document_title: Animal

question_text: distinctive characteristics of animals classified as vertebrates include

root

text: Animal

text: Etymology

text: The word "animal" comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, having soul or living being.[3] The biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans.[4] In everyday non-scientific usage, the word often implies exclusion of humans – that is, "animal" is used to refer only to non-human members of the kingdom Animalia; sometimes, only closer relatives of humans such as mammals and other vertebrates, are meant.[5]

tag: p

text: Characteristics

text: Animals have several characteristics that set them apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular,[6] which separates them from bacteria and most protists, which are prokaryotic and unicellular. They are heterotrophic,[7] generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae, which are autotrophs.[8] They lack rigid cell walls, which separates them from plants, algae, and fungi, all of which do have rigid cell walls.[9] All animals are motile,[10] if only at certain life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a blastula stage,[11] which is a characteristic exclusive to animals, and which allows for differentiation into specialized tissues and organs.

text: Structure

text: All animals are composed of eukaryotic cells, surrounded by a characteristic extracellular matrix composed of collagen and elastic glycoproteins.[12] This may be calcified to form structures like shells, bones, and spicules.[13] During development, it forms a relatively flexible framework[14] upon which cells can move about and be reorganized, making complex structures possible. In contrast, other multicellular organisms, like plants and fungi, have cells held in place by cell walls, and so develop by progressive growth.[15] Also, unique to animal cells are the following intercellular junctions: tight junctions, gap junctions, and desmosomes.[16]

text: With a few exceptions—most notably the two phyla consisting of sponges and placozoans—animals have bodies that are differentiated into tissues.[17]:362,365 These include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals. Typically, there is also an internal digestive chamber, with one or two openings.[15] Animals with this sort of organization are called metazoans, or eumetazoans when the former is used for animals in general.[18]

text: Reproduction

text: Nearly all animals undergo some form of sexual reproduction.[20] They produce haploid gametes by meiosis (see Origin and function of meiosis). The smaller, motile gametes are spermatozoa and the larger, non-motile gametes are ova.[21] These fuse to form zygotes, which develop via multiple successive mitoses and differentiation into new individuals[22] (see Allogamy).

text: Some animals are also capable of asexual reproduction.[23] This may take place through parthenogenesis, where fertile eggs are produced without mating, budding, or fragmentation.[24]

text: During sexual reproduction, mating with a close relative (inbreeding) generally leads to inbreeding depression. For instance, inbreeding was found to increase juvenile mortality in 11 small animal species.[26] Inbreeding depression is considered to be largely due to expression of deleterious recessive mutations.[27] Mating with unrelated or distantly related members of the same species is generally thought to provide the advantage of masking deleterious recessive mutations in progeny.[28] (see Heterosis). Animals have evolved numerous diverse mechanisms for avoiding close inbreeding and promoting outcrossing[25] (see Inbreeding avoidance).

text: Chimpanzees have adopted dispersal as a way to separate close relatives and prevent inbreeding.[25] Their spersal route is known as natal dispersal, whereby individuals move away from the area of birth.

text: In various species, such as the splendid fairywren, females benefit by mating with multiple males, thus producing more offspring of higher genetic quality. Females that are pair bonded to a male of poor genetic quality, as is the case in inbreeding, are more likely to engage in extra-pair copulations in order to improve their reproductive success and the survivability of their offspring.[29]

text: Embryonic development

text: A zygote initially develops into a hollow sphere, called a blastula,[30] which undergoes rearrangement and differentiation. In sponges, blastula larvae swim to a new location and develop into a new sponge.[31] In most other groups, the blastula undergoes more complicated rearrangement.[32] It first invaginates to form a gastrula with a digestive chamber, and two separate germ layers—an external ectoderm and an internal endoderm.[33] In most cases, a mesoderm also develops between them.[34] These germ layers then differentiate to form tissues and organs.[35]

text: Food and energy sourcing

text: All animals are heterotrophs, meaning that they feed directly or indirectly on other living things.[36] They are often further subdivided into groups such as carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, and parasites.[37]

text: Predation is a biological interaction where a predator (a heterotroph that is hunting) feeds on its prey (the organism that is attacked).[38] Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation almost always results in the death of the prey.[39] The other main category of consumption is detritivory, the consumption of dead organic matter.[40] It can at times be difficult to separate the two feeding behaviours, for example, where parasitic species prey on a host organism and then lay their eggs on it for their offspring to feed on its decaying corpse. Selective pressures imposed on one another has led to an evolutionary arms race between prey and predator, resulting in various antipredator adaptations.[41]

text: Most animals indirectly use the energy of sunlight by eating plants or plant-eating animals. Most plants use light to convert inorganic molecules in their environment into carbohydrates, fats, proteins and other biomolecules, characteristically containing reduced carbon in the form of carbon-hydrogen bonds. Starting with carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O), photosynthesis converts the energy of sunlight into chemical energy in the form of simple sugars (e.g., glucose), with the release of molecular oxygen. These sugars are then used as the building blocks for plant growth, including the production of other biomolecules.[15] When an animal eats plants (or eats other animals which have eaten plants), the reduced carbon compounds in the food become a source of energy and building materials for the animal.[42] They are either used directly to help the animal grow, or broken down, releasing stored solar energy, and giving the animal the energy required for motion.[43][44]

text: Animals living close to hydrothermal vents and cold seeps on the ocean floor are not dependent on the energy of sunlight.[45] Instead chemosynthetic archaea and bacteria form the base of the food chain.[46]

text: Linnaean classification

text: Taxonomy classifies organisms into groups. There are two taxonomic approaches: the Linnaean system classifies life according to an eight level hierarchy based on features other than phylogenomics (cladistics).

text: The three-domain system is an addition to the Linnaean system biological classification introduced by Carl Woese et al. in 1977[48][49] that divides cellular life forms into archaea, bacteria, and eukaryote domains. In particular, it emphasizes the separation of prokaryotes into two groups, originally called Eubacteria (now Bacteria) and Archaebacteria (now Archaea). Woese argued that, on the basis of differences in 16S rRNA genes, these two groups and the eukaryotes each arose separately from an ancestor with poorly developed genetic machinery, often called a progenote. To reflect these primary lines of descent, he treated each as a domain, divided into several different kingdoms. The term "domain" was adopted in 1990.[49]

text: Animals are thus classified under the domain Eukaryota. The Linnaean hierarchy below the kingdom Animalia consists of these groups: phyla, classes, orders, families, genera, and species. All the groups, from domain to species, are called taxa. There are occasional intermediate levels, such as superphyla and subphyla, in special situations. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) determines what names are valid for any taxon in the family, genus, and species group. It has additional but more limited provisions on names in higher ranks.

text: Evolutionary origin

text: Animals are generally considered to have emerged within flagellated eukaryota.[50] Their closest known living relatives are the choanoflagellates, collared flagellates that have a morphology similar to the choanocytes of certain sponges.[51] Molecular studies place animals in a supergroup called the opisthokonts, which also include the choanoflagellates, fungi and a few small parasitic protists.[52] The name comes from the posterior location of the flagellum in motile cells, such as most animal spermatozoa, whereas other eukaryotes tend to have anterior flagella.[53]

text: The first fossils that might represent animals appear in the Trezona Formation at Trezona Bore, West Central Flinders, South Australia.[54] These fossils are interpreted as being early sponges. They were found in 665-million-year-old rock.[54]

text: The next oldest possible animal fossils are found towards the end of the Precambrian, around 610 million years ago, and are known as the Ediacaran or Vendian biota.[55] These are difficult to relate to later fossils, however. Some may represent precursors of modern phyla, but they may be separate groups, and it is possible they are not really animals at all.[56]

text: Aside from them, most known animal phyla make a more or less simultaneous appearance during the Cambrian period, about 542 million years ago.[57] It is still disputed whether this event, called the Cambrian explosion, is due to a rapid divergence between different groups or due to a change in conditions that made fossilization possible.

text: Some palaeontologists suggest that animals appeared much earlier than the Cambrian explosion, possibly as early as 1 billion years ago.[59] Trace fossils such as tracks and burrows found in the Tonian period indicate the presence of triploblastic worms, like metazoans, roughly as large (about 5 mm wide) and complex as earthworms.[60] During the beginning of the Tonian period around 1 billion years ago, there was a decrease in Stromatolite diversity, which may indicate the appearance of grazing animals, since stromatolite diversity increased when grazing animals became extinct at the End Permian and End Ordovician extinction events, and decreased shortly after the grazer populations recovered. However the discovery that tracks very similar to these early trace fossils are produced today by the giant single-celled protist Gromia sphaerica casts doubt on their interpretation as evidence of early animal evolution.[61][62]

text: Number of living species

text: Animals can be divided into two broad groups: vertebrates (animals with a backbone) and invertebrates (animals without a backbone). Half of all described vertebrate species are fishes and three-quarters of all described invertebrate species are insects. Over 95% of the described animal species in the world are invertebrates.

text: The following table lists the number of described living species for each major animal subgroup as estimated for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 2014.3.[63]

text:
Group
Image
Subgroup
Estimated number of
described species[63]

Vertebrates

Fishes
32,900

Amphibians
7,302

Reptiles
10,038

Birds
10,425

Mammals
5,513

Total vertebrate species: 66,178

Invertebrates

Insects
1,000,000

Molluscs
85,000

Crustaceans
47,000

Corals
2,000

Arachnids
102,248

Velvet worms
165

Horseshoe crabs
4

Others
68,658

Total invertebrate species: 1,305,075

Total for all animal species: 1,371,253

text: Basal clades

text: Cladistics embraces the concept of the "most recent common ancestor", and assigning similar animals to groups called clades. Animals are thought to be a basal Apoikozoan clade as sister of the Choanoflagellata. The "bilaterian" animals (Bilateria), whose body display bilateral symmetry, are thought to form a monophyletic group. The Bilaterians are further classified based on a major division between Deuterostomes and Protostomes. More basal animals lack a bilaterally symmetric body plan (Ctenophora, Porifera, Cnidaria and Placozoa), with their relationships still disputed. In 2017, the Porifera are found as basalmost animals after "recoding" to reduce "compositional heterogeneity".[64][65][66][67][68][69] The remainder of the animals form a Diploblast/Eumetazoa group. An alternative scenario is the Ctenophora-sister hypothesis.[70][71][72][73] Some of the issues are the rapid evolutionary rate within Ctenophora, insufficient sampling, and the recent internal divergence date of Ctenophora. It is indicated approximately how many million years ago (Mya) the clades diverged into newer clades.[74][75]

text:
Apoikozoa (950)

