Beowulf, Gilgamesh

Robbie wonders: "If what we had were the original performed versions, I am
not sure that it would be any less sensible to us than what we have at
present."

I don't suppose it would be any less sensible to us-but our fixed text would
be quite strange to the scops and warriors who thought of poems very
differently from how we think of them. We think of epics as long narrative
stories in fixed texts (sometimes in different revisions); for original
audiences for *Beowulf*, they were stories sung/performed in a particular
setting. Analagous to freestyle rap performances, perhaps-a distinction
from lyrics in liner notes that we wouldn't be too quick to dismiss. If the
*themes* of *Beowulf* are important across cultures and time in the same
way, it does not follow that the particulars of the poem are, as well.

We teach *Gilgamesh* here at our li'l liberal arts school as part of a
"great books" style initiative because it has extraordinary cultural
relevance today and because it very effectively establishes a flood story
tradition in which to understand the Judeo-Christian version. It shows
(among other things, to be sure) how flood stories are sort of "universal"
(though I'd prefer to say that they're a more or less common element" in
creation/history narratives). But again, it's the mythos of *Gilgamesh*
that constitutes its universal appeal, not the poetry. We've been building
culture around the same stories for lots of centuries. But when those
stories disappear from the cultural bedrock, they just won't be universal
anymore. They won't make any sense.

--
mkozusko@ursinus.edu
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