Medieval heroic epic. Features of the literature of the ancient Middle Ages. Heroic epic, courtly lyrics, chivalric romance. Spanish heroic epic. "Song of My Sid"

In the period of the early Middle Ages, oral poetry, especially the heroic epic, was actively developing, which was typical, first of all, for England and the countries of Scandinavia.

The collective memory of the people was heroic epic in which his spiritual life, ideals and values ​​are reflected. The origins of the Western European heroic epic lie in the depths of the barbarian era. Only by the VIII - IX centuries. the first recordings of epic works were compiled. The early stage of epic poetry, associated with the formation of early feudal military poetry - Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Old Norse - has come down to us only in fragments.

The early epic of the Western European peoples arose as a result of the interaction of a heroic fairy tale-song and a primitive mythological epic about the first ancestors - "cultural heroes", who were considered the ancestors of the tribe.

The heroic epic has come down to us in the form of grandiose epics, songs, in a mixed, poetic and song form, and less often in prose.

Oldest Icelandic Literature according to the time of occurrence, it includes skaldic poetry, Eddic songs and Icelandic sagas (prose tales). The most ancient songs of the skalds have survived only in the form of quotations from the Icelandic sagas of the 13th century. According to the Icelandic tradition, the skalds had social and religious influence, they were brave and strong people. The poetry of the skalds is devoted to the praise of a feat and the gift received for it. Lyricism is unknown to skaldic poetry, it is heroic poetry in the literal sense of the word. Poems of about 250 skalds have survived to this day. One of them - the famous warrior poet - Egil Skallagrimson (X century) is narrated by the first of the Icelandic sagas - "The Saga of Egil".

Celtic epic is the oldest European literature. The Irish sagas originated in the 1st century. AD and evolved over several centuries. They have existed in written form since the 7th century. - (came down to us in the records of the XII century.). The early Irish sagas are mythological and heroic. Their content is the pagan beliefs of the ancient Celts, the mythical history of the settlement of Ireland. In the heroic sagas, the main character Cuchulain reflects the national ideal of the people - a fearless warrior, honest, strong, generous.

Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, referring to the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th century, was formed on the basis of earlier oral heroic songs. The hero of the epic is a brave knight from the South Scandinavian Gaut tribe, who rescues the king of the Danes, Hrothgar, who is in trouble. The hero performs three miraculous feats. He defeats the monster Grendal, who exterminated the king's warriors. Mortally wounding Grendal and defeating his mother, who avenged her son, Beowulf becomes the king of the Gauts. Being already old, he accomplishes his last feat - he destroys the terrible dragon, who takes revenge on the Gauts for stealing a golden goblet from him. In a duel with a dragon, the hero dies.

"Beowulf" - a bizarre interweaving of mythology, folklore and historical events. Serpent fighting, three wonderful fights - elements folk tale. At the same time, the hero himself, fighting for the interests of his tribe, his tragic death are characteristic features of the heroic epic, historical in its essence (some names and events described in the epic are found in the history of the ancient Germans). Since the formation of the epic dates back to the end of the 7th - the beginning of the 8th centuries, i.e. more than a century after the adoption of Christianity by the Anglo-Saxons, Christian elements are also found in Beowulf.

In the XII century. the first written records appear medieval heroic epic in processing. Being authorial, they are based on the folk heroic epic. images medieval epic in many ways similar to the images of traditional epic heroes - they are fearless warriors valiantly defending their country, brave, faithful to their duty.

At the same time, since the medieval heroic epic in adaptations was created in the period of the already sufficiently developed culture of its time, in there are obvious traces of the influence of knights and religious beliefs era of its creation. The heroes of the medieval epic are faithful defenders of the Christian faith (Sid, Roland), vassals devoted to their lords.

Spanish epic - "Song of my Side"- was composed during the "reconquista" period (XII century), the time of the Spaniards' struggle for the return of the lands occupied by the Moors. The prototype of the hero of the poem was historical person- Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (the Moors called him "Sid", i.e. master).

The "Song" tells how Sid, expelled by King Alphonse of Castile, leads a brave fight against the Moors. As a reward for victories, Alphonse marries the daughters of Cid to noble infantes from Carrion. The second part of the "Song" tells about the treachery of Sid's sons-in-law and his revenge for the desecrated honor of his daughters.

The absence of fiction, the realistic rendering of the life and customs of the Spaniards of that time, the very language of the "song", close to the folk language, make "The Song of My Sid" the most realistic epic in medieval literature.

An outstanding monument of the German epic - "Nibelungenlied"- was recorded around 1225. The plot of the "Song" is based on ancient German legends from the time of the Great Migration of Peoples - the death of one of the German kingdoms - the Burgundian - as a result of the invasion of the Huns (437).

early epic Western European literature combined Christian and pagan motives. It was formed during the period of the disintegration of the tribal system and the formation of feudal relations, when Christian teaching replaced paganism. The adoption of Christianity not only contributed to the process of centralization of countries, but also to the interaction of peoples and cultures.

Celtic legends formed the basis of medieval chivalric romances about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, they were the source from which poets of subsequent centuries drew inspiration and plots of their works.

In the history of the development of the Western European epic, two stages are distinguished: the epic of the period of the decomposition of the tribal system, or archaic(Anglo-Saxon - Beowulf, Celtic sagas, Old Norse epic songs - Elder Edda, Icelandic sagas), and the epic of the feudal era, or heroic(French - "Song of Roland", Spanish - "Song of Side", German - "Song of the Nibelungs").

In the archaic epic connection with archaic rituals and myths, cults of pagan gods and myths about totemic first ancestors, demiurge gods or cultural heroes is preserved. The hero belongs to the all-encompassing unity of the clan and makes a choice in favor of the clan. These epic monuments are characterized by brevity, formality of style, expressed in the variation of some artistic tropes. In addition, a single epic picture arises by combining individual sagas or songs, while the epic monuments themselves have developed in a laconic form, their plot is grouped around one epic situation, rarely combining several episodes. The exception is Beowulf, which has a completed two-part composition and recreates an integral epic picture in one work. The archaic epic of the early European Middle Ages took shape both in verse and prose (Icelandic sagas) and in verse and prose forms (Celtic epic).

Characters that go back to historical prototypes (Cuchulin, Conchobar, Gunnar, Atli) are endowed with fantastic features drawn from archaic mythology. Often, archaic epics are represented by separate epic works (songs, sagas) that are not combined into a single epic canvas. In particular, in Ireland, such associations of sagas are created already during the period of their recording, at the beginning of the Mature Middle Ages. Archaic epics to a small extent, episodic bear the stamp of dual faith, for example, the mention of the "son of delusion" in "The Voyage of Bran, son of Febal". Archaic epics reflect the ideals and values ​​of the era of the tribal system: for example, Cuchulain, sacrificing his safety, makes a choice in favor of the clan, and saying goodbye to life, calls the name of the capital Emain, and not his wife or son.

In contrast to the archaic epic, where the heroism of people fighting for the interests of their clan and tribe was sung, sometimes against the infringement of their honor, in the heroic the hero who fights for the integrity and independence of his state is sung. His opponents are both foreign conquerors and rampaging feudal lords, who inflict great harm on the national cause with their narrow egoism. There is less fantasy in this epic, there are almost no mythological elements, which are replaced by elements of Christian religiosity. In form, it has the character of large epic poems or cycles of small songs, united by the personality of a hero or an important historical event.