Choanoflagellata

Animal (760)

Porifera

Diploblasts/Eumetazoa/

Ctenophora

ParaHoxozoa

Placozoa

Planulozoa (680)

Cnidaria

Bilateria/

Xenacoelomorpha

Nephrozoa (650)

Deuterostomes

Protostomes (610)

Ecdysozoa

Spiralia

Triploblasts

Epitheliozoa

text: Animal genes

text: The gene classes SINE, LIM, POU, NKL-ANTP and Q50-PRD are present in Porifera and Diploblasts but not in other organisms.[76]

text: Non-bilaterian animals: Ctenophora, Porifera, Placozoa, Cnidaria

text: Several animal phyla are recognized for their lack of bilateral symmetry, and are thought to have diverged from other animals early in evolution. Among these, the sponges (Porifera) were long thought to have diverged first, representing the oldest animal phylum.[77] They lack the complex organization found in most other phyla.[78] Their cells are differentiated, but in most cases not organized into distinct tissues.[79] Sponges typically feed by drawing in water through pores.[80] However, a series of phylogenomic studies from 2008–2015 have found support for Ctenophora, or comb jellies, as the basal lineage of animals.[81][82][83][84] This result has been controversial, since it would imply that sponges may not be so primitive, but may instead be secondarily simplified.[81] Other researchers have argued that the placement of Ctenophora as the earliest-diverging animal phylum is a statistical anomaly caused by the high rate of evolution in ctenophore genomes.[85][86][87][88]

text: The Ctenophora and the sponges are unique among the animals in lacking true hox genes.[89] The presence of a Hox/Parahox gene in the Placozoa suggests that either the Porifera or the Ctenophora are the most basal animal clades.[90] Another DNA based study suggests that the Ctenophora are the earliest branching animals.[91] Another study also suggests that this group are a sister group to other animals.[92]

text: Among the other phyla, the Ctenophora and the Cnidaria, which includes sea anemones, corals, and jellyfish, are radially symmetric and have digestive chambers with a single opening, which serves as both the mouth and the anus.[93] Both have distinct tissues, but they are not organized into organs.[94] There are only two main germ layers, the ectoderm and endoderm, with only scattered cells between them. As such, these animals are sometimes called diploblastic.[95] The tiny placozoans are similar, but they do not have a permanent digestive chamber.

text: The Myxozoa, microscopic parasites that were originally considered Protozoa, are now believed to have evolved within Cnidaria.[96]

text: Bilaterian animals

text: The remaining animals form a monophyletic group called the Bilateria. For the most part, they are bilaterally symmetric, and often have a specialized head with feeding and sensory organs. The body is triploblastic, i.e. all three germ layers are well-developed, and tissues form distinct organs. The digestive chamber has two openings, a mouth and an anus, and there is also an internal body cavity called a coelom or pseudocoelom. There are exceptions to each of these characteristics, however—for instance adult echinoderms are radially symmetric, and certain parasitic worms have extremely simplified body structures.

text: Genetic studies have considerably changed our understanding of the relationships within the Bilateria. Most appear to belong to two major lineages: the deuterostomes and the protostomes, the latter of which includes the Ecdysozoa, and Lophotrochozoa. The Chaetognatha or arrow worms have been traditionally classified as deuterostomes, though recent molecular studies have identified this group as a basal protostome lineage.[97]

text: In addition, there are a few small groups of bilaterians with relatively cryptic morphology whose relationships with other animals are not well-established. For example, recent molecular studies have identified Acoelomorpha and Xenoturbella as forming a monophyletic group,[98][99][100] but studies disagree as to whether this group evolved from within deuterostomes,[99] or whether it represents the sister group to all other bilaterian animals (Nephrozoa).[101][102] Other groups of uncertain affinity include the Rhombozoa and Orthonectida. One phyla, the Monoblastozoa, was described by a scientist in 1892, but so far there have been no evidence of its existence.[103]

text: Deuterostomes and protostomes

text: Deuterostomes differ from protostomes in several ways. Animals from both groups possess a complete digestive tract. However, in protostomes, the first opening of the gut to appear in embryological development (the archenteron) develops into the mouth, with the anus forming secondarily. In deuterostomes the anus forms first, with the mouth developing secondarily.[104] In most protostomes, cells simply fill in the interior of the gastrula to form the mesoderm, called schizocoelous development, but in deuterostomes, it forms through invagination of the endoderm, called enterocoelic pouching.[105] Deuterostome embryos undergo radial cleavage during cell division, while protostomes undergo spiral cleavage.[106]

text: All this suggests the deuterostomes and protostomes are separate, monophyletic lineages. The main phyla of deuterostomes are the Echinodermata and Chordata.[107] The former are radially symmetric and exclusively marine, such as starfish, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers.[108] The latter are dominated by the vertebrates, animals with backbones.[109] These include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.[110]

text: In addition to these, the deuterostomes also include the Hemichordata, or acorn worms, which are thought to be closely related to Echinodermata forming a group known as Ambulacraria.[111][112] Although they are not especially prominent today, the important fossil graptolites may belong to this group.[113]

text: Ecdysozoa

text: The Ecdysozoa are protostomes, named after the common trait of growth by moulting or ecdysis.[114] The largest animal phylum belongs here, the Arthropoda, including insects, spiders, crabs, and their kin. All these organisms have a body divided into repeating segments, typically with paired appendages. Two smaller phyla, the Onychophora and Tardigrada, are close relatives of the arthropods and share these traits. The ecdysozoans also include the Nematoda or roundworms, perhaps the second largest animal phylum. Roundworms are typically microscopic, and occur in nearly every environment where there is water.[115] A number are important parasites.[116] Smaller phyla related to them are the Nematomorpha or horsehair worms, and the Kinorhyncha, Priapulida, and Loricifera. These groups have a reduced coelom, called a pseudocoelom.

text: Lophotrochozoa

text: The Lophotrochozoa, evolved within Protostomia, include two of the most successful animal phyla, the Mollusca and Annelida.[117][118] The former, which is the second-largest animal phylum by number of described species, includes animals such as snails, clams, and squids, and the latter comprises the segmented worms, such as earthworms and leeches. These two groups have long been considered close relatives because of the common presence of trochophore larvae, but the annelids were considered closer to the arthropods because they are both segmented.[119] Now, this is generally considered convergent evolution, owing to many morphological and genetic differences between the two phyla.[120] Lophotrochozoa also includes the Nemertea or ribbon worms, the Sipuncula, and several phyla that have a ring of ciliated tentacles around the mouth, called a lophophore.[121] These were traditionally grouped together as the lophophorates.[122] but it now appears that the lophophorate group may be paraphyletic,[123] with some closer to the nemerteans and some to the molluscs and annelids.[124][125] They include the Brachiopoda or lamp shells, which are prominent in the fossil record, the Entoprocta, the Phoronida, and possibly the Bryozoa or moss animals.[126]

text: The Platyzoa include the phylum Platyhelminthes, the flatworms.[127] These were originally considered some of the most primitive Bilateria, but it now appears they developed from more complex ancestors.[128] A number of parasites are included in this group, such as the flukes and tapeworms.[127] Flatworms are acoelomates, lacking a body cavity, as are their closest relatives, the microscopic Gastrotricha.[129] The other platyzoan phyla are mostly microscopic and pseudocoelomate. The most prominent are the Rotifera or rotifers, which are common in aqueous environments. They also include the Acanthocephala or spiny-headed worms, the Gnathostomulida, Micrognathozoa, and possibly the Cycliophora.[130] These groups share the presence of complex jaws, from which they are called the Gnathifera.

text: A relationship between the Brachiopoda and Nemertea has been suggested by molecular data.[131] A second study has also suggested this relationship.[132] This latter study also suggested that Annelida and Mollusca may be sister clades. Another study has suggested that Annelida and Mollusca are sister clades.[133] This clade has been termed the Neotrochozoa.

text: History of classification

text: Aristotle divided the living world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification.[135] In Linnaeus's original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, the Chordata, whereas the various other forms have been separated out.

text: In 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms: Metazoa (multicellular animals) and Protozoa (single-celled animals).[136] The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa. Thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia.[137]

text: Research using model organisms

text: A model organism is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the organism model will provide insight into the workings of other organisms.[138] Model organisms are in vivo models and are widely used to research human disease when human experimentation would be unfeasible or unethical.[139] This strategy is made possible by the common descent of all living organisms, and the conservation of metabolic and developmental pathways and genetic material over the course of evolution.[140] Studying model organisms can be informative, but care must be taken when extrapolating from one organism to another.[141]

text: In researching human disease, model organisms allow for better understanding the disease process without the added risk of harming a human. The species chosen will usually meet a determined taxonomic equivalency to humans, so as to react to disease or its treatment in a way that resembles human physiology as needed. Although biological activity in a model organism does not ensure an effect in humans, many drugs, treatments and cures for human diseases are developed in part with the guidance of animal models.[142][143] There are three main types of disease models: homologous, isomorphic and predictive. Homologous animals have the same causes, symptoms and treatment options as would humans who have the same disease. Isomorphic animals share the same symptoms and treatments. Predictive models are similar to a particular human disease in only a couple of aspects, but are useful in isolating and making predictions about mechanisms of a set of disease features.[144]

text: Because they are easy to keep and breed, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have long been the most intensively studied metazoan model organisms, and were among the first life-forms to be genetically sequenced. This was facilitated by the severely reduced state of their genomes, but as many genes, introns, and linkages lost, these ecdysozoans can teach us little about the origins of animals in general. The extent of this type of evolution within the superphylum will be revealed by the crustacean, annelid, and molluscan genome projects currently in progress. Analysis of the starlet sea anemone genome has emphasized the importance of sponges, placozoans, and choanoflagellates, also being sequenced, in explaining the arrival of 1500 ancestral genes unique to the Eumetazoa.[145] An analysis of the homoscleromorph sponge Oscarella carmela also suggests that the last common ancestor of sponges and the eumetazoan animals was more complex than previously assumed.[146] Other model organisms belonging to the animal kingdom include the house mouse (Mus musculus), laboratory rat (Rattus norvegicus) and zebrafish (Danio rerio).


