{"product_id":"cultural-world-in-beowulf-john-m-hill-9780802074386","title":"The Cultural World in Beowulf","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/em\u003e is one of the most important poems in Old English and the first major poem in European vernacular language. It dramatizes behavior in a complex social world--a martial, aristocratic world that we often distort by imposing on it our own biases and values. In this cross-disciplinary study, John Hill looks at \u003cem\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/em\u003e from a comparative ethnological point of view. He provides a thorough examination of the socio-cultural dimensions of the text and compares the social milieu of \u003cem\u003eBeowulf \u003c\/em\u003eto that of similarly organized cultures. Through examination of historical analogs in northern Europe and France, as well as past and present societies on the Pacific rim in Southeast Asia, a complex and extended society is uncovered and an astonishingly different \u003cem\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/em\u003e is illuminated.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe study is divided into five major essays: on ethnology and social drama, the temporal world, the legal world, the economy of honour, and the psychological world. Hill presents a realm where genealogies incorporate social and political statements: in this world gift giving has subtle and manipulative dimensions, both violent and peaceful exchange form a political economy, acts of revenge can be baleful or have jural force, and kinship is as much a constructible fact as a natural one. Family and kinship relations, revenge themes, heroic poetry, myth, legality, and political discussions all bring the importance of the social institutions in \u003cem\u003eBeowulf \u003c\/em\u003eto the foreground, allowing for a fuller understanding of the poems and its implications for Anglo-Saxon society. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e John Hill\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0802074383\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780802074386\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Toronto Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/15\/1995\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 234\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.83lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.99h x 6.04w x 0.85d","brand":"John Hill","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44059739717887,"sku":"9780802074386","price":43.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_a06b186c-258e-465b-9a1e-21f7b72fe0e9.jpg?v=1685060046","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/cultural-world-in-beowulf-john-m-hill-9780802074386","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}