The main thing in this epic is its nationality, which is not immediately realized, since in the specific situation of the heyday of the Middle Ages, the hero of an epic work often appears in the guise of a warrior-knight, seized with religious enthusiasm, or a close relative, or assistant to the king, and not a man from the people. Depicting kings, their assistants, knights as heroes of the epic, the people, according to Hegel, did this "not from the preference of noble persons, but from the desire to give an image of complete freedom in desires and actions, which turns out to be realized in the idea of ​​royalty." Also, the religious enthusiasm, often inherent in the hero, did not contradict his nationality, since the people at that time attached the character of a religious movement to their struggle against the feudal lords. The nationality of the heroes in the epic during the heyday of the Middle Ages is in their selfless struggle for the cause of the people, in their extraordinary patriotic enthusiasm in defending their homeland, with the name of which on their lips they sometimes died, fighting against foreign enslavers and the treacherous actions of anarchist feudal lords.

3. "Elder Edda" and "Younger Edda". Scandinavian gods and heroes.

A song about gods and heroes, conditionally united by the name "Elder Edda" preserved in a manuscript that dates from the second half of the 13th century. It is not known whether this manuscript was the first or whether it had any predecessors. There are, in addition, some other recordings of songs that are also classified as Eddic. The history of the songs themselves is also unknown, and a variety of points of view and contradictory theories have been put forward on this score ( Legend attributes the authorship to the Icelandic scholar Samund the Wise. However, there is no doubt that songs originated much earlier and were passed down through oral tradition for centuries.). The range in the dating of songs often reaches several centuries. Not all songs originated in Iceland: among them there are songs that go back to South German prototypes; in the "Edda" there are motifs and characters familiar from the Anglo-Saxon epic; a lot was apparently brought from other Scandinavian countries. It can be assumed that at least some of the songs originated much earlier, even in the non-literate period.

Before us is an epic, but the epic is very peculiar. This originality cannot but be evident when reading the Elder Edda after Beowulf. Instead of a lengthy, leisurely flowing epic, here before us is a dynamic and concise song, in a few words or stanzas setting out the fate of heroes or gods, their speeches and deeds.

Eddic songs do not constitute a coherent unity, and it is clear that only a part of them has come down to us. Individual songs seem to be versions of the same piece; thus, in songs about Helgi, about Atli, Sigurd and Gudrun, the same plot is interpreted in different ways. "Speech of Atli" is sometimes interpreted as a later extended revision of the older "Song of Atli".

In general, all Eddic songs are divided into songs about gods and songs about heroes. Songs about the gods contain the richest material on mythology, this is our most important source for the knowledge of Scandinavian paganism (albeit in a very late, so to speak, "posthumous" version of it).

The artistic and cultural-historical significance of the Elder Edda is enormous. It occupies one of the honorable places in the world literature. The images of the Eddic songs, along with the images of the sagas, supported the Icelanders throughout their difficult history, especially at a time when this small people, deprived of national independence, was almost doomed to extinction as a result of foreign exploitation, and from hunger and epidemics. The memory of the heroic and legendary past gave the Icelanders the strength to hold out and not die.

Younger Edda (Snorr's Edda, Edda in Prose or simply Edda)- a work of the medieval Icelandic writer Snorri Sturluson, written in 1222-1225 and conceived as a textbook of skaldic poetry. It consists of four parts containing a large number of quotations from ancient poems based on plots from Norse mythology.

The Edda begins with a euhemeristic prologue and three separate books: Gylfaginning (c. 20,000 words), Skáldskaparmál (c. 50,000 words), and Háttatal (c. 20,000 words). The Edda survives in seven different manuscripts dating from 1300 to 1600, with independent textual content.

The purpose of the work was to convey to contemporary Snorri readers the subtlety of alliterative verse and to capture the meaning of words hidden under many kennings.

The Edda Minor was originally known simply as the Edda, but was later given its name to distinguish it from the Elder Edda. With the Elder Edda, the Younger is connected by many verses quoted by both.

Scandinavian mythology:

Creation of the world: originally there were two abysses - ice and fire. For some reason, they mixed up, and from the resulting frost arose the first creature - Ymir, the giant. After that, Odin appears with his brothers, they kill Ymir and create a world from his remains.

According to the ancient Scandinavians, the world is Yggdrasil ash. Its branches are the world of Asgard, where the gods live; the trunk is the world of Midgard, where people live;

Gods live in Asgard (not omnipotent, mortal). Only the souls of heroically dead people can enter this world.

In Utgard lives the mistress of the kingdom of the dead - Hel.

The appearance of people: the gods found two pieces of wood on the shore - ash and alder and breathed life into them. So the first man and woman appeared - Ask and Elebla.

The Fall of the World: The gods know that the world will end, but they do not know when it will happen, for the world is ruled by Fate. In "Volva's prophecy" Odin comes to the soothsayer Volva and she tells him the past and the future. In the future, she predicts the day of the fall of the world - Ragnarok. On this day, the world wolf Fenrir will kill Odin, and the serpent Ermungard will attack people. Hel will lead the giants, the dead against the gods and people. After the world burns, its remains will be washed away by water and a new life cycle will begin.

The gods of Asgard are divided into Aesir and Vanir. ( aces - the main group of gods, led by Odin, who loved, fought and died, because, like people, they did not possess immortality. These gods are opposed to vans (gods of fertility), giants (etuns), dwarfs (zwergs), as well as female deities - dises, norns and valkyries. Vans - a group of gods of fertility. They lived in Vanaheim, far from Asgard, the abode of the aesir gods. The Vanirs possessed the gift of foresight, prophecy, and also mastered the art of witchcraft. They were credited with incestuous relationships between brothers and sisters. The Vanir included Njord and his offspring - Frey and Freya.)

One- The first among aces, One god of poetry, wisdom, war and death.

Thor- Thor is the god of thunder and one of the most powerful gods. Thor was also the patron of agriculture. Hence, he was the most loved and respected of the gods. Thor is a representative of order, law and stability.

frigg- As the wife of Odin, Frigg is the first among the goddesses of Asgard. She is the patroness of marriage and motherhood, women cry out to her during childbirth.

Loki- God of fire, creator of trolls. It is unpredictable, and is the opposite of a fixed order. He is smart and cunning, and can also change appearances.

Heroes:

Gulvi, Gylfi- the legendary Swedish king, who heard Gifeon's stories about aces and went in search of them; after long wanderings, as a reward for his zeal, he got the opportunity to talk with three aces (High, Equally High and Third), who answered his questions about the origin, structure and fate of the universe. Gangleri - the name by which King Gylfi called himself, adopted for conversation by the Ases.

Groa- a sorceress, the wife of the famous hero Aurvandil, treated Thor after the duel with Grungnir.

Violectrina- Toru appeared before his escape.

Volsung- the son of the king of the francs Rerir, given to him by the aces.

Kriemhild wife of Siegfried.

Mann- the first person, the progenitor of the Germanic tribes.

Nibelungen- the descendants of the zwerg, who collected innumerable treasures, and all the owners of this treasure, which bears a curse.

Siegfried (Sigurd)

Hadding- a warrior hero and a wizard who enjoyed the special patronage of Odin.

Högni (Hagen)- the hero - the killer of Siegfried (Sigurd), who flooded the treasure of the Nibelungs in the Rhine.

Helgi- a hero who has accomplished many deeds.

Ask- the first man on earth whom the aces made of ash.

Embla- the first woman on earth, made by aces from willow (according to other sources - from alder).