document_title: Beowulf

question_text: when was beowulf most likely composed when did it's events probably take place

question_tokens: when was beowulf most likely composed when did it 's events probably take place

text: Beowulf

text: Historical background[edit]

text: The events in the poem take place over most of the sixth century, after the Anglo-Saxons had started their journey to England and before the beginning of the seventh century, a time when the Anglo-Saxons were either newly arrived or were still in close contact with their Germanic kinsmen in Northern Germany. The poem may have been brought to England by people of Geatish origins.[6] Many suggest that Beowulf was first composed in the 7th century at Rendlesham in East Anglia, that the Sutton Hoo ship-burial also shows close connections with Scandinavia, and that the East Anglian royal dynasty, the Wuffingas, may have been descendants of the Geatish Wulfings.[7][8] Others have associated this poem with the court of King Alfred the Great or with the court of King Cnut the Great.[9]

text: The poem deals with legends, was composed for entertainment, and does not separate between fictional elements and real historic events, such as the raid by King Hygelac into Frisia. Though Beowulf himself is not mentioned in any other Anglo-Saxon manuscript,[10] scholars generally agree that many of the other personalities of Beowulf also appear in Scandinavian sources. (Specific works are designated in the following section).[11] This concerns not only individuals (e.g., Healfdene, Hroðgar, Halga, Hroðulf, Eadgils and Ohthere), but also clans (e.g., Scyldings, Scylfings and Wulfings) and certain events (e.g., the Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern). The dating of the events in the poem has been confirmed by archaeological excavations of the barrows indicated by Snorri Sturluson and by Swedish tradition as the graves of Ohthere (dated to c. 530) and his son Eadgils (dated to c. 575) in Uppland, Sweden.[12][13][14]

text: In Denmark, recent archaeological excavations at Lejre, where Scandinavian tradition located the seat of the Scyldings, i.e., Heorot, have revealed that a hall was built in the mid-6th century, exactly the time period of Beowulf.[15] Three halls, each about 50 metres (160 ft) long, were found during the excavation.[15]

text: The majority view appears to be that people such as King Hroðgar and the Scyldings in Beowulf are based on real historical people from 6th-century Scandinavia.[16] Like the Finnesburg Fragment and several shorter surviving poems, Beowulf has consequently been used as a source of information about Scandinavian personalities such as Eadgils and Hygelac, and about continental Germanic personalities such as Offa, king of the continental Angles.

text: 19th-century archaeological evidence may confirm elements of the Beowulf story. Eadgils was buried at Uppsala according to Snorri Sturluson. When Eadgils' mound (to the left in the photo) was excavated in 1874, the finds supported Beowulf and the sagas. They showed that a powerful man was buried in a large barrow, c. 575, on a bear skin with two dogs and rich grave offerings. These remains include a Frankish sword adorned with gold and garnets and a tafl game with Roman pawns of ivory. He was dressed in a costly suit made of Frankish cloth with golden threads, and he wore a belt with a costly buckle. There were four cameos from the Middle East which were probably part of a casket. This would have been a burial fitting a king who was famous for his wealth in Old Norse sources. Ongentheow's barrow has not been excavated.[12][13]

text: Summary[edit]

text: The protagonist Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king of the Danes, whose great hall, Heorot, is plagued by the monster Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands and Grendel's mother with a giant's sword that he found in her lair.

text: Later in his life, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorized by a dragon, some of whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound. He attacks the dragon with the help of his thegns or servants, but they do not succeed. Beowulf decides to follow the dragon to its lair at Earnanæs, but only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf, whose name means "remnant of valour",[a] dares to join him. Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but is mortally wounded in the struggle. He is cremated and a burial mound by the sea is erected in his honour.

text: Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts. The poem also begins in medias res or simply, "in the middle of things," which is a characteristic of the epics of antiquity. Although the poem begins with Beowulf's arrival, Grendel's attacks have been an ongoing event. An elaborate history of characters and their lineages is spoken of, as well as their interactions with each other, debts owed and repaid, and deeds of valour. The warriors form a kind of brotherhood linked by loyalty to their lord. What is unique about "Beowulf" is that the poem actual begins and ends with a funeral. At the beginning of the poem, the king, hero, Shield Shiefson dies (26-45) and there is a huge funeral for him. At the end of the poem when Beowulf dies, there is also a massive funeral for Beowulf.(3140-3170)

text: First battle: Grendel[edit]

text: Beowulf begins with the story of Hrothgar, who constructed the great hall Heorot for himself and his warriors. In it, he, his wife Wealhtheow, and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating. Grendel, a troll-like monster said to be descended from the biblical Cain, is pained by the sounds of a joy.[19] Grendel attacks the hall and kills and devours many of Hrothgar's warriors while they sleep. Hrothgar and his people, helpless against Grendel, abandon Heorot.

text: Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland, hears of Hrothgar's troubles and with his king's permission leaves his homeland to assist Hrothgar.[20]

text: Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. Beowulf refuses to use any weapon because he holds himself to be the equal of Grendel.[21] When Grendel enters the hall, Beowulf, who has been feigning sleep, leaps up to clench Grendel's hand.[22] Grendel and Beowulf battle each other violently.[23] Beowulf's retainers draw their swords and rush to his aid, but their blades cannot pierce Grendel's skin.[24] Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel's arm from his body at the shoulder and Grendel runs to his home in the marshes where he dies.[25]Beowulf displays "the whole of Grendel's shoulder and arm, his awesome grasp" for all to see at Heorot. This display would fuel Grendel's mother's[who?] anger in revenge.[26]

text: Second battle: Grendel's Mother[edit]

text: The next night, after celebrating Grendel's defeat, Hrothgar and his men sleep in Heorot. Grendel's mother, angry that her son has been killed, sets out to get revenge. "Beowulf was elsewhere. Earlier, after the award of treasure, The Geat had been given another lodging" his assistance would be absent in this battle.[27] Grendel's mother violently kills Æschere, who is Hrothgar's most loyal fighter, and escapes.

text: Hrothgar, Beowulf and their men track Grendel's mother to her lair under a lake. Unferth, a warrior who had doubted him and wishes to make amends, presents Beowulf with his sword Hrunting. After stipulating a number of conditions to Hrothgar in case of his death (including the taking in of his kinsmen and the inheritance by Unferth of Beowulf's estate), Beowulf jumps into the lake, at the bottom of which he finds a cavern containing Grendel's body and the remains of men that the two have killed. Grendel's mother and Beowulf engage in fierce combat.

text: At first, Grendel's mother appears to prevail. Beowulf, finding that Hrunting cannot harm his foe, puts it aside in fury. Beowulf is again saved from his opponent's attack by his armour. Beowulf takes another sword from Grendel's mother and slices her head off with it. Travelling further into Grendel's mother's lair, Beowulf discovers Grendel's corpse and severs his head. The blade of Beowulf's sword touches Grendel's toxic blood, and instantly dissolves so that only the hilt remains. Beowulf swims back up to the rim of the pond where his men wait in growing despair. Carrying the hilt of the sword and Grendel's head, he presents them to Hrothgar upon his return to Heorot. Hrothgar gives Beowulf many gifts, including the sword Nægling, his family's heirloom. The events prompt a long reflection by the king, sometimes referred to as "Hrothgar's sermon", in which he urges Beowulf to be wary of pride and to reward his thegns.[28]

text: Third battle: The Dragon[edit]

text: Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes king of his own people. One day, fifty years after Beowulf's battle with Grendel's mother, a slave steals a golden cup from the lair of a dragon at Earnanæs. When the dragon sees that the cup has been stolen, it leaves its cave in a rage, burning everything in sight. Beowulf and his warriors come to fight the dragon, but Beowulf tells his men that he will fight the dragon alone and that they should wait on the barrow. Beowulf descends to do battle with the dragon, but finds himself outmatched. His men, upon seeing this and fearing for their lives, retreat into the woods. One of his men, Wiglaf, however, in great distress at Beowulf's plight, comes to his aid. The two slay the dragon, but Beowulf is mortally wounded. After Beowulf dies, Wiglaf remains by his side, grief-stricken. When the rest of the men finally return, Wiglaf bitterly admonishes them, blaming their cowardice for Beowulf's death. Afterward, Beowulf is ritually burned on a great pyre in Geatland while his people wail and mourn him, fearing that without him, the Geats are defenceless against attacks from surrounding tribes. Afterwards, a barrow, visible from the sea, is built in his memory. (Beowulf lines 2712–3182).[29]

text: Authorship and date[edit]

text: Beowulf was written in England, but is set in Scandinavia; its dating has attracted considerable scholarly attention. The poem has been dated to between the 8th and the early 11th centuries, with some recent scholarship offering what has been called "a cohesive and compelling case for Beowulf's early composition."[30][31] However, opinion differs as to whether the composition of the poem is nearly contemporary with its transcription, whether it was first written in the 8th century, or if a proto-version of the poem was perhaps composed at an even earlier time (possibly as one of the Bear's Son Tales) and orally transmitted for many years, then transcribed in its present form at a later date. Albert Lord felt strongly that the manuscript represents the transcription of a performance, though likely taken at more than one sitting.[32] J. R. R. Tolkien believed that the poem retains too genuine a memory of Anglo-Saxon paganism to have been composed more than a few generations after the completion of the Christianisation of England around AD 700[33], and Tolkien's conviction that the poem dates to the 8th century has been defended by Tom Shippey, Leonard Neidorf, Rafael J. Pascual, and R.D. Fulk, among others.[34][35][36]

