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A Critical Appraisal Of: Beowulf And Gilgamesh

Statistics

  Counts

  Total Pages: 6.19
  Total Words: 1548
  Total Characters: 8232
  Number of Sentences: 99


  Averages

  Words per Sentences: 15.64
  Characters per Words: 5.32


  Readability

  Flesch Reading Ease: 55.43
  Fog Scale Level: 13.23
  Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 9.41  

A Critical Appraisal of: Beowulf and Gilgamesh


     There are many differences and critical comparisons that can be drawn
between the epics of Beowulf and Gilgamesh.  Both are historical poems which
shape their respected culture and both have major social, cultural, and
political impacts on the development of western civilization literature and
writing.  Before any analysis is made, it is vital that some kind of a
foundation be established so that a further, in-depth  exploration of the
complex nature of both narratives can be accomplished.
        The epic of Gilgamesh is an important Middle Eastern literary work,
written in cuneiform on 12 clay tablets about 2000 BC. This heroic poem is named
for its hero, Gilgamesh, a tyrannical Babylonian king who ruled the city of Uruk,
known in the Bible as Erech (now Warka, Iraq). According to the myth, the gods
respond to the prayers of the oppressed citizenry of Uruk and send a wild,
brutish man, Enkidu, to challenge Gilgamesh to a wrestling match. When the
contest ends with neither as a clear victor, Gilgamesh and Enkidu become close
friends. They journey together and share many adventures. Accounts of their
heroism and bravery in slaying dangerous beasts spread to many lands.
        When the two travelers return to Uruk, Ishtar (guardian deity of the
city) proclaims her love for the heroic Gilgamesh. When he rejects her, she
sends the Bull of Heaven to destroy the city. Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the bull,
and, as punishment for his participation, the gods doom Enkidu to die. After
Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh seeks out the wise man Utnapishtim to learn the secret
of immortality. The sage recounts to Gilgamesh a story of a great flood (the
details of which are so remarkably similar to later biblical accounts of the
flood that scholars have taken great interest in this story). After much
hesitation, Utnapishtim reveals to Gilgamesh that a plant bestowing eternal
youth is in the sea. Gilgamesh dives i...

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