4. German heroic epic. "Song of the Nibelungs".

The Nibelungenlied, written around 1200, is the largest and oldest monument of the German folk heroic epic. 33 manuscripts have been preserved, representing the text in three editions.
The Nibelungenlied is based on ancient German legends dating back to the events of the period of the barbarian invasions. The historical facts to which the poem goes back are the events of the 5th century, including the death of the Burgundian kingdom, destroyed in 437 by the Huns. These events are also mentioned in the Elder Edda.
The text of the “Song” consists of 2400 stanzas, each of which contains four paired rhyming lines (the so-called “Nibelungen stanza”), and is divided into 20 songs.
The content of the poem is divided into two parts. The first of them (1 - 10 songs) describes the story of the German hero Siegfried, his marriage to Kriemhild and the perfidious murder of Siegfried. Songs 10 to 20 deal with Kriemhild's revenge for her murdered husband and the death of the Burgundian kingdom.
One of the characters most attractive to researchers is Kriemhild. She comes into action as a tender young girl who does not show much initiative in life. She is pretty, but her beauty, this beautiful attribute, is nothing out of the ordinary. However, at a more mature age, she achieves the death of her brothers and personally decapitates her own uncle. Did she go crazy or was she originally violent? Was it revenge for her husband or a desire for treasure? In the Edda, Kriemhild corresponds to Gudrun, and one can also marvel at her cruelty - she prepares a meal from the meat of her own children. In studies of the image of Kriemhild, the theme of treasure often plays a central role. Again and again the question is discussed as to whether Kriemhild was driven to action, the desire to take possession of the treasure or the desire to avenge Siegfried, and which of the two motives is older. V. Schroeder subordinates the theme of the treasure to the idea of ​​revenge, seeing the importance of the "gold of the Rhine" not in wealth, but in its symbolic value for Kriemhild, and the motive of the treasure is inseparable from the motive of revenge. Kriemhild is a worthless mother, greedy, a she-devil, not a woman, not even a man. But she is also a tragic heroine who has lost her husband and honor, an exemplary avenger.
Siegfried is the ideal hero of the Nibelungenlied. The prince from the Lower Rhine, the son of the Dutch king Sigmund and Queen Sieglinde, the winner of the Nibelungs, who took possession of their treasure - the gold of the Rhine, is endowed with all knightly virtues. He is noble, brave, courteous. Duty and honor are above all for him. The authors of the Nibelungenlied emphasize his extraordinary attractiveness and physical strength. His very name, which consists of two parts (Sieg - victory, Fried - peace), expresses national German self-consciousness at the time of medieval strife. Despite his young age, he traveled to many countries, gaining fame for his courage and power. Siegfried is endowed with a powerful will to live, a strong faith in himself, and at the same time he lives with passions that are awakened in him by the power of vague visions and vague dreams. The image of Siegfried combines the archaic features of the hero of myths and fairy tales with the demeanor of a feudal knight, ambitious and cocky. Offended at first by an insufficiently friendly reception, he is impudent and threatens the king of the Burgundians, encroaching on his life and throne. Soon he resigns himself, remembering the purpose of his visit. It is characteristic that the prince unquestioningly serves King Gunther, not ashamed to become his vassal. This reflects not only the desire to get Kriemhild as a wife, but also the pathos of faithful service to the overlord, invariably inherent in the medieval heroic epic.
All the characters in the Nibelungenlied are deeply tragic. Tragic is the fate of Krimhilda, whose happiness is destroyed by Gunther, Brynhilde and Hagen. Tragic is the fate of the Burgundian kings who perish in a foreign land, as well as a number of other characters in the poem.
In the Nibelungenlied we find true picture atrocities of the feudal world, which appears before the reader as a kind of gloomy destructive beginning, as well as the condemnation of these atrocities so common to feudalism. And in this, first of all, the nationality of the German poem is manifested, which is closely connected with the traditions of the German epic epic.

5. French heroic epic. "The Song of Roland"

Of all the national epics of the feudal Middle Ages, the most flourishing and varied is the French epic. It has come down to us in the form of poems (about 90 in total), of which the oldest are preserved in the records of the 12th century, and the latest belong to the 14th century. These poems are called "gestures" (from the French "chansons de geste", which literally means "songs about deeds" or "songs about exploits"). They have a different length - from 1000 to 2000 verses - and consist of unequal length (from 5 to 40 verses) of stanzas or "tirades", also called "lasses" (laisses). The lines are interconnected by assonances, which later, starting from the 13th century, are replaced by exact rhymes. These poems were meant to be sung (or, more accurately, recited in a singsong voice). The performers of these poems, and often their compilers, were jugglers - itinerant singers and musicians.
Three themes make up the main content of the French epic:
1) defense of the homeland from external enemies - Moors (or Saracens), Normans, Saxons, etc.;
2) faithful service to the king, protection of his rights and eradication of traitors;
3) bloody feudal strife.

Of all the French epic in general, the most remarkable is the Song of Roland, a poem that had a European resonance and is one of the pinnacles of medieval poetry.
The poem tells about the heroic death of Count Roland, Charlemagne's nephew, during the battle with the Moors in the Ronceval Gorge, about the betrayal of Roland's stepfather, Ganelon, which caused this catastrophe, and about the revenge of Charlemagne for the death of Roland and twelve peers.
The Song of Roland originated around 1100, shortly before the first crusade. The unknown author was not without some education (to the extent available to many jugglers of that time) and, no doubt, put a lot of his own into reworking old songs on the same topic, both in plot and stylistic terms; but his main merit lies not in these additions, but precisely in the fact that he retained deep meaning and expressiveness of the ancient heroic tradition and, having connected his thoughts with living modernity, found a brilliant expression for their expression. art form.
The ideological concept of the legend about Roland is revealed by comparing the “Song of Roland” with those historical facts that underlie this tradition. In 778, Charlemagne intervened in the internal strife of the Spanish Moors, agreeing to help one of the Muslim kings against another. Crossing the Pyrenees, Charles took several cities and laid siege to Zaragoza, but after standing under its walls for several weeks, he had to return to France with nothing. When he was returning back through the Pyrenees, the Basques, irritated by the passage of foreign troops through their fields and villages, set up an ambush in the Ronceval Gorge and, attacking the French rearguard, killed many of them; according to the historiographer Charlemagne Eginhard, among other noble persons, "Hruotland, Margrave of Brittany" died. After that, adds Eginhard, the Basques fled, and it was not possible to punish them.
A short and fruitless expedition to northern Spain, which had nothing to do with religious struggle and ended in a not particularly significant, but still unfortunate military failure, was turned by storytellers into a picture of a seven-year war that ended in the conquest of all of Spain, then - a terrible catastrophe during the retreat of the French army, and here the enemies were not Basque Christians, but all the same Moors, and, finally, a picture of revenge from Charles in the form of a grandiose, truly “worldwide” battle of the French with the combined forces of the entire Muslim world.
The epic song at this stage of development, expanding into a picture of an established social order, has turned into an epic. Along with this, however, many common features and devices of oral folk poetry, such as, for example, constant epithets, ready-made formulas for “typical” positions, direct expression of the singer’s assessments and feelings about what is depicted, simplicity of language, especially syntax, coincidence of the end of the verse with the end of the sentence, etc.
The main characters of the poem are Roland and Ganelon.
Roland in the poem is a mighty and brilliant knight, impeccable in fulfilling his vassal duty, formulated by the poet as follows:
The vassal serves his lord, He endures the winter cold and heat, It is not a pity to shed blood for him.
In the full sense of the word, he is an example of knightly prowess and nobility. But the deep connection of the poem with folk songwriting and folk understanding of heroism was reflected in the fact that all the knightly traits of Roland are given by the poet in a humanized form, freed from class limitations. Roland is alien to selfishness, cruelty, greed, anarchic willfulness of the feudal lords. He feels an excess of youthful strength, a joyful faith in the rightness of his cause and in his luck, a passionate thirst for a disinterested feat. Full of proud self-consciousness, but at the same time devoid of any arrogance or self-interest, he devotes his entire strength to serving the king, people, and homeland.
Ganelon is not just a traitor, but the expression of some powerful evil principle, hostile to any public cause, the personification of feudal, anarchist egoism. This beginning is shown in the poem in all its strength, with great artistic objectivity. Ganelon is depicted by no means as some kind of physical and moral freak. This is a majestic and brave fighter. When Roland offers to send him as an ambassador to Marsilius, Ganelon is not afraid of this assignment, although he knows how dangerous it is. But by attributing to others the same motives that are fundamental to himself, he assumes that Roland intended to destroy him.
The content of the "Song of Roland" is animated by its national-religious idea. But this problem is not the only one; the socio-political contradictions characteristic of the intensively developing in the X-XI centuries were also reflected with great force. feudalism. This second problem is introduced into the poem by the episode of Ganelon's betrayal. The reason for including this episode in the legend could be the desire of the singer-narrators to explain the defeat of the "invincible" army of Charlemagne as an external fatal reason. The "Song of Roland" does not so much reveal the blackness of the act of an individual traitor - Ganelon, as it exposes the fatality for home country that feudal, anarchist selfishness of which, in some respects, Ganelon is a brilliant representative.