text: The claim to an early 11th-century date depends in part on scholars who argue that, rather than the transcription of a tale from the oral tradition by an earlier literate monk, Beowulf reflects an original interpretation of an earlier version of the story by the manuscript's two scribes. On the other hand, some scholars argue that linguistic, palaeographical, metrical, and onomastic considerations align to support a date of composition in the first half of the eighth century;[31][37][38][39] in particular, the poem's regular observation of etymological length distinctions (Max Kaluza's law) has been thought to demonstrate a date of composition in the first half of the eighth century.[35][36] However, scholars disagree about whether the metrical phenomena described by Kaluza's Law prove an early date of composition or are evidence of a longer prehistory of the Beowulf meter;[40] B.R. Hutcheson, for instance, does not believe Kaluza's Law can be used to date the poem, while claiming that "the weight of all the evidence Fulk presents in his book[b] tells strongly in favour of an eighth-century date."[41]

text: Manuscript[edit]

text: Beowulf survives in a single manuscript dated on palaeographical grounds to the late 10th or early 11th century. The manuscript measures 245 × 185 mm.[42]

text: Provenance[edit]

text: The poem is known only from a single manuscript, which is estimated to date from close to AD 1000, in which it appears with other works. The Beowulf manuscript is known as the Nowell Codex, gaining its name from 16th-century scholar Laurence Nowell. The official designation is "British Library, Cotton Vitellius A.XV" because it was one of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton's holdings in the Cotton library in the middle of the 17th century. Many private antiquarians and book collectors, such as Sir Robert Cotton, used their own library classification systems. "Cotton Vitellius A.XV" translates as: the 15th book from the left on shelf A (the top shelf) of the bookcase with the bust of Roman Emperor Vitellius standing on top of it, in Cotton's collection. Kevin Kiernan argues that Nowell most likely acquired it through William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, in 1563, when Nowell entered Cecil's household as a tutor to his ward, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.[43]

text: The earliest extant reference to the first foliation of the Nowell Codex was made sometime between 1628 and 1650 by Franciscus Junius (the younger).[44]:91 The ownership of the codex before Nowell remains a mystery.[44]:120

text: The Reverend Thomas Smith (1638–1710) and Humfrey Wanley (1672–1726) both catalogued the Cotton library (in which the Nowell Codex was held). Smith's catalogue appeared in 1696, and Wanley's in 1705.[45] The Beowulf manuscript itself is identified by name for the first time in an exchange of letters in 1700 between George Hickes, Wanley's assistant, and Wanley. In the letter to Wanley, Hickes responds to an apparent charge against Smith, made by Wanley, that Smith had failed to mention the Beowulf script when cataloguing Cotton MS. Vitellius A. XV. Hickes replies to Wanley "I can find nothing yet of Beowulph."[46] Kiernan theorised that Smith failed to mention the Beowulf manuscript because of his reliance on previous catalogues or because either he had no idea how to describe it or because it was temporarily out of the codex.[47]

text: It suffered damage in the Cotton Library fire at Ashburnham House in 1731. Since then, parts of the manuscript have crumbled along with many of the letters. Rebinding efforts, though saving the manuscript from much degeneration, have nonetheless covered up other letters of the poem, causing further loss. Kevin Kiernan, in preparing his electronic edition of the manuscript, used fibre-optic backlighting and ultraviolet lighting to reveal letters in the manuscript lost from binding, erasure, or ink blotting.[48]

text: Writing[edit]

text: The Beowulf manuscript was transcribed from an original by two scribes, one of whom wrote the prose at the beginning of the manuscript and the first 1939 lines before breaking off in mid sentence. The first scribe made a point of carefully regularizing the spelling of the original document by using the common West Saxon language and by avoiding any archaic or dialectical features. The second scribe, who wrote the remainder, with a difference in handwriting noticeable after line 1939, seems to have written more vigorously and with less interest. As a result the second scribe's script retains more archaic dialectic features which allow modern scholars to ascribe the poem a cultural context.[49] While both scribes appear to proofread their work, there are nevertheless many errors.[50] The second scribe was ultimately the more conservative copyist of the two as he did not modify the spelling of the text as he wrote but rather copied what he saw in front of him. In the way that it is currently bound, the Beowulf manuscript is followed by the Old English poem Judith. Judith was written by same the scribe that completed Beowulf as evidenced through similar writing style. Worm-holes found in the last leaves of the Beowulf manuscript that aren't present in the Judith manuscript suggest that at one point Beowulf ended the volume. The rubbed appearance of some leaves also suggest that the manuscript stood on a shelf unbound, as is known to have been the case with other Old English manuscripts.[51] From knowledge of books held in the library at Malmesbury Abbey and available as source works, and from the identification of certain words particular to the local dialect found in the text, the transcription may have taken place there.[52]

text: Transcriptions[edit]

text: Icelandic scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin made the first transcriptions of the manuscript in 1786 and published the results in 1815, working as part of a Danish government historical research commission. He made one himself, and had another done by a professional copyist who knew no Anglo-Saxon. Since that time, however, the manuscript has crumbled further, making these transcripts a prized witness to the text. While the recovery of at least 2000 letters can be attributed to them, their accuracy has been called into question,[c] and the extent to which the manuscript was actually more readable in Thorkelin's time is uncertain.

text: Translations[edit]

text: In 1805, the historian Sharon Turner translated selected verses into modern English.[54] This was followed in 1814 by John Josias Conybeare who published an edition "in English paraphrase and Latin verse translation."[54] In 1815, Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin published the first complete edition in Latin.[54] N. F. S. Grundtvig reviewed this edition in 1815 and created the first complete verse translation in Danish in 1820.[54] In 1837, John Mitchell Kemble created an important literal translation in English.[54] In 1895, William Morris & A. J. Wyatt published the ninth English translation.[54] Many retellings of Beowulf for children also appeared around the beginning of the 20th century.[55] In 1909, Francis Barton Gummere's full translation in "English imitative meter" was published,[54] and was used as the text of Gareth Hinds's graphic novel based on Beowulf in 2007.

text: During the early 20th century, Frederick Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg[56] (which included the poem in Old English, an extensive glossary of Old English terms, and general background information) became the "central source used by graduate students for the study of the poem and by scholars and teachers as the basis of their translations."[57]

text: A great number of translations are available, in poetry and prose. Andy Orchard, in A Critical Companion to Beowulf, lists 33 "representative" translations in his bibliography,[58] and it has been translated into at least 23 other languages.[59]

text: Seamus Heaney's 1999 translation of the poem (referred to by Howell Chickering and many others as "Heaneywulf"[60]) was widely publicized. Translating Beowulf is one of the subjects of the 2012 publication Beowulf at Kalamazoo, containing a section with 10 essays on translation, and a section with 22 reviews of Heaney's translation (some of which compare Heaney's work with that of Anglo-Saxon scholar Roy Liuzza).[61] R. D. Fulk, of Indiana University, published the first facing-page edition and translation of the entire manuscript in the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series in 2010.[62]

text: J. R. R. Tolkien's long-awaited translation (edited by his son, Christopher) was published in 2014 as Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary.[63][64] This also includes Tolkien's own retelling of the story of Beowulf in his tale, Sellic Spell.

text: Debate over oral tradition[edit]

text: The question of whether Beowulf was passed down through oral tradition prior to its present manuscript form has been the subject of much debate, and involves more than simply the issue of its composition. Rather, given the implications of the theory of oral-formulaic composition and oral tradition, the question concerns how the poem is to be understood, and what sorts of interpretations are legitimate.

text: Scholarly discussion about Beowulf in the context of the oral tradition was extremely active throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The debate might be framed starkly as follows: on the one hand, we can hypothesise a poem put together from various tales concerning the hero (the Grendel episode, the Grendel's mother story, and the fire drake narrative). These fragments would have been told for many years in tradition, and learned by apprenticeship from one generation of illiterate poets to the next. The poem is composed orally and extemporaneously, and the archive of tradition on which it draws is oral, pagan, Germanic, heroic, and tribal. On the other hand, one might posit a poem which is composed by a literate scribe, who acquired literacy by way of learning Latin (and absorbing Latinate culture and ways of thinking), probably a monk and therefore profoundly Christian in outlook. On this view, the pagan references would be a sort of decorative archaising.[65][66] There is a third view that sees merit in both arguments above and attempts to bridge them, and so cannot be articulated as starkly as they can; it sees more than one Christianity and more than one attitude towards paganism at work in the poem; it sees the poem as initially the product of a literate Christian author with one foot in the pagan world and one in the Christian, himself perhaps a convert (or one whose forebears had been pagan), a poet who was conversant in both oral and literary composition and was capable of a masterful "repurposing" of poetry from the oral tradition.

