DeDanaan

Blank Verse : Blank verse is unrhymed poetry, and usually refers to poems written in iambic pentameter. The plays of William Shakespeare are written mostly in blank verse, as are many English epic and dramatic poems.

An example from Shakespeare’s Hamlet:

How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.

Beowolf : Beowolf, which means “bee-wolf” or bear, is the hero of an epic poem composed in Old English around the year 700AD. Some scholars believe it was written by an English Christian who may have adapted an earlier epic or collection of folk tales. Based on Scandinavian history and legends, the story takes place about 200 years earlier. Beowolf has the quality of heroism in a cold and unfriendly world. He is a young Swedish prince who visits the famous mead-hall (feasting hall) of a Danish king, where he learns that the hall is attacked every night by a monster named Grendel. When he offers to fight the monster, he succeeds in tearing off one of its arms and drives it away. On the following night Grendel’s mother comes for vengeance. Beowolf kills her and rids the kingdom of its scourge. After 50 years of a peaceful reign, King Beowolf fights again — this time it is a dragon that is destroying the land. In a long and painful battle, the aged Beowolf kills the fire-breathing beast and saves his people. His body is placed on a huge funeral pyre to be burnt, but his deeds survive him in memory and legend for generations.

Avalon : A Celtic word meaning “the island of apples,” was an island paradise to which heroes were taken after their death. King Arthur was taken there after being mortally wounded in battle. In medieval romantic poetry, Avalon is the place where the fairy Morgan le Fay held her court.

Allegory : A literary device, an allegory is a story or a description in which events or characters stand for meanings not visible on the surface. An allegory treats one subject by disguising it as another. Allegorical characters often represent moral virtues or vices (such as Truth, Conscience, or Reason), rather than imitating human personality. Similar to the fable, the parable, and the morality play, the allegory is no longer widely used.

Irish Literary Renaissance : The Irish Literary Renaissance was a writers’ movement that worked to create literature with a truly Irish character, distinct from literature of England, through the study and revival of ancient Irish legends and folk tales. William Butler Yeats helped start the movement, which was partly the outcome of a trend toward political nationalism that developed in Ireland at the end of the 19th century. In 1902, Yeats and Irish playright Lady Augusta Gregory (1859-1932) established the Irish National Theatre Society, which became the movement’s most famous institution. It achieved an international reputation through its staging of the plays of John Millington Synge and Sean O’Casey. The movement is said to have influenced the work of James Joyce.

Newspeak : Newspeak is the official language of Oceania in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. The purposes and principles are described in great detail in an appendix to the book. Its creators invented new words, and also threw out many old words that the dictatorship thought were undesirable. An example of Newspeak is “Reporting bb dayorder doubleplusungood refs unpersons rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling.” Translated into ordinary English, this would read “The reporting of Big Brother’s Order for the Day. . . is extremely unsatisfactory and makes references to nonexistent persons. Rewrite it in full and submit your draft to higher authority before filing.”

1984 : 1984 is a novel by George Orwell (1949), which takes place in the world of the future, where people and resources are being destroyed in a continuing war between dictators. Winston Smith lives in the bleak, rotting remains of London, where only public buildings and the homes of Inner Party members are pleasant. There are no luxuries, everything is rationed, all books have been outlawed, and citizens are killed for saying or doing anything against the ruling Party. Each living space has a large television screen that can see and hear what happens, and cannot be turned off. Winston works in the Ministry of Truth, where he changes newspaper copy to conform to the orders of “Big Brother,” the Party leader. By chance he finds a small shop where Mr. Charrington rents a bedroom furnished in the old style, without a watching telescreen. When Winston falls in love with Julia, they must meet in secret at Charrington’s because the Party disapproves of physical attraction between people. Movies of 1984 were made in 1956 and 1984.

Oberon : Oberon first appears as a character in medieval French legend as the son of Julius Caesar (100-44BC) and Morgan le Fay. He is also possibly descended from Alberich, king of the Elves in Germanic legend. Oberon is only three feet tall, with an angelic face. The fairies gave him the power to look into people’s thoughts and the ability to go anywhere instantly. The Oberon known best was created by William Shakespeare, who may have read about him in James IV (1598), a play about Scottish history by Robert Greene (1558-1592). In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon is king of the fairies and husband of Titania. Because Oberon has quarreled with his queen, he contrives magic spells to cause Titania to fall in love with a comic weaver, Bottom. His magic also complicates, mixes up, and then unscrambles the four young human lovers in the play.

Pan : Pan is the Greek mythological god of woods and fields, flocks and herds, and shepherds and huntsmen. Since in Greek “pan” means “all or everything,” the god Pan pervades all things, including food or fertility. He is the son of either Mercury or Jupiter or even various other parents. Though he walks upright, he has horns, legs, and a tail like a goat’s, while his head, arms, and chest are like a man’s. His musical pipe — which he is credited with inventing — is called “syrinx” and is named for a nymph who was changed into a reed to escape Pan’s advances. His companions are often satyrs, half-man, half-horselike creatures. Pan was worshipped as a nature deity and so is one of the most ancient of the Greek gods. The Greek festivals to Pan were later taken over by the Romans, who identified him with the nature spirit Faunus. You use his name when you say the word “panic,” for, though he was considered a good guy, he was said to frighten lonely travelers who thought the strange sounds they heard at night were made by him.