6. Spanish heroic epic. "Song of my Sid".

The Spanish epic reflects the specifics of the history of Spain early medieval. In 711 there was an invasion of Spain by the Moors, who within a few years took possession of almost the entire peninsula. The Spaniards managed to hold on only to far north, in the mountains of Cantabria, where the kingdom of Asturias was formed. However, immediately after this, the “reconquista” began, that is, the reconquest of the country by the Spaniards.
The kingdoms - Asturias, Castile and Leon, Navarre, etc. - sometimes splitting up, and sometimes uniting, fought either with the Moors, or with each other, in the latter case, sometimes entering into an alliance with the Moors against their compatriots. Spain made decisive successes in the reconquista in the 11th and 12th centuries, mainly due to the enthusiasm of the masses. Although the reconquista was led by the highest nobility, who received the largest part of the lands conquered from the Moors, its main driving force was the peasantry, townspeople and petty nobles close to them. In the X century. a struggle unfolded between the old, aristocratic kingdom of Leon and Castile subject to it, as a result of which Castile achieved complete political independence. Submission to the Leonese judges, who applied ancient, extremely reactionary laws, weighed heavily on the freedom-loving Castilian chivalry, but now they have new laws. According to these laws, the title and rights of knights were extended to everyone who went on a campaign against the Moors on horseback, even if he was of very low origin. However, at the end of the XI century. Castilian freedoms suffered greatly when Alphonse VI ascended the throne, who had been king of León in his youth and now surrounded himself with the old Leonese nobility. Anti-democratic tendencies under this king were further intensified by the influx of French knights and clergy into Castile. The former sought to go there under the pretext of helping the Spaniards in their fight against the Moors, the latter - allegedly to organize a church in the lands conquered from the Moors. But as a result of this, the French knights seized the best allotments, and the monks - the richest parishes. Both of them, coming from a country where feudalism had a much more developed form, implanted in Spain feudal-aristocratic habits and concepts. All this made them hated by the local population, which they brutally exploited, caused a series of uprisings and for a long time inspired the Spanish people with distrust and hostility towards the French.
These political events and relations were widely reflected in the Spanish heroic epic, whose three main themes are:
1) the fight against the Moors, with the aim of reconquering native land;
2) strife between the feudal lords, portrayed as the greatest evil for the whole country, as an insult to moral truth and treason to the motherland;
3) the struggle for the freedom of Castile, and then for its political primacy, which is regarded as a guarantee of the final defeat of the Moors and as the basis for the national-political unification of all of Spain.
In many poems, these themes are not given separately, but in close connection with each other.
The Spanish heroic epic developed similarly to the French epic. It was also based on short episodic songs of a lyrical-epic nature and oral unformed legends that arose in the squad environment and soon became the common property of the people; and in the same way, around the tenth century, when Spanish feudalism began to take shape and a sense of the unity of the Spanish nation first emerged, this material, having fallen into the hands of hooglar jugglers, through deep stylistic processing, took shape in the form of large epic poems. The heyday of these poems, which for a long time were the "poetic history" of Spain and expressed the self-consciousness of the Spanish people, falls on the 11th-13th centuries, but after that for another two centuries they continue an intensive life and die only in the 15th century, giving way to a new form folk epic legend - romances.
The Spanish heroic poems are similar in form and manner to the French. They stand from a series of stanzas of unequal length connected by assonances. However, their metric is different: they are written in folk, so-called irregular, size - in verse with an indefinite number of syllables - from 8 to 16.
In terms of style, the Spanish epic is also similar to the French. However, it is distinguished by a drier and more businesslike way of presentation, an abundance of everyday features, an almost complete absence of hyperbolism and an element of the supernatural - both fabulous and Christian.
The top of the Spanish folk epic is formed by the legends about Side. Ruy Diaz, nicknamed Cid, is a historical figure. He was born between 1025 and 1043. His nickname is a word of Arabic origin, meaning "lord" ("seid"); this title was often given to Spanish lords, who also had Moors among their subjects: Rui is a shortened form of the name Rodrigo. Cid belonged to the highest Castilian nobility, was the head of all the troops of King Sancho II of Castile and his closest assistant in the wars that the king waged both with the Moors and with his brothers and sisters. When Sancho died during the siege of Zamora and his brother Alphonse VI, who had spent his young years in Leon, entered the throne, between the new king, who favored the Leonese nobility, hostile relations were established between the latter, and Alphonse, using an insignificant pretext, in 1081 expelled Cida from Castile.
For some time, Sid served with his retinue as a mercenary for various Christian and Muslim sovereigns, but then, thanks to his extraordinary dexterity and courage, he became an independent ruler and won the Principality of Valencia from the Moors. After that, he made peace with King Alphonse and began to act in alliance with him against the Moors.
Undoubtedly, even during the lifetime of Sid, songs and tales about his exploits began to be composed. These songs and stories, having spread among the people, soon became the property of the Khuglars, one of whom wrote a poem about him around 1140.
Content:
The Song of Side, containing 3735 verses, is divided into three parts. The first (called the "Song of Exile" by researchers) depicts Sid's first exploits in a foreign land. First, he gets money for the campaign by pawning chests filled with sand under the guise of family jewels to Jewish usurers. Then, having gathered a detachment of sixty warriors, he calls at the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña to say goodbye to his wife and daughters who are there. After that, he travels to Moorish land. Hearing of his exile, people flock to his banner. Cid wins a series of victories over the Moors and after each of them sends part of the booty to King Alphonse.
In the second part ("The Song of the Wedding") Cid's conquest of Valencia is depicted. Seeing his power and touched by his gifts, Alphonse reconciles with Sid and allows his wife and children to move to him in Valencia. Then there is a date between Sil and the king himself, who acts as a matchmaker, offering Sid as a son-in-law of the noble Infantes de Carrión. Seal, though reluctantly, agrees to this. He gives his sons-in-law two of his battle swords and gives his daughters a rich dowry. There follows a description of the lush wedding celebrations.
The third part ("The Song of Korpes") tells the following. Sid's sons-in-law were worthless cowards. Unable to endure the ridicule of Sid and his vassals, they decided to take out the insult on his daughters. Under the pretext of showing their wives to their relatives, they equipped themselves for the journey. Having reached the Korpes oak grove, the sons-in-law got off their horses, severely beat their wives and left them tied to the trees. The unfortunate would have died if not for Cid's nephew Felez Muñoz, who tracked them down and brought them home. Sid demands vengeance. The King convenes the Cortes to judge the guilty. Sid appears there, tying up his beard so that someone does not insult him by pulling his beard. The case is decided by a judicial duel ("God's court"). Sid's fighters defeat the defendants, and Sid triumphs. He unties his beard, and everyone marvels at his majestic appearance. Cid's daughters are being wooed by new suitors - the princes of Navarre and Aragon. The poem ends with a doxology to Sid.
In general, the poem is more historically accurate than any other of the Western European epics known to us.
This accuracy corresponds to the general truthful tone of the narration, usual for Spanish poems. Descriptions and characteristics are free from any kind of elation. Persons, objects, events are depicted simply, concretely, with businesslike restraint, although this sometimes does not exclude great inner warmth. There are almost no poetic comparisons, metaphors. There is absolutely no Christian fiction, except for the appearance of Sid in a dream, on the eve of his departure, the Archangel Michael. There is also no hyperbolism in the depiction of combat moments. Images of martial arts are very rare and are less violent than in the French epic; mass battles predominate, and noble persons sometimes die at the hands of nameless warriors.
The poem lacks the exclusivity of chivalrous feelings. The singer frankly emphasizes the importance for the fighter of booty, profit, and the monetary base of any military enterprise. An example is the way in which, at the beginning of the poem, Sid got the money needed for the campaign. The singer never forgets to mention the size of the war booty, the share that went to each soldier, the part sent by Sid to the king. In the scene of the lawsuit with the Infantes de Carrion, Cid first of all demands the return of swords and dowry, and then raises the issue of insulting honor. He always behaves like a prudent, reasonable owner.
In accordance with everyday motives of this kind, a prominent role is played by family themes. The point is not only what place is occupied in the poem by the story of the first marriage of Sid's daughters and the bright ending of the picture of their second, happy marriage, but also in the fact that family, kindred feelings with all their intimate intimacy gradually come to the fore in the poem.
Sid's look: Sid is represented, contrary to history, only as an "infanson", that is, a knight who has vassals, but does not belong to the highest nobility. He is depicted as full of self-consciousness and dignity, but at the same time good nature and simplicity in dealing with everyone, alien to any aristocratic arrogance. The norms of knightly practice inevitably determine the main lines of Sid's activity, but not his personal character: he himself, as free as possible from knightly habits, appears in the poem as a truly folk hero. And just as not aristocratic, but popular, all the closest assistants of Cid - Alvar Fañes, Feles Muñoz, Pero Bermudez and others.
This democratization of the image of Sid and the deeply democratic folk tone of the poem about him are based on the above-mentioned folk character of the reconquista.