text: However, scholars such as D.K. Crowne have proposed the idea that the poem was passed down from reciter to reciter under the theory of oral-formulaic composition, which hypothesises that epic poems were (at least to some extent) improvised by whoever was reciting them, and only much later written down. In his landmark work, The Singer of Tales, Albert Lord refers to the work of Francis Peabody Magoun and others, saying "the documentation is complete, thorough, and accurate. This exhaustive analysis is in itself sufficient to prove that Beowulf was composed orally."[67]

text: Examination of Beowulf and other Old English literature for evidence of oral-formulaic composition has met with mixed response. While "themes" (inherited narrative subunits for representing familiar classes of event, such as the "arming the hero",[68] or the particularly well-studied "hero on the beach" theme[69]) do exist across Anglo-Saxon and other Germanic works, some scholars conclude that Anglo-Saxon poetry is a mix of oral-formulaic and literate patterns, arguing that the poems both were composed on a word-by-word basis and followed larger formulae and patterns.[70]

text: Larry Benson argued that the interpretation of Beowulf as an entirely formulaic work diminishes the ability of the reader to analyse the poem in a unified manner, and with due attention to the poet's creativity. Instead, he proposed that other pieces of Germanic literature contain "kernels of tradition" from which Beowulf borrows and expands upon.[71][72] A few years later, Ann Watts argued against the imperfect application of one theory to two different traditions: traditional, Homeric, oral-formulaic poetry and Anglo-Saxon poetry.[72][73] Thomas Gardner agreed with Watts, arguing that the Beowulf text is of too varied a nature to be completely constructed from set formulae and themes.[72][74]

text: John Miles Foley wrote, referring to the Beowulf debate,[75] that while comparative work was both necessary and valid, it must be conducted with a view to the particularities of a given tradition; Foley argued with a view to developments of oral traditional theory that do not assume, or depend upon, ultimately unverifiable assumptions about composition, and instead delineate a more fluid continuum of traditionality and textuality.[76][77][78][68]

text: Finally, in the view of Ursula Schaefer, the question of whether the poem was "oral" or "literate" becomes something of a red herring.[79] In this model, the poem is created, and is interpretable, within both noetic horizons. Schaefer's concept of "vocality" offers neither a compromise nor a synthesis of the views which see the poem as on the one hand Germanic, pagan, and oral and on the other Latin-derived, Christian, and literate, but, as stated by Monika Otter: "... a 'tertium quid', a modality that participates in both oral and literate culture yet also has a logic and aesthetic of its own."[80]

text: Sources and analogues[edit]

text: Neither identified sources nor analogues for Beowulf can be definitively proven, but many conjectures have been made. These are important in helping historians understand the Beowulf manuscript, as possible source-texts or influences would suggest time-frames of composition, geographic boundaries within which it could be composed, or range (both spatial and temporal) of influence (i.e. when it was "popular" and where its "popularity" took it). There are five main categories in which potential sources and/or analogues are included: Scandinavian parallels, early Irish literature sources and analogues, classical sources, ecclesiastical sources, and echoes in other Old English texts.[81]

text: Early studies into Scandinavian sources and analogues proposed that Beowulf was a translation of an original Scandinavian work, but this idea has been discarded. In 1878, Guðbrandur Vigfússon made the connection between Beowulf and the Grettis saga. This is currently one of the few Scandinavian analogues to receive a general consensus of potential connection.[82] Tales concerning the Skjöldungs, possibly originating as early as the 6th century were later used as a narrative basis in such texts as Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus and Hrólfs saga kraka. Some scholars see Beowulf as a product of these early tales along with Gesta Danorum and Hrólfs saga kraka, and some early scholars of the poem proposed that the latter saga and Beowulf share a common legendary ancestry, Beowulf's Hrothulf being identified with Hrólf Kraki. Paul Beekman Taylor argued that the Ynglinga saga was proof that the Beowulf poet was likewise working from Germanic tradition.[83]

text: Friedrich Panze attempted to contextualise Beowulf and other Scandinavian works, including Grettis saga, under the international folktale type 301B, or "The Bear's Son" tale. However, although this folkloristic approach was seen as a step in the right direction, "The Bear's Son" tale was seen as too universal. Later, Peter Jørgensen, looking for a more concise frame of reference, coined a "two-troll tradition" that covers both Beowulf and Grettis saga: "a Norse 'ecotype' in which a hero enters a cave and kills two giants, usually of different sexes".[84]

text: Scholars who favoured Irish parallels directly spoke out against pro-Scandinavian theories, citing them as unjustified. Wilhelm Grimm is noted to be the first person to link Beowulf with Irish folklore; however, Max Deutschbein is the first person to present the argument in academic form. He suggested the Irish Feast of Bricriu as a source for Beowulf—a theory that was soon denied by Oscar Olson. Swedish folklorist Carl Wilhelm Von Sydow argued against both Scandinavian translation and source material due to his theory that Beowulf is fundamentally Christian and written at a time when any Norse tale would have most likely been pagan.[85]

text: In the late 1920s, Heinzer Dehmer suggested Beowulf as contextually based in the folktale type "The Hand and the Child," due to the motif of the "monstrous arm"—a motif that distances Grettis saga and Beowulf and further aligns Beowulf with Irish parallelism. James Carney and Martin Puhvel also agree with this "Hand and the Child" contextualisation. Carney also ties Beowulf to Irish literature through the Táin Bó Fráech story. Puhvel supported the "Hand and the Child" theory through such motifs as (in Andersson's words) "the more powerful giant mother, the mysterious light in the cave, the melting of the sword in blood, the phenomenon of battle rage, swimming prowess, combat with water monsters, underwater adventures, and the bear-hug style of wrestling."[86]

text: Attempts to find classical or Late Latin influence or analogue in Beowulf are almost exclusively linked with Homer's Odyssey or Virgil's Aeneid. In 1926, Albert Stanburrough Cook suggested a Homeric connection due to equivalent formulas, metonymies, and analogous voyages.[87] In 1930, James A. Work also supported the Homeric influence, stating that encounter between Beowulf and Unferth was parallel to the encounter between Odysseus and Euryalus in Books 7–8 of the Odyssey, even to the point of both characters giving the hero the same gift of a sword upon being proven wrong in their initial assessment of the hero's prowess. This theory of Homer's influence on Beowulf remained very prevalent in the 1920s, but started to die out in the following decade when a handful of critics stated that the two works were merely "comparative literature",[88] although Greek was known in late 7th century England: Bede states that Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek, was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 668, and he taught Greek. Several English scholars and churchmen are described by Bede as being fluent in Greek due to being taught by him; Bede claims to be fluent in Greek himself.[89]

text: Frederick Klaeber, among others, argued for a connection between Beowulf and Virgil near the start of the 20th century, claiming that the very act of writing a secular epic in a Germanic world represents Virgilian influence. Virgil was seen as the pinnacle of Latin literature, and Latin was the dominant literary language of England at the time, therefore making Virgilian influence highly likely.[90] Similarly, in 1971, Alistair Campbell stated that the apologue technique used in Beowulf is so rare in epic poetry aside from Virgil that the poet who composed Beowulf could not have written the poem in such a manner without first coming across Virgil's writings.[91]

text: It cannot be denied that Biblical parallels occur in the text, whether seen as a pagan work with "Christian colouring" added by scribes or as a "Christian historical novel, with selected bits of paganism deliberately laid on as 'local colour'," as Margaret E. Goldsmith did in "The Christian Theme of Beowulf,".[92] Beowulf channels the Book of Genesis, the Book of Exodus, and the Book of Daniel[93] in its inclusion of references to the Genesis creation narrative, the story of Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood myth, the Devil, Hell, and the Last Judgment.[92]

text: Dialect[edit]

text:
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text: The poem mixes the West Saxon and Anglian dialects of Old English, though it predominantly uses West Saxon, as do other Old English poems copied at the time.[94]

text: There is a wide array of linguistic forms in the Beowulf manuscript. It is this fact that leads some scholars to believe that Beowulf has endured a long and complicated transmission through all the main dialect areas.[95] The poem retains a complicated mix of the following dialectical forms: Mercian, Northumbrian, Early West Saxon, Kentish and Late West Saxon.[44]:20-21 There are in Beowulf more than 3100 distinct words, and almost 1300 occur exclusively, or almost exclusively, in this poem and in the other poetical texts. Considerably more than one-third of the total vocabulary is alien from ordinary prose use. There are, in round numbers, three hundred and sixty uncompounded verbs in Beowulf, and forty of them are poetical words in the sense that they are unrecorded or rare in the existing prose writings. One hundred and fifty more occur with the prefix ge- (reckoning a few found only in the past-participle), but of these one hundred occur also as simple verbs, and the prefix is employed to render a shade of meaning which was perfectly known and thoroughly familiar except in the latest Anglo-Saxon period. The nouns number sixteen hundred. Seven hundred of them, including those formed with prefixes, of which fifty (or considerably more than half) have ge-, are simple nouns, at the highest reckoning not more than one-fourth is absent in prose. That this is due in some degree to accident is clear from the character of the words, and from the fact that several reappear and are common after the Norman Conquest.[96]

text: Form and metre[edit]

text: An Old English poem such as Beowulf is very different from modern poetry. Anglo-Saxon poets typically used alliterative verse, a form of verse in which the first half of the line (the a-verse) is linked to the second half (the b-verse) through similarity in initial sound. In addition, the two halves are divided by a caesura: "Oft Scyld Scefing \\ sceaþena þreatum" (l. 4). This verse form maps stressed and unstressed syllables onto abstract entities known as metrical positions. There is no fixed number of beats per line: the first one cited has three (Oft SCYLD SCEFING, with ictus on the suffix -ING) whereas the second has two (SCEAþena ÞREATum).

text: The poet has a choice of epithets or formulae to use in order to fulfil the alliteration. When speaking or reading Old English poetry, it is important to remember for alliterative purposes that many of the letters are not pronounced in the same way as in modern English. The letter ⟨h⟩, for example, is always pronounced (Hroðgar: [ˈhroðgar]), and the digraph ⟨cg⟩ is pronounced [dʒ], as in the word edge. Both ⟨f⟩ and ⟨s⟩ vary in pronunciation depending on their phonetic environment. Between vowels or voiced consonants, they are voiced, sounding like modern ⟨v⟩ and ⟨z⟩, respectively. Otherwise they are unvoiced, like modern ⟨f⟩ in fat and ⟨s⟩ in sat. Some letters which are no longer found in modern English, such as thorn, ⟨þ⟩, and eth, ⟨ð⟩ – representing both pronunciations of modern English ⟨th⟩, as /θ/ in thing and /ð/ this – are used extensively both in the original manuscript and in modern English editions. The voicing of these characters echoes that of ⟨f⟩ and ⟨s⟩. Both are voiced (as in this) between other voiced sounds: oðer, laþleas, suþern. Otherwise they are unvoiced (as in thing): þunor, suð, soþfæst.

