ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

LITERATURE QUESTIONS

MEDIEVAL LITERATURE AND CULTURE

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
In Beowulf, what is the significance of the term wyrd?
A
Wyrd has to do with reparational payments exacted from people guilty of homicide.
B
Wyrd is related to the folly of earthly possessions.
C
Wyrd suggests the idea of fate.
D
Wyrd is an allusion to the impending conversion to Christianity.
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -Wyrd is a concept in Beowulf that is usually translated as fate, destiny, or doom. It is a powerful force that controls the lives of individuals, but some people can change their wyrd through acts of courage.

Detailed explanation-2: -Wyrd is a concept in Anglo-Saxon culture roughly corresponding to fate or personal destiny. The word is ancestral to Modern English weird, whose meaning has drifted towards an adjectival use with a more general sense of “supernatural” or “uncanny", or simply “unexpected".

Detailed explanation-3: -Beowulf finally attributes his death to fate in his final speech: ‘My days have gone by as fate willed, waiting for its word to be spoken. ‘ It seems that he has been waiting to discover what fate has in store for him, and he feels that his death was predetermined. He is content to die.

Detailed explanation-4: -By saying, “Fate goes as ever fate must, ” Beowulf is commenting upon the pagan concept of “wyrd, ” or fate, which plays a big role in the heroic world of the poem, and he is also showing his bravery and courage.

Detailed explanation-5: -Definition: It is the destiny a person from the Anglo-Saxon Era chooses for himself. Example: An example of Wyrd is when Beowulf decides himself that he should go fight Grendel himself.

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