The literature of the western early Middle Ages was created by new peoples inhabiting the western part of Europe, the Celts (Britons, Gauls, Belgae, Helvetians) and the ancient Germans living between the Danube and the Rhine, near the North Sea and in southern Scandinavia (the Suebi, Goths, Burgundians, Cherusci, Angles, Saxons, etc.).

These peoples first worshiped pagan tribal gods, and later adopted Christianity and believed, but, in the end, the Germanic tribes conquered the Celts and occupied the territory of present-day France, England and Scandinavia. The literature of these peoples is represented by the following works:

• 1. Stories about the life of saints - hagiographies. "Lives of the Saints", visions and spells;
• 2. Encyclopedic, scientific and historiographic works.

Isidore of Seville (c.560-636) - "etymologies, or beginnings"; Bede the Venerable (ca. 637-735) - “about the nature of things” and “the church history of the people of the Angles”, Jordanes - “about the origin of the deeds of the Goths”; Alcuin (c.732-804) - treatises on rhetoric, grammar, dialectics; Einhard (c.770-840) "Biography of Charlemagne";

3. Mythology and heroic epic poems, sagas and songs of the Celtic and Germanic tribes. Icelandic Sagas, Irish epic, "Elder Edda", Younger Edda", "Beowulf", Karelian-Finnish epic "Kalevala".

The heroic epic is one of the most characteristic and popular genres of the European Middle Ages. In France, it existed in the form of poems called gestures, i.e. songs about deeds, exploits. The thematic basis of the gesture is made up of real historical events, most of which date back to the 8th - 10th centuries. Probably, immediately after these events, legends and legends about them arose. It is also possible that these legends originally existed in the form of short episodic songs or prose stories, established in the pre-knight squad environment. However, very early episodic tales went beyond this environment, spread in populace and turned into the property of the whole society: not only the military estate, but also the clergy, merchants, artisans, and peasants listened to them with equal enthusiasm.

The heroic epic as an integral picture of folk life was the most significant legacy of the literature of the early Middle Ages and occupied an important place in the artistic culture of Western Europe. According to Tacitus, songs about gods and heroes replaced history for the barbarians. The oldest is the Irish epic. It is formed from the 3rd to the 8th centuries. Created by the people in the pagan period, epic poems about warrior heroes first existed in oral form and were passed from mouth to mouth. They were sung and recited in a singsong voice by folk storytellers. Later, in the 7th and 8th centuries, after Christianization, they were revised and written down by learned poets, whose names remained unchanged. Epic works are characterized by the chanting of the exploits of heroes; interweaving of historical background and fiction; glorification of the heroic strength and exploits of the main characters; idealization of the feudal state.

Features of the heroic epic:

• 1. The epic was created in the conditions of the development of feudal relations;
• 2. The epic picture of the world reproduces feudal relations, idealizes a strong feudal state and reflects Christian beliefs, hr. ideals;
• 3. With respect to history, historical basis it is clearly visible, but at the same time it is idealized, hyperbolized;
• 4. Heroes - defenders of the state, the king, the independence of the country and the Christian faith. All this is interpreted in the epic as a public affair;
• 5. The epic is associated with a folk tale, with historical chronicles, sometimes with a chivalric romance;
• 6. The epic has been preserved in the countries of continental Europe (Germany, France).

The heroic epic was greatly influenced by Celtic and Norse mythology. Often epic and myths are so connected and intertwined with each other that it is quite difficult to draw a line between them. This connection is reflected in a special form of epic tales - sagas - from Old Norse. prose stories(The Icelandic word "saga" comes from the verb "to say"). Sagas were composed by Scandinavian poets of the 9th-12th centuries. - scalds. The Old Icelandic sagas are very diverse: the sagas about kings, the saga of the Icelanders, the sagas of ancient times ("The Saga of the Velsungs").

The collection of these sagas has come down to us in the form of two Eddas: the Elder Edda and the Younger Edda. The Younger Edda is a prose retelling of ancient Germanic myths and legends, made by the Icelandic historian and poet Snorri Sjurluson in 1222-1223. The Elder Edda is a collection of twelve verse songs about gods and heroes. The compressed and dynamic songs of the Elder Edda, dating back to the 5th century and apparently written down in the 10th-11th centuries, are divided into two groups: tales about gods and tales about heroes. The chief of the gods is the one-eyed Odin, who was originally the god of war. The second most important after Odin is the god of thunder and fertility Thor. The third is the evil god Loki. And the most significant hero is the hero Sigurd. The heroic songs of the Elder Edda are based on all-Germanic epic tales about the gold of the Nibelungs, on which there is a curse and which brings misfortune to everyone.

Sagas also became widespread in Ireland, the largest center of Celtic culture in the Middle Ages. It was the only country in Western Europe where the foot of a Roman legionnaire had not set foot. Irish legends were created and passed on to their descendants by druids (priests), bards (singers-poets) and felids (soothsayers). A clear and concise Irish epic was formed not in verse, but in prose. It can be divided into heroic sagas and fantastic sagas. The main hero of the heroic sagas was the noble, just and courageous Cuchulainn. His mother is the king's sister and his father is the god of light. Cuchulainn had three faults: he was too young, too bold, and too beautiful. In the image of Cuchulainn, ancient Ireland embodied its ideal of valor and moral perfection.