text: Kennings are also a significant technique in Beowulf. They are evocative poetic descriptions of everyday things, often created to fill the alliterative requirements of the metre. For example, a poet might call the sea the "swan-road" or the "whale-road"; a king might be called a "ring-giver." There are many kennings in Beowulf, and the device is typical of much of classic poetry in Old English, which is heavily formulaic. The poem also makes extensive use of elided metaphors.[97]

text: J. R. R. Tolkien argued in Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics that the poem is not an epic, and while no conventional term exactly fits, the nearest would be elegy.[98]

text: Interpretation and criticism[edit]

text: The history of modern Beowulf criticism is often said to begin with J. R. R. Tolkien,[99] author and Merton professor of Anglo-Saxon at University of Oxford, who in his 1936 lecture to the British Academy criticised his contemporaries' excessive interest in its historical implications.[100] He noted in Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics that as a result the poem's literary value had been largely overlooked and argued that the poem "is in fact so interesting as poetry, in places poetry so powerful, that this quite overshadows the historical content..."[101]

text: In historical terms, the poem's characters would have been Norse pagans (the historical events of the poem took place before the Christianisation of Scandinavia), yet the poem was recorded by Christian Anglo-Saxons who had mostly converted from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism around the 7th century – both Anglo-Saxon paganism and Norse paganism share a common origin as both are forms of Germanic paganism. Beowulf thus depicts a Germanic warrior society, in which the relationship between the lord of the region and those who served under him was of paramount importance.[102]

text: In terms of the relationship between characters in Beowulf to God, one might recall the substantial amount of paganism that is present throughout the work. Literary critics such as Fred C. Robinson argue that the Beowulf poet arguably tries to send a message to readers during the Anglo-Saxon time period regarding the state of Christianity in their own time. Robinson argues that the intensified religious aspects of the Anglo-Saxon period inherently shape the way in which the Poet alludes to paganism as presented in Beowulf. The Poet arguably calls on Anglo-Saxon readers to recognize the imperfect aspects of their supposed Christian lifestyles. In other words, the Poet is referencing their "Anglo-Saxon Heathenism." In terms of the characters of the epic itself, Robinson argues that readers are "impressed" by the courageous acts of Beowulf and the speeches of Hrothgar (181). But, one is ultimately left to feel sorry for both men as they are fully detached from supposed "Christian truth" (181). The relationship between the characters of Beowulf, and the otherall message of the Poet, regarding their relationship with God is largely debated among readers and literary critics alike.

text: Stanley B. Greenfield has suggested that references to the human body throughout Beowulf emphasise the relative position of thanes to their lord. He argues that the term "shoulder-companion" could refer to both a physical arm as well as a thane (Aeschere) who was very valuable to his lord (Hrothgar). With Aeschere's death, Hrothgar turns to Beowulf as his new "arm."[103] Also, Greenfield argues the foot is used for the opposite effect, only appearing four times in the poem. It is used in conjunction with Unferð (a man described by Beowulf as weak, traitorous, and cowardly). Greenfield notes that Unferð is described as "at the king's feet" (line 499). Unferð is also a member of the foot troops, who, throughout the story, do nothing and "generally serve as backdrops for more heroic action."[104]

text: At the same time, Richard North argues that the Beowulf poet interpreted "Danish myths in Christian form" (as the poem would have served as a form of entertainment for a Christian audience), and states: "As yet we are no closer to finding out why the first audience of Beowulf liked to hear stories about people routinely classified as damned. This question is pressing, given... that Anglo-Saxons saw the Danes as 'heathens' rather than as foreigners."[105] Grendel's mother and Grendel are described as descendants of Cain, a fact which some scholars link to the Cain tradition.[106]

text: Other scholars disagree, however, as to the meaning and nature of the poem: is it a Christian work set in a Germanic pagan context? The question suggests that the conversion from the Germanic pagan beliefs to Christian ones was a prolonged and gradual process over several centuries, and it remains unclear the ultimate nature of the poem's message in respect to religious belief at the time it was written. Robert F. Yeager notes the facts that form the basis for these questions:

text: That the scribes of Cotton Vitellius A.XV were Christian beyond doubt, and it is equally sure that Beowulf was composed in a Christianised England since conversion took place in the sixth and seventh centuries. The only Biblical references in Beowulf are to the Old Testament, and Christ is never mentioned. The poem is set in pagan times, and none of the characters is demonstrably Christian. In fact, when we are told what anyone in the poem believes, we learn that they are pagans. Beowulf's own beliefs are not expressed explicitly. He offers eloquent prayers to a higher power, addressing himself to the "Father Almighty" or the "Wielder of All." Were those the prayers of a pagan who used phrases the Christians subsequently appropriated? Or, did the poem's author intend to see Beowulf as a Christian Ur-hero, symbolically refulgent with Christian virtues?[107]

text: The location of the composition of the poem is also intensely disputed. In 1914, F.W. Moorman, the first professor of English Language at University of Leeds, claimed that Beowulf was composed in Yorkshire,[108] but E. Talbot Donaldson claims that it was probably composed more than twelve hundred years ago, during the first half of the eighth century, and that the writer was a native of what was then called West Mercia, located in the Western Midlands of England. However, the late tenth-century manuscript "which alone preserves the poem" originated in the kingdom of the West Saxons – as it is more commonly known.[109] Donaldson wrote that "the poet who put the materials into their present form was a Christian and ... poem reflects a Christian tradition".[110]

text: Artistic adaptations[edit]


document_title: Troubadour (song)

question_text: what does troubadour mean in george strait song

text: Troubadour (song)

text: Content[edit]

text: The song is a ballad in which the narrator reflects on his life as a troubadour, feeling that he is content with what he has accomplished ("I was a young troubadour when I rode in on a song / I'll be an old troubadour when I'm gone").[1]

text: Commercial performance[edit]

text: The song reached No. 7 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay for charts dated September 27, 2008.[2][3] The song was certified Gold by the RIAA on July 15, 2011,[4] and has sold 949,000 copies in the United States as of November 2016.[5]

text: Music video[edit]

text: In August 2008, Strait released a music video for the song. Directed by Trey Fanjoy, and edited by Scott Mele, the song's video alternates between footage of him singing, and shots of archived photos from various points in his career. This is his first music video since 2006's "The Seashores of Old Mexico", which Fanjoy also directed.

text: Chart positions[edit]

text:
Chart (2008)
Peak
position

US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[6]
7

US Billboard Hot 100[7]
54

Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[8]
74

text: Year-end charts[edit]

text:
Chart (2008)
Position

US Country Songs (Billboard)[9]
34


document_title: The Winds of Winter

question_text: when will the next got book be released

question_tokens: when will the next got book be released

text: The Winds of Winter

text: Plot[edit]

text: The Winds of Winter will take readers farther north than any of the previous books, and the Others will appear in the book.[2] The previous installment, A Dance with Dragons, covered less story than Martin intended, excluding at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliffhangers.[3] Martin intends to resolve these storylines "very early" in The Winds of Winter, saying "I'm going to open with the two big battles that I was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle at Meereen—the battle of Slaver's Bay. And then take it from there."[2] A Victarion Greyjoy chapter will begin five minutes after the end of A Dance with Dragons, taking place on the eve of the Iron Islanders' arrival in Slaver's Bay.[6] Arianne Martell sample chapters that Martin released on his website showed her heading for Griffin's Roost to see the young man who is calling himself Aegon.[7][8]

text: Viewpoint characters[edit]

text: George R. R. Martin has confirmed that the following characters have point-of-view chapters in The Winds of Winter:

text:
Sansa Stark: One chapter was removed from A Dance with Dragons in June 2010,[9] and one sample chapter titled Alayne appeared on Martin's website in April 2015.[10]
Arya Stark: One chapter was removed from A Dance with Dragons in June 2010,[9] and one sample chapter titled Mercy appeared on Martin's website in March 2014.[11][12]
Arianne Martell: Two chapters were removed from A Dance with Dragons in June 2010.[9] One sample chapter appeared on Martin's website in January 2013,[7] and was read at Harbour Front Literaturfestival in June 2015.[13] Martin read from both chapters at MystiCon in February 2016.[14] In May 2016, Martin replaced the sample Sansa Stark chapter titled Alayne on his website from 2015 with the first Arianne Martell chapter he has read from at MystiCon.[15]
Aeron Greyjoy: One chapter was removed from A Dance with Dragons in July 2010.[16] A chapter titled The Forsaken was read in May 2016 at Balticon. It was written in, or before, 2011 but there was no confirmation that this was the chapter removed from A Dance with Dragons.[17]
Theon Greyjoy: One sample chapter appeared on Martin's website in December 2011.[18][19] It also appears as a teaser chapter at the end of the UK paperback edition of A Dance with Dragons (part two).
Victarion Greyjoy: Portions of one chapter were first read at TIFF Bell Lightbox in March 2012.[6]
Tyrion Lannister: One chapter was read at Eastercon in April 2012,[20] and another one at Worldcon in August 2013,[21] the second of which was later published in the official iOS app on March 20, 2014.[22]
Barristan Selmy: One chapter was released as a teaser at the end of the 2013 U.S. paperback edition of A Dance with Dragons.[23] In 2013 Martin read from 2 chapters at Boskone.[24][better source needed]

tag: ul

text: George R. R. Martin confirmed that there are no new viewpoint characters intended for The Winds of Winter.[25] Martin confirmed that Areo Hotah[26] and Melisandre[27] will return as viewpoints but did not state which novel their chapters will appear in, and that Bran Stark[28] will appear in the novel, but did not elaborate if as a viewpoint. In addition, he teased at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con that Jeyne Westerling, Robb Stark's widow, will appear in the prologue chapter, but did not reveal who will be the POV character.[29]

text: Background and publication[edit]

text: Chapters[edit]

