from you-tube and get the summary of Aeneid from Google.

1. A Presentation by
Avani Dwivedi
Debopama Debnath
Nikhil Goyal
Harshdeep Singh Hora

2. What is an Epic?
 A long narrative poem ordinarily concerning a
serious subject
 Contains details of heroic deeds
 Describes events significant to a culture or
nation
 The action consists of deeds of great value or
superhuman strength and/or courage
 Is of great legendary significance
 Centred on a heroic/quasi-divine figure on
whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a
nation, or the human race

3. Characteristics of Epics
 Features long and formal speeches
 Shows divine intervention on human affairs
 Features heroes that embody the values of the
civilisation
 Often features the tragic hero’s descent into the
underworld
 Setting is vast in scope, covering nations, the
world, or universe
 Presence of supernatural forces

4. The Epic Hero
 The hero is a figure of great national or
even cosmic importance
 Usually the ideal man of his culture
 Often has superhuman or divine traits
 Has an imposing physical stature
and is greater in all ways
than the common man

5. Mock Epics
 Also known as mock-heroic or heroi-comic
 Typically satires or parodies
 Mock common classical stereotypes of heroes
and heroic literature
 Typically, mock-heroic works either put a fool in
the role of the hero or exaggerate the heroic
qualities to such a point that they become
absurd
 Accept same metre, vocabulary & rhetoric of
epics

6. History of Mock Epics
 Became popular in the post-restoration &
Augustan periods in England
 In the 17th century, epics and pastoral genres
had become exhausted
 Epic genre was heavily criticised, because it
expressed traditional values of feudal society
 Among new genres, satirical literature was
particularly effective in criticising old habits and
values

7. John Dryden
 Responsible for dominance among satirical
genres of the mock-heroic in the later
Restoration era
 Dryden’s MacFlecknoe is the locus
classicus of the mock heroic
 His prosody is identical to the regular
heroic verse : iambic pentameter closed
couplets
 The parody is not formal, merely contextual
and ironic

11. Beowulf
 Oldest surviving epic poem in English literature
 Out of the 30,000 lines of literature left from the
Anglo-Saxon period, almost 4,000 lines are
preserved in this epic poem
 Story of the supernatural, as well as a record of
Anglo-Saxon history

12. The First Battle : Grendel
 Story begins with the description of King
Hrothgar, who constructed the great hall Hereot
for his people for celebrations
 Grendel, a troll-like monster, pained by the
noise attacks the hall and devours many of the
warriors while they’re asleep
 Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland leaves
his homeland to help Hrothgar
 Beowulf battles Grendel and ultimately kills him
by tearing Grendel’s arm from his body

13. The Second Battle : Grendel’s
Mother
 Grendel’s mother angered by her son’s death
attacks the hall
 Hrothgar and Beowulf track Grendel’s mother to
her lair under a lake
 Beowulf dives into the lake and engages in a
fierce battle with Grendel’s mother
 Beowulf ultimately beheads her

14. Third Battle : The Dragon
 Beowulf returns home and becomes king of his
people
 One day, a slave steals a golden cup from the
lair of a dragon
 Furious, the dragon leaves its lair and attacks
Beowulf’s kingdom
 Beowulf battles the dragon, kills it, but is himself
mortally wounded

15. An Analysis of Beowulf
 An epic poem in which the hero travels great
distances to prove his strength at impossible
odds against supernatural forces
 The Anglo-Saxon period had two types of poetry
– heroic ( achievements of warriors ) & elegiac
(the loss of loved ones ) – Beowulf has both
 Heroic because of the feats of Beowulf, elegiac
because of the lament at his loss at the end of
the poem

16. Battle of the Frogs and Mice

18. Battle of Frogs and Mice
 Tackles grave subjects of war and revenge
 Plenty of bathos
 Divine intervention by Zeus
 Extremely satirical and humorous –
civilised animals, as violent as the Iliad –
just with frogs & mice in the plot
 Similarity – war, revenge, divine retribution

20. Epic and Mock Epic – A
Comparison
Epic Mock Epic
 Oral & poetic language
 Public & remarkable
deeds
 Legendary hero
 Collective enterprise
 Generalised setting in
time & place
 Fable & action are grave
& solemn
 Sentiments & diction
preserve the sublime
 Written & referential language
 Private, daily experiencer
 Humanized, “ordinary”
characters
 Individual enterprise
 Particularized setting in time &
place
 Fable & action – light &
ridiculous
 Sentiments & diction preserve
the ludicrous

21. Significance of Epic Poetry
 To arouse the spirit of warriors to heroic
actions
 Praised their exploits
 Supplied warriors models of ideal heroic
behaviour
 Assured a long & glorious recollection of
their deeds
 Heroic songs were often sung before
battles – boosted morale of combatants

22. Importance of Mock-Epic
Poetry in 18th Century
 18th century – exaltation of wit & reason came to
forefront of literature
 Exposed superficial follies & moral corruption of
society during neoclassical period
 Society embraced an obsession with “decorum”,
a facade of established traditions & vanities

23.  Satires during this period aimed to point out
shortcomings of society through ridiculing
accepted standards of thought
 Chastised hypocrisy in Britain at that time
 Poets like Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift
inspired to nudge British society into new era of
enlightenment with regards to social & political
morality