In epic works, real historical events and fairy-tale fantasy are often intertwined. Thus, the "Song of Hildenbrand" was created on a historical basis - the struggle of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric with Odoacer. This ancient German epic of the era of the migration of peoples originated in the pagan era and was found in a manuscript of the 9th century. This is the only monument of the German epic that has come down to us in song form.

In the poem "Beowulf" - the heroic epic of the Anglo-Saxons, which has come down to us in a manuscript of the early 10th century, the fantastic adventures of the heroes also take place against the backdrop of historical events. The world of "Beowulf" is the world of kings and vigilantes, the world of feasts, battles and fights. The hero of the poem is Beowulf, a brave and generous warrior from the people of the Gauts, who performs feats and is always ready to help people. Beowulf is generous, merciful, faithful to the leader and greedy for glory and rewards, he accomplished many feats, opposed the monster and destroyed it; defeated another monster in an underwater dwelling - Grendel's mother; entered into battle with a fire-breathing dragon, which was enraged by the attempt on the ancient treasure guarded by him and devastated the country. at the cost own life Beowulf managed to defeat the dragon. The song ends with a scene of the solemn burning of the hero's body on a funeral pyre and the construction of a mound over his ashes. Thus, the familiar theme of gold, which brings misfortune, appears in the poem. This theme would be used later in chivalric literature as well.

The immortal monument of folk art is "Kalevala" - the Karelian-Finnish epic about the exploits and adventures of the heroes of the fairy-tale land of Kalev. "Kalevala" is made up of folk songs(runes), which were collected and recorded by Elias Lennrot, a native of a Finnish peasant family, and published in 1835 and 1849. runes are the letters of the alphabet carved on wood or stone, which were used by the Scandinavian and other Germanic peoples for religious and commemorative inscriptions. The whole "Kalevala" is a tireless praise of human labor, there is not even a hint of "court" poetry in it.

In the French epic poem "The Song of Roland", which has come down to us in a manuscript of the 12th century, it tells about the Spanish campaign of Charlemagne in 778, and the main character of the poem, Roland, has his own historical prototype. True, the campaign against the Basques turned into a seven-year war with the "infidels" in the poem, and Charles himself - from a 36-year-old man into a gray-haired old man. The central episode of the poem - the Battle of Roncevalle, glorifies the courage of people who are faithful to their duty and "sweet France".

The ideological idea of ​​the legend is revealed by comparing the "Song of Roland" with those historical facts that underlie this legend. In 778, Charlemagne intervened in the internal strife of the Spanish Moors, agreeing to help one of the Muslim kings against another. Crossing the Pyrenees, Charles took several cities and laid siege to Zaragoza, but after standing under its walls for several weeks, he had to return to France with nothing. When he was returning back through the Pyrenees, the Basques, annoyed by the passage of foreign troops through their fields and villages, ambushed the Ronceval Gorge and, attacking the French rearguard, killed many of them. A short and fruitless expedition to northern Spain, which had nothing to do with religious struggle and ended in a not particularly significant, but still unfortunate military failure, was turned by storytellers into a picture of a seven-year war that ended in the conquest of all of Spain, then - a terrible catastrophe during the retreat of the French armies, and here the enemies were not Basque Christians, but all the same Moors, and, finally, a picture of revenge on the part of Charles in the form of a grandiose, truly “worldwide” battle of the French with the connecting forces of the entire Muslim world.

In addition to the hyperbolization typical of the entire folk epic, which affected not only the scale of the events depicted, but also in the pictures of the superhuman strength and dexterity of individual characters, as well as in the idealization of the main characters (Roland, Karl, Turpin), the saturation of the entire story with the idea of ​​a religious struggle against Islam is characteristic. and the special mission of France in this struggle. This idea found its vivid expression in the numerous prayers, heavenly signs, religious appeals that fill the poem, in the denigration of the "pagans" - the Moors, in the repeated emphasis on the special protection provided to Charles by God, in the image of Roland as a knight-vassal of Charles and a vassal of the Lord, to whom he before dying, he stretches out his glove, as if to an overlord, finally, in the form of Archbishop Turpin, who with one hand blesses the French knights for battle and absolves the dying of sins, and with the other he strikes enemies, personifying the unity of the sword and the cross in the fight against the “infidels”.

However, the "Song of Roland" is far from exhausted by its national-religious idea. It reflected with great force the socio-political contradictions characteristic of the intensively developing in the 10th - 11th centuries. feudalism. This problem is introduced into the poem by the episode of Ganelon's betrayal. The reason for including this episode in the legend could be the desire of the singer-narrators to explain the defeat of the "invincible" army of Charlemagne as an external fatal reason. But Ganelon is not just a traitor, but the expression of some evil principle, hostile to any public cause, the personification of feudal, anarchist egoism. This beginning is shown in the poem in all its strength, with great artistic objectivity. Ganelon is depicted by no means as some kind of physical and moral freak. This is a majestic and brave fighter. The Song of Roland does not so much reveal the blackness of an individual traitor - Ganelon, as it exposes the fatality for the native country of that feudal, anarchic egoism, of which Ganelon is, in some respects, a brilliant representative.

Along with this opposition of Roland and Ganelon, another opposition runs through the whole poem, less sharp, but just as fundamental - Roland and his beloved friend, the betrothed brother Olivier. Here not two hostile forces collide, but two variants of the same positive principle.

Roland in the poem is a mighty and brilliant knight, impeccable in the performance of his vassal duty. He is an example of knightly prowess and nobility. But the deep connection of the poem with folk songwriting and folk understanding of heroism was reflected in the fact that all the knightly traits of Roland are given by the poet in a humanized form, freed from class limitations. Roland is alien to heroism, cruelty, greed, anarchic willfulness of the feudal lords. He feels an excess of youthful strength, a joyful faith in the rightness of his cause and in his luck, a passionate thirst for a disinterested feat. Full of proud self-consciousness, but at the same time devoid of any arrogance or self-interest, he devotes his entire strength to serving the king, people, and homeland. Seriously wounded, having lost all his comrades-in-arms in battle, Roland climbs a high hill, lies on the ground, puts his faithful sword and Olifan horn next to him and turns his face towards Spain so that the emperor knows that he "died, but won in battle." For Roland, there is no more tender and sacred word than "dear France"; with the thought of her, he dies. All this made Roland, despite his knightly appearance, a true folk hero, understandable and close to everyone.

Olivier is a friend and brother, Roland's "dashing brother", a valiant knight who prefers death to the dishonor of retreat. In the poem, Olivier characterizes the epithet "reasonable". Three times Olivier tries to convince Roland to blow Olifan's horn to call for help from the army of Charlemagne, but three times Roland refuses to do so. Olivier dies along with a friend, praying before his death "for the dear native land."

Emperor Charlemagne is Roland's uncle. His image in the poem is a somewhat exaggerated image of the old wise leader. In the poem, Karl is 200 years old, although in fact, by the time of the real events in Spain, he was no more than 36. The power of his empire is also greatly exaggerated in the poem. The author includes in it both countries that really belonged to her, and those that were not included in it. The emperor can only be compared with God: in order to have time to punish the Saracens before sunset, he is able to stop the sun. On the eve of the death of Roland and his troops, Charlemagne sees a prophetic dream, but he can no longer prevent the betrayal, but only pours "streams of tears." The image of Charlemagne resembles the image of Jesus Christ - the reader is presented with his twelve peers (compare with the 12 apostles) and the traitor Ganelon.

Ganelon - vassal of Charlemagne, stepfather of the protagonist of the poem, Roland. The emperor, on the advice of Roland, sends Ganelon to negotiate with the Saracen king Marsilius. This is a very dangerous mission, and Ganelon decides to take revenge on his stepson. He enters into a treacherous agreement with Marsilius and, returning to the emperor, convinces him to leave Spain. At the instigation of Ganelon, in the Ronceval Gorge in the Pyrenees, the rearguard of Charlemagne's troops led by Roland is attacked by outnumbered Saracens. Roland, his friends and all his troops perish, without stepping back from Ronceval. Ganelon personifies in the poem feudal selfishness and arrogance, bordering on betrayal and dishonor. Outwardly, Ganelon is handsome and valiant (“he is fresh-faced, in appearance and bold and proud. That was a daring man, be honest with him”). Neglecting military honor and following only a desire for revenge on Roland, Ganelon becomes a traitor. Because of him, the best warriors of France die, so the ending of the poem - the scene of the trial and execution of Ganelon - is natural. Archbishop Turpin is a warrior-priest who bravely fights the "infidels" and blesses the Franks for battle. The idea of ​​a special mission of France in the national-religious struggle against the Saracens is connected with his image. Turpen is proud of his people, who in their fearlessness cannot be compared with any other.

The Spanish heroic epic "Song of Side" reflected the events of the reconquista - the Spaniards conquering their country from the Arabs. Main character poems - famous figure reconquestist Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar (1040 - 1099), whom the Arabs called Cid (lord).

The story of Cid has provided material for many gothapsego and chronicles.

The main poetic tales about Sid that have come down to us are:

• 1) a cycle of poems about King Sancho the 2nd and about the siege of Samara in the 13th - 14th centuries, according to the historian of Spanish literature F. Kel'in, “serving as a kind of prologue to“ The Song of My Side ”;
• 2) the “Song of My Sid” itself, created around 1140, probably by one of Sid’s warriors, and preserved in a single copy of the 14th century with heavy losses;
• 3) and a poem, or rhymed chronicle, "Rodrigo" in 1125 verses and adjoining romances about Side.

In the German epic "The Song of the Nibelungs", which finally took shape from individual songs into an epic legend in the 12th-13th centuries, there is both a historical basis and a fairy tale-fiction. The epic reflects the events of the Great Migration of Peoples of the 4th-5th centuries. there is also a real historical person - the formidable leader Atilla, who turned into a kind, weak-willed Etzel. The poem consists of 39 songs - "ventures". The action of the poem takes us to the world of court festivities, jousting tournaments and beautiful ladies. The protagonist of the poem is the Dutch prince Siegfried, a young knight who accomplished many miraculous feats. He is bold and courageous, young and handsome, bold and arrogant. But the fate of Siegfried and his future wife Kriemhild was tragic, for whom the treasure with the gold of the Nibelungs became fatal.

In the early Middle Ages, oral poetry developed, especially the heroic epic, based on real events military campaigns and great heroes left in the memory of people. epic,Chansondegeste (lit. "song of deeds") - a genre of French medieval literature, a song about the deeds of heroes and kings of the past ("The Song of Roland", a cycle about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table). Its purpose is to sing the moral values ​​of chivalry: duty to the overlord, service to the Church and the Beautiful Lady, loyalty, honor, courage.

All works of the medieval heroic epic belong to the early (Anglo-Saxon Beowulf) and classical Middle Ages (Icelandic songs of the Elder Edda and the German Nibelungenlied). In the epic, descriptions of historical events coexist with myth and fairy tale, historical and fantastic are equally accepted as truth. Epic poems do not have an author: the people who reworked and supplemented the poetic material did not recognize themselves as the authors of the works they wrote.

"Beowulf" the oldest Anglo-Saxon epic poem, its action takes place in Scandinavia. The text was written at the beginning of the 8th century. The action of the poem begins in Denmark, where King Hrothgar rules. Trouble loomed over his country: every night the monster Grendel devoured warriors. From the land of the Gauts (in Southern Sweden), where the valiant King Hygelak rules, the hero Beowulf rushes to the aid of Denmark with fourteen wars. He slays Grendel:

The enemy was approaching;

Over reclining

He extended his hand

Rip up intending

clawed paw

Chest of the brave

But the one nimble

Sitting up on my elbow,

The brush squeezed him

And I understood the terrible

Shepherd of adversity

What on earth

Under the vault of heaven

He has not yet met

human hand

Stronger and harder;

The soul trembled

And my heart dropped

But it was too late

Run to the lair

To the devil's lair;

Never in my life

Didn't happen to him

Of what happened

In this hall.

But trouble again descended on Denmark: Grendel's mother came to avenge her son's death. With an ancient sword and impenetrable armor, Beowulf dives into a dead swamp and at the very bottom inflicts a crushing blow on the monster. At the end of the poem, Beowulf occupies the throne of the Gauts after the death of Hygelak. He has to save his people from a winged serpent enraged by stealing treasures. Having defeated the serpent, Beowulf dies from a mortal wound, having bequeathed his armor to Wiglaf, the only warrior who did not leave him in trouble. At the end of the poem it proclaims eternal glory Beowulf.

"Elder Edda" is a collection of Old Norse songs, songs about the gods - about Hymir, about Thrym, about Alvis and the heroes of Scandinavian mythology and history, which are preserved in manuscripts dating from the second half. 13th century The background of the manuscript is as unknown as the background of the Beowulf manuscript. Attention is drawn to the diversity of songs, tragic and comic, elegiac monologues and dramatized dialogues, teachings are replaced by riddles, divination - stories about the beginning of the world. Songs about the gods contain the richest mythological material, and songs about heroes tell about the good name and posthumous glory of the heroes:

Herds are dying

family is dying

and you yourself are mortal;

but I know one thing

that is eternally immortal:

the glory of the deceased.

(from "Speech of the High").

"Nibelungenlied"– a medieval epic poem, related to the Germanic epic, of 39 songs (“aventures”). It contains legends dating back to the time of the Great Migration of Nations and the creation of the Germanic kingdoms on the territory of the Western Roman Empire. It was written down by an unknown author at the end of the 12th – beginning of the 13th centuries. In the land of the Burgundians lives a girl of extraordinary beauty named Kriemhilda. Her three brothers are famous for their valor: Gunther, Gernot and Giselher, as well as their vassal Hagen. Siegfried, the son of the Dutch king Sigmund, the conqueror of the huge treasure of the Nibelungs (since then Siegfried himself and his squad are called the Nibelungs) - the sword of Balmung and the invisibility cloak - arrived in Burgundy to fight for the hand of Kriemhild. Only after many trials (a victory over the Saxons and Danes, a victory over the warrior Brynhild, whom Gunther is in love with), Siegfried is allowed to marry his beloved. But the happiness of the young does not last long. The queens quarrel, Hagen finds out Siegfried's weak point from Kriemhild (his "Hercules heel" turned out to be a mark on his back, while washing in the dragon's blood, a linden leaf fell on his back):

My husband,–she said,–and brave and full of strength.

Once under a mountain he slew a dragon,

Washed in his blood and became invulnerable ...

When he began to bathe in the dragon's blood,

A leaf from a neighboring linden tree fell on the knight

And he covered his back between the shoulder blades by a span.

Here, alas, my mighty husband is also vulnerable.

After this confession, Hagen kills Siegfried while hunting. Since then, the Burgundians are called Nibelungs, since the treasures of Siegfried pass into their hands. After mourning for 13 years and marrying the ruler of the Huns, Etzel, Kriemhilda lures the brothers and Hagen to visit and kills every one. So she avenges the death of her beloved husband and kills all the Nibelungs.

French heroic epic. A wonderful example of a medieval folk-heroic epic - "The Song of Roland". In France, "songs about deeds" that existed among the knights became widespread. There are about a hundred of them in total, forming three groups in terms of plot and theme: in the center of the first is the king of France, a wise monarch; in the center of the second is his faithful vassal; in the center of the third - on the contrary, a rebellious feudal lord, not subject to the king. The Song of Roland, the most famous among heroic songs, is based on a real historical event, a short campaign of Charlemagne against the Basques in 778. After a successful seven-year campaign in Mauritanian Spain, the Frankish emperor Charlemagne conquers all the cities of the Saracens (Arabs), except for Zaragoza where King Marsilius rules. The ambassadors of Marsilius offer the French riches and say that Marsilius is ready to become a vassal of Charles. The Breton count Roland does not believe the Saracens, but his enemy Count Gwenelon insists on a different decision and travels as an ambassador to Marsilius, plotting to destroy Roland and advising Marsilius to attack the rearguard of the army of Charlemagne. Returning to the camp, the traitor says that Marsilius agrees to become a Christian and a vassal of Charles. Roland is appointed chief of the rear guard, and he takes with him only 20 thousand people. They are ambushed in the Gorge of Ronceval and engage in battle with a superior Saracen force. In the end, they die, Carl notices something was wrong too late and returns to Ronceval to defeat the insidious enemy and accuse Gwenelon of treason.

Spanish heroic epic. The Spanish epic is in many ways close to the French, and the art of the Spanish epic houglars has much in common with the art of the French jugglers. The Spanish epic is also based mainly on historical tradition; even more than French, it is centered around the theme of the reconquista, the war with the Moors. The best and at the same time the most complete monument of Spanish epic poetry is "Song of My Sid". Coming down to us in a single list compiled in 1307 by a certain Pedro Abbot, the poem of the heroic epic seems to have taken shape around 1140, less than half a century after the death of Cid himself. Sid is the famous leader of the reconquista Rodrigo (Ruy) Diaz de Bivar (1040 - 1099). The Arabs called him Sid (from the Arabic seid - "master"). The main goal of his life is the liberation of his native land from the rule of the Arabs. Contrary to historical truth, Cid is depicted as a knight who has vassals and does not belong to the highest nobility. He is turned into a real folk hero, who suffers insults from an unjust king, comes into conflict with the tribal nobility. On a false accusation, Cid was expelled from Castile by King Alfonso VI. But at the end of the poem, Sid not only defends his honor, but also becomes related to the Spanish kings. The Song of My Side gives a true picture of Spain both in days of peace and in days of war. In the XIV century. the Spanish heroic epic is in decline, but its plots continue to be developed in romances - short lyric-epic poems, in many respects similar to northern European ballads.

During the classical or high Middle Ages, Western Europe began to overcome difficulties and revive. Since the 10th century, state structures have been enlarged, which made it possible to raise larger armies and, to some extent, to stop raids and robberies. Missionaries brought Christianity to the countries of Scandinavia, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, so that these states also entered the orbit of Western culture.

The relative stability that followed made it possible for cities and the economy to rapidly expand. Life began to change for the better, the cities flourished their own culture and spiritual life. An important role in this was played by the church, which also developed, improved its teaching and organization.

The economic and social takeoff after 1000 began with construction. As contemporaries said: "Europe was covered with a new white dress of churches." On the base artistic traditions ancient rome and the former barbarian tribes, Romanesque, and later brilliant Gothic art arose, and not only architecture and literature developed, but also other types of art - painting, theater, music, sculpture.

At this time, feudal relations finally took shape, the process of personality formation was already completed (XII century). The outlook of Europeans has significantly expanded due to a number of circumstances (this is the era of the Crusades outside Western Europe: acquaintance with the life of Muslims, the East, with a higher level of development). These new impressions enriched the Europeans, their horizons expanded as a result of the travels of merchants (Marco Polo traveled to China and, upon his return, wrote a book introducing Chinese life and traditions). Expanding horizons leads to the formation of a new worldview. Thanks to new acquaintances, impressions, people began to understand that earthly life is not aimless, has great significance, the natural world is rich, interesting, does not create anything bad, it is divine, worthy of study. Therefore, the sciences began to develop.

Literature

Features of the literature of this time:

1) The relationship between ecclesiastical and secular literature changes decisively in favor of secular literature. New class directions are formed and flourish: chivalric and urban literature.

2) The sphere of literary use of folk languages ​​has expanded: in urban literature they prefer vernacular, even church literature refers to the vernacular.

3) Literature acquires absolute independence in relation to folklore.

4) Dramaturgy emerges and develops successfully.

5) The genre of the heroic epic continues to develop. A number of pearls of the heroic epic appear: "The Song of Roland", "The Song of My Sid", "The Song of the Nebelung".

Heroic epic.

The heroic epic is one of the most characteristic and popular genres of the European Middle Ages. In France, it existed in the form of poems called gestures, that is, songs about deeds, exploits. The thematic basis of the gesture is made up of real historical events, most of which date back to the 8th - 10th centuries. Probably, immediately after these events, legends and legends about them arose. It is also possible that these legends originally existed in the form of short episodic songs or prose stories that developed in the pre-knight's retinue environment. However, very early, episodic tales went beyond this environment, spread among the masses and became the property of the whole society: they were listened with equal enthusiasm not only by the military estate, but also by the clergy, merchants, artisans, and peasants.

Since initially these folk tales were intended for oral melodious performance by jugglers, the latter subjected them to intensive processing, which consisted in expanding the plots, in their cyclization, in the introduction of inserted episodes, sometimes very large ones, conversational scenes, etc. As a result, short episodic songs took gradually the appearance of plot-and stylistically-organized poems - a gesture. In addition, in the process of complex development, some of these poems were significantly influenced by church ideology, and all without exception - by the influence of knightly ideology. Since chivalry had a high prestige for all sectors of society, the heroic epic gained the widest popularity. Unlike Latin poetry, which was practically intended for clergy alone, gestures were created in French and were understandable to everyone. Originating from the early Middle Ages, the heroic epic took on a classical form and experienced a period of active existence in the 12th, 13th, and partly 14th centuries. Its written fixation also belongs to the same time. Gestures are usually divided into three cycles:

1) the cycle of Guillaume d "Orange (otherwise: the cycle of Garena de Montglan - named after great-grandfather Guillaume);

2) the cycle of "rebellious barons" (in other words: the cycle of Doon de Mayans);

3) the cycle of Charlemagne, King of France. The theme of the first cycle is the disinterested, driven only by love for the motherland, service of the faithful vassals from the Guillaume family to the weak, vacillating, often ungrateful king, who is constantly threatened by either internal or external enemies.

The theme of the second cycle is the rebellion of the proud and independent barons against the unjust king, as well as the cruel feuds of the barons among themselves. Finally, in the poems of the third cycle (“The Pilgrimage of Charlemagne”, “Big-Legs”, etc.), the sacred struggle of the Franks against the “pagan” Muslims is sung and the figure of Charlemagne is heroized, appearing as the center of virtues and the stronghold of the entire Christian world. The most remarkable poem of the royal cycle and of the entire French epic is the "Song of Roland", the recording of which dates back to the beginning of the 12th century.

Features of the heroic epic:

1) The epic was created in the conditions of the development of feudal relations.

2) The epic picture of the world reproduces feudal relations, idealizes a strong feudal state and reflects Christian beliefs, Christian ideals.

3) With regard to history, the historical basis is clearly visible, but at the same time it is idealized, exaggerated.

4) Heroes - defenders of the state, the king, the independence of the country and the Christian faith. All this is interpreted in the epic as a nationwide affair.

5) The epic is associated with a folk tale, with historical chronicles, sometimes with a chivalric romance.

6) The epic has been preserved in the countries of continental Europe (Germany, France).