Robinson's Argumentative Essay

Fred Robinson starts, “Beowulf is generally held to be the first great narrative poem in the English language” (142). This oral composition was the model of all the following poems written in English afterwards, thus it relies on the importance of studying the structure and origin of such as a piece. By tracing back, the moments, events and figures that inspired Beowulf, it is possible to study the literary history of English poetry, more specifically the epic and dramatic. As Robinson states, “the style and metre of Beowulf is essentially that of other early Germanic poems like the Old High German Hilderbranslied….” (142). Therefore, German and English literature, namely, those produced in the early stage of the language should have been very similar; if that similitude between the German and English literature exist today? Perhaps both languages diverge with the past of time creating independent stylistic one from another or they still consolidate their old kinship.
Though, Beowulf is not an actual person, later in the essay, Robinson talks about King Hygelac as a possible inspiration who is documented in history (148). Further, whoever was the model for the hero of this poem, should have been a powerful man: king or gladiator. Since this was an oral composition, the facts about the history figure may have been altered during the process of re-telling. Arguably, the transcription of it, may have led to an even more epic and deistic hero that intended by the author(s) of the