Heroic Age (literary theory)

As heroes age or heroic age (English heroic age ) refers to a period in the history of a nation or a tribe from the feed to the legends or myths of the respective collective. These are mostly used to enable ( to donate ie identification) to determine the so-called origin of such a society or community and the particular historical, social or community transport and ways of thinking a mythological legitimacy.

An example of this is the Iliad of Homer, in the subject of the ancient Greek gods and a determination once their putative interaction is mapped to the lives of people. The acting man there are usually characterized by superhuman powers and abilities, and have a direct relationship with their gods. The Iliad served within the Greek city-states as an identity- moment, referring to a period prior to the actual creation of this community.

In Germanic heroic poetry of the Middle Ages can be here ( 4th to 6th century) identified as the period of the so-called Migration Period. In this particular hero age play all the stories, which are referred to in the older literature as a heroic stories. The actual real historical process, however, was processed mythological by the authors of the Middle Ages and reinterpreted. To move among others all historical epics in this heroic age together more than three generations. Suddenly, for example Siegfried, Etzel ( Attila ) and Dietrich von Bern are contemporaries. These substances, however, have the word experience new provisions for establishment of new forms of thought or the transformation of social or community relations: for example, found for example in the Nibelungenlied next to Germanic and Christian elements.

Other heroes seals are found in the chansons de geste of France and the Cantar de Mio Cid of Spain, but are not part of the mythical ages.