On The Heroic Images In French And Russian Heroic Epics In The Medieval Age

In the early history of European nations, heroic epics are the very ordinary and important carriers of culture transmission. By portraying the heroic images, heroic epics convey people's comprehension about the special age. As a result, it can help us better understand the differences and similarities of the culture of the era and the nations by comparing and analyzing the heroic images in heroic epics. The studies on the French and Russian heroic epics in the Middle Age mostly concentrated on only a single epic, on the comparison of the two epics haven't seen before. At the same time, the studies on the development of heroic epics from ancient Greek to the Middle Age haven't been arranged systematically and thoroughly.Making a general survey of the development of heroic epics from ancient Greek to the Middle Age, we'll find the heroic images go through the transformation of the intension in three respects. The first respect is from powerful heroes to moral heroes, the second is from individual heroes to collective heroes, and the last is from human heroes to deified heroes. But there exist differences between the heroic images in the French and Russian heroic epics in the Middle Age despite the generality. The former is the saint king and the Christian cavalry, and the later is the clan archduke and dukes united to fight against enemy.Probing into the contributing factors of heroic images seriously, there are three factors. With regard to the religious view, the heroic images were developed from pantheism to monotheism in the heroic epics from ancient Greek to the Middle Age, while the French and Russian heroic epics in