text: The Winds of Winter[9] was originally intended, in the very early stages of the series, to be the final installment of A Song of Ice and Fire (then conceived as a trilogy).[30] Following his expansion of the series, Martin eventually concluded it would be succeeded by one final novel, A Dream of Spring.[31] By June 2010, Martin had finished four chapters for The Winds of Winter from the viewpoints of Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, and Arianne Martell.[9] In July 2010, he added an Aeron Greyjoy chapter that had been moved from A Dance with Dragons to The Winds of Winter, accumulating around 100 completed manuscript pages.[16] Following the publication of A Dance with Dragons in the summer of 2011, Martin announced his return to writing the series in January 2012,[3] having spent the intervening time on his U.S. and overseas book publicity tours and attending various conventions. He continued to work, with his two co-authors Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson, on the planned illustrated series companion guide The World of Ice & Fire concordance and Westeros history, which at one time he wanted to have completed by the end of 2011. He also worked on a Westeros story, the fourth Tales of Dunk and Egg novella, that will eventually find anthology publication elsewhere. A year after that eventual publication, the story and the three previously published Dunk and Egg tales will be collected and published in the U.S. by Bantam Spectra as a stand-alone fix-up novel.[32]

text: In December 2011, Martin posted a Theon Greyjoy viewpoint chapter from The Winds of Winter; he also announced that another sample chapter would be included at the end of the North American paperback version of A Dance with Dragons,[2][33] which was originally expected to be released in summer 2012,[2] but was released on October 29, 2013.[34] (International paperback editions of A Dance with Dragons published a year earlier did not include a new, as yet unpublished sample chapter.)[35] In the first quarter of 2012, Martin read new chapters of other characters at public events, including the chapters of Victarion Greyjoy and Tyrion Lannister.[20] Martin continued work editing anthologies and completing a large, highly detailed series atlas The Lands of Ice and Fire, which was published in October 2012.[36][37] Martin published another sample chapter from Arianne Martell's POV on his website in January 2013.[7] On March 27, ten days before the Game of Thrones season four premiere, Martin posted a chapter on his website, titled Mercy. Martin said the new chapter is actually an old one, though never published nor publicly read.[11] In April 2015, Martin posted a Sansa Stark viewpoint chapter from The Winds of Winter titled Alayne.[10] In May 2016, Martin replaced this chapter with an Arianne Martell chapter he had read from at Mysticon,[15] and an Aeron Greyjoy chapter that was removed from A Dance with Dragons was read at Balticon.

text: As of June 2016, a total of 11 chapters from The Winds of Winter have been either read publicly or published as a sample chapter. The point of view characters with released material are Victarion, Aeron, Tyrion, Barristan, Arianne, Theon, Mercy (Arya), and Alayne (Sansa).[38] Several websites, including Goodreads, have dedicated entire discussion panels to any material that has been released from The Winds of Winter, including plot twists, theories, and speculations.

text: At Guadalajara International Book Fair 2016, George R.R. Martin gave some clues about the dark nature of The Winds of Winter: ... "I’ve been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fill the world, so this is not going to be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of the characters [are] in very dark places. .... Things get worse before they get better, so things are getting worse for a lot of people.”[39]

text: Publication date[edit]

text: Martin believes the last two volumes of the series will be massive works of 1,500+ manuscript pages each.[1] He does not intend to separate characters by geography again, as he was forced to do because of the unpublishable length of A Feast for Crows' original manuscript. But, as Martin stated in a 2011 interview, "Three years from now when I'm sitting on 1,800 pages of manuscript with no end in sight, who the hell knows".[40] In April 2011, shortly before the publication of A Dance with Dragons which took him six years to write, Martin hoped that "the last two books will go a little quicker than this one has" and estimated that it would take "three years to finish the next one at a good pace".[41][42] By October 2012, 400 pages of the sixth novel had been written, although Martin considered only the first 200 as "really finished", the rest still needing revisions.[43] In April 2013, Martin estimated that he had a quarter of the book.[44] In the past, Martin has angered some of his fan base for repeatedly estimating his publication dates too optimistically; therefore, he has refrained from making hard estimates for The Winds of Winter's final release date.[3] Ultimately the book "will be done when it's done".[30] In 2012, Martin had acknowledged his concerns about the final novel, A Dream of Spring, not being completed by the time Game of Thrones catches up in its story line to the novels.[45]

text: In January 2014, Martin's UK publisher, Jane Johnson, declared on Twitter that the book would "certainly" not be published before 2015.[46] In September 2014 Johnson stated that the book was "not a 2015 release",[47] a statement she repeated in January 2015.[48][49] In April 2015, Martin commented on his blog that The Winds of Winter will not be eligible for the 2016 Hugo Award which is awarded for science fiction or fantasy works of the previous year[50] but he also said he would like to have it published before the sixth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones (which would cover material from the book) aired in 2016.[51][52] In Autumn 2015, statements made by the Spanish editor and the Polish translator of the novel indicated that it was expected to be published in 2016.[53][54][55][56]

text: In early January 2016, Martin confirmed on his Live Journal that he had not met an end-of-year deadline that he had established with his publisher for release of the book before the sixth season of the HBO show. He added that there was "a lot still left to write" and that completion of the book was "months away still... if the writing goes well". Martin also revealed there had been a previous deadline of October 2015 that he had considered achievable in May 2015, and that in September 2015 he had still considered the end-of-year deadline achievable. He further confirmed that some of the plot of the book might be revealed in the upcoming season of Game of Thrones[57] but one of the showrunners, David Benioff, claimed that while certain key elements would be the same, the show would diverge from the book in many respects.[58] In February 2016, Martin stated that he had dropped all his editing projects except for Wild Cards, and that he would not be writing any teleplays, screenplays, short stories, introductions or forewords before delivering The Winds of Winter.[59]

text: In September 2014, Walt Hickey of FiveThirtyEight and Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post estimated the release date sometime between 2015 and 2018, based on extrapolation of Martin's writing pace.[4][5] In 2017, Goodreads advertised its expected publication in 2020.[60]

text: On January 10, 2017, Martin announced on his blog in a response to a comment that he believed that The Winds of Winter will be released "this year", referring to 2017. However, he also noted that he believed the same thing would occur the previous year.[61][62][38] He confirmed on his blog that he was still working on The Winds of Winter as of July 22, 2017, being "still months away" from finishing the book. He also indicated that it may not be published until 2018 or later.[63]


document_title: Death in Paradise (TV series)

question_text: where is the tv series death in paradise filmed

text: Death in Paradise (TV series)

text: Synopsis[edit]

text: British detective Richard Poole (Ben Miller) is assigned to investigate the murder of a British police officer on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie.[7] After he successfully finds the murderer, he is reluctantly required by his supervisors to replace the victim and stay on as the detective inspector (DI) of the island, solving new cases as they appear, and being the object of many fish-out-of-water jokes.[8] At the start of Series 3, Poole is killed and maladroit London detective Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) arrives to investigate the death of his strait-laced predecessor. He then stays in the job as chief investigator on the island. In the second half of Series 6, he resigns so he can stay in London with his new girlfriend Martha Lloyd. His replacement on Saint Marie is DI Jack Mooney, played by Ardal O'Hanlon.

text: Episodes[edit]

text:
Series
Episodes
Originally aired
Ave. UK viewers
(millions)[9]

First aired
Last aired

1
8
25 October 2011 (2011-10-25)
13 December 2011 (2011-12-13)
5.89

2
8
8 January 2013 (2013-01-08)
26 February 2013 (2013-02-26)
7.67

3
8
14 January 2014 (2014-01-14)
4 March 2014 (2014-03-04)
8.46

4
8
8 January 2015 (2015-01-08)
26 February 2015 (2015-02-26)
9.03

5
8
7 January 2016 (2016-01-07)
25 February 2016 (2016-02-25)
8.67

6
8
5 January 2017 (2017-01-05)
23 February 2017 (2017-02-23)
9.10

7
8
4 January 2018 (2018-01-04)
22 February 2018 (2018-02-22)
8.34

text: Format[edit]

text: While Death in Paradise has continued to be in the top three most popular programmes on British television, critics have called the crime drama "unremarkable" and "an undemanding detective show, with nice Caribbean scenery".[10] The show is known for its formulaic approach to its plots[11] with each episode roughly the same in both style and narrative structure.

text: Each episode begins with a pre-credits sequence showing the events leading up to a murder, and often the discovery of the body afterwards; this sequence also serves to introduce that particular episode's guest characters.[12] The police force of Saint Marie are subsequently informed of the murder, preliminary investigations and interviews take place to establish the suspects and photographs of the suspects and crime scene are placed on the whiteboard at police headquarters.[13]

text: Often towards the end, the lead DI will have a moment of realisation, perhaps brought on by something that someone says or does or by some occurrence. In this moment, the how, why, and who of the murder are comprehended by the DI, but are not revealed to the audience. The suspects are then all gathered together and the DI talks through the evidence; often, flashbacks are used to show what happened. The murderer and the motive are revealed in the dénouement of the episode.[14]

text: Normally, each episode ends with a comedic scene or a celebratory trip by the police force to Catherine's bar.[15] The final episode of most series has included a subplot wherein the lead DI is tempted to return to the UK by the prospect of a job offer or personal relationship, but in the end, he decides to remain on the island. This format was subverted in the sixth series when the two-part storyline in the fifth and sixth episodes saw the team travel to London to follow up on a current case, resulting in then-lead detective Humphrey Goodman deciding to remain to be with his new girlfriend; D.I. Jack Mooney travelled back to Saint-Marie, initially as a holiday, but decided to remain as the new detective inspector of the island in the series finale.

text: Setting[edit]

text: Saint Marie[edit]

text: Death in Paradise is set on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie, described in Episode 3.3 as a "pretty island" that is "situated in the Eastern Caribbean Sea" and "one-tenth the size of its north-west neighbour Guadeloupe"; this would make Saint Marie about 63 square miles (160 km2) in size. Saint Marie is a British Overseas Territory, but about 30% of its people are French, due to previous history, with the language still widely spoken.

text: The back-story appears to be a blend of two real-world islands near to Guadeloupe, with size and location aligning with Marie-Galante and history and language aligning with Dominica.

text: In the TV show, the fictional Saint Marie island has a volcano, rainforest, sugar plantations, a fishing harbour, an airport, a university, a convent, approximately 100 public beaches and a Crown Court. It also has its own newspaper, The Saint Marie Times. Honoré, the main town, has a leisure/commercial marina, market, bars, and restaurants as well as the police station. The neighbouring town to Honoré is named as Port Royal. Saint Marie's main economic ties are to Guadeloupe, the UK, and France. The island's main religions are Catholicism and Voodoo, with several religious festivals featuring in the programme, including the Saint Ursula Festival (in reality, a major festival of the Virgin Islands) and some Voodoo festivals.

text: Other locations[edit]

text: Episode 3.7 is largely set on an islet just off Saint Marie; it is privately owned and relatively small. This episode was actually filmed on the island of Kahouanne, around 1.2 miles (1.9 km) off the north-west coast of Guadeloupe where the series is normally filmed. It can often be seen in the background from a beach on Saint Marie.

text: Episodes 6.5 and 6.6 are largely set in London when DI Goodman, DS Cassell and Officer Myers form a liaison team with future lead DI Jack Mooney in order to track down suspects in a murder investigation in Saint Marie, and later to investigate the murder of one of the suspects.

text: Characters[edit]

text: Main[edit]

text:
Character
Actor
Position
Series

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Richard Poole
Ben Miller
DI
Main
Guest

Camille Bordey
Sara Martins
DS
Main

Dwayne Myers
Danny John-Jules
Officer
Main

Fidel Best
Gary Carr
Officer/Sergeant
Main

Selwyn Patterson
Don Warrington
Commissioner
Main

Catherine Bordey
Élizabeth Bourgine
Restaurateur, Mayor (Series 7-)
Recurring
Main

Humphrey Goodman
Kris Marshall
DI

Main

Florence Cassel
Joséphine Jobert
Sergeant/DS

Main

JP Hooper
Tobi Bakare
Officer

Main

Martha Lloyd
Sally Bretton

Guest
Main

Jack Mooney
Ardal O'Hanlon
DI

Main

Ruby Patterson
Shyko Amos
Officer

Main

text: Recurring[edit]

text:
Character
Actor
Years
Series

Aidan Miles
Adrian Dunbar
2011
1.7–1.8

Sally Goodman
Morven Christie
2014
3.1a, 3.8

Martin Goodman, QC
James Fox
2015
4.7a–4.8

Rosey Hooper (née Fabrice)
Fola Evans-Akingbola[16][17]
2016
5.3, 5.5–5.6, 5.8

Nelson Myers
Ram John Holder
2017-2018
6.5–6.6, 7.7–7.8

Siobhan Mooney
Grace Stone
2017-2018
6.6–7.1

Darlene Curtis
Ginny Holder
2018
7.3–7.5, 7.7

text: ^a Made a voice cameo in this episode.

text: Production[edit]

text: The series is filmed on the French island of Guadeloupe in the Lesser Antilles, mainly in the commune of Deshaies (which doubles for the town of Honoré on the fictional island of Saint Marie), with the help of the Bureau d’accueil des tournages de la Région Guadeloupe.[18] The site of the Honoré police station is a church hall in Deshaies with the priest's office appearing as the incident room.[19]

text: Miller left the series at the start of series 3, as he felt he was spending too much time away from his family since his wife was unable to join him on the island during production. Marshall's family joined him on the island during his first three six-month shoots and his son Thomas enrolled at a local school. When his family did not join him during the filming of the sixth season, following the birth of his baby daughter Elsie, it left him feeling "bereft and empty" and he quit the show.[20] From episode 7 of the sixth season the lead role was taken by Ardal O'Hanlon playing DI Jack Mooney, a London colleague.[21]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Viewing figures[edit]

text: Regarding British TV ratings, Death in Paradise has gained in popularity over time.

text: Series 1 (2011) has been the least-watched to date, averaging 5.89 million viewers, with the 5.3 million viewers for the sixth episode, “An Unhelpful Aid” the lowest the show has had. Even so, each episode was among the top five most-watched programmes of the day, and in the top forty most-watched programmes of the week.

text: Series 2 (2013) averaged 7.67 million viewers, almost 2 million more than the previous series. Each episode was among the top two most-watched programmes of the day, and in the top fifteen most-watched programmes of the week.

text: Series 3 (2014) averaged 8.46 million viewers. Each episode was among the top two most-watched programmes of the day, and in the top ten most-watched programmes of the week.

text: Season 4 (2015) averaged 9.03 million viewers. Based on consolidated figures, each episode was among the top three most-watched programmes of the day, and in the top ten most-watched programmes of the week.

text: Season 5 (2016) averaged 8.67 million viewers. Based on consolidated figures, each episode was the most-watched programme of the day, and in the top four most-watched programmes of the week.

text: Season 6 (2017) has been the most-watched so far, averaging 9.1 million viewers. The season premiere, “Erupting in Murder” is the most-watched episode of the show to date with 9.81 million viewers. Based on consolidated figures, each episode of Series 6 was the most-watched programme of the day, and in the top four most-watched programmes of the week.

text: Series 7 (2018) averaged 8.34 million viewers. Based on consolidated figures, each episode was the most-watched programme of the day, and in the top ten most-watched programmes of the week.[22]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: The series has received mixed reviews from critics, with most criticism directed towards its formulaic structure. The first series was praised for its refreshing style and setting. Kris Marshall's introduction at the start of series 3 was particularly well received, with Rebecca Smith of The Daily Telegraph citing Marshall as a "winning addition" to the cast.[23] The series 4 premiere was described as "a little piece of escapism" and was generally praised. Mark Monahan of The Daily Telegraph criticised the laid-back tone of the series, calling it too methodical with nothing unique about it besides the setting.[24]

text: Awards[edit]

text: Red Planet Pictures was nominated for, and won, the "Diversity in a Drama Production Award" for Death In Paradise. Sara Martins, Danny John-Jules, Don Warrington and Tobi Bakare collected the award at a ceremony supported by the BBC and ITV that took place on 15 February 2015.[25]

text: DVD release[edit]

text:
Series
Region 2
Region 1
Region 4
Discs
Extras

1
8 October 2012[26]
17 June 2014[27]
2 August 2012 [28]
2
N/A

2
4 March 2013
16 September 2014[29]
3 July 2013 [30]
3
N/A

3
10 March 2014
5 May 2015[31]
25 May 2014 [32]
3
The Making of Death in Paradise on disc three. Seven short insights into the making of Death in Paradise.

4
2 March 2015[33]
N/A
18 March 2015 [34]
3
N/A

5
29 February 2016
N/A
16 March 2016 [35]
3
The Making Of Death In Paradise
Creating The Puzzle
Harry The Lizzard
Tour Of Honoré Police Station
The Vehicles

1–5
29 February 2016
N/A
16 March 2016 [36]
14
same extras that were on series 3 and 5 (no extra were made for series 1–2 and 4)

6
27 February 2017
N/A
29 March 2017 [37]
3
N/A

1–6
N/A
N/A
29 March 2017 [38]
17
same extras that were on series 3 and 5

7
26 February 2018
N/A
14 March 2018 [39]
3

1–7
N/A
N/A
14 March 2018 [40]
20

text: Broadcast[edit]

text: In the U.K., all series were shown on BBC One. The first series was broadcast in late 2011. The second series was broadcast in January 2013, with subsequent series filling the same January slot; all series were shown in a 9:00–10:00 pm slot.[a] The series has also been shown on repeat on the Alibi channel, although with each episode missing the pre-intro sequence and a few expendable scenes due to the need for adverts on Alibi.

text: In France the programme is broadcast on France 2.

text: In the U.S., many, but not all, member stations of PBS broadcast Death In Paradise. Series 1 and 2 were broadcast in the San Francisco Bay Area on KQED Mystery Night in 2013.[41] Series 1 aired in January and February 2013 and series 2 aired in April and May 2013.

text: In the New England area, WGBH-TV started airing Series 1 and 2 in 2013. Other PBS stations that air the programme as of 2016 include WPBA, WLIW, WTTW, KAET, KUAT, KUHT Houston, and WNED, among others. In Seattle-Tacoma, WA area broadcast on KBTC TV (PBS), Seasons 1-6.

text: All episodes of series 1–5 are available on Netflix for online streaming in the UK. All episodes of series 1–6 are available on Netflix for online streaming in the U.S.

text: In Australia, recent series have aired nationally on Foxtel within a few hours of their UK release. Series 1–6 were broadcast on ABC One a few months behind original broadcast in the U.K. Generally, this was shown in a 7:30pm Saturday timeslot.

text: In Canada, all series have been broadcast on BBC Canada on Thursdays at 9:00 pm. The last two series have been shown about a month after the BBC One showing.

text: Music[edit]

text: Theme music[edit]

text: The theme music is an instrumental version of a Jamaican song from the 1960s, "You're Wondering Now," written by Coxsone Dodd, originally recorded by Andy & Joey in Jamaica. It was later made famous by The Skatalites and in Europe by ska band The Specials and later still by Amy Winehouse as featured on some editions of the deluxe version of her album Back to Black. In the first episode of the third series, the cover version recorded by The Skatalites in 1994 is played at the bar. It appeared on the official Death in Paradise soundtrack, released in January 2015, alongside other music from all four series. In the French version, the opening song is "Sunday Shining" by Finley Quaye.

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: In January 2015, an official soundtrack compiling 26 songs from the first four series of the show was released by the BBC. It contains original music for Death in Paradise and already extant tunes, though it does not include the theme music from the show.

text: Novels[edit]

text: The creator of the show, Robert Thorogood, signed a three-book deal to write Death in Paradise novels featuring the original characters (D.I. Richard Poole, D.S. Camille Bordey, Officer Dwayne Myers, Sergeant Fidel Best and Comm. Selwyn Patterson). The first of these, A Meditation on Murder (A Death in Paradise novel),[42] was published in January 2015. Early reviews were generally favourable, with the Daily Express in particular being complimentary, giving it four stars.[43] The second book was released in 2016 with the title The Killing of Polly Carter.

text: Notes[edit]

text: Jump up ^ Series 4, episode 7 was shown in an earlier timeslot of 8.25 pm-9.25 pm due to EastEnders Live 30th anniversary celebrations.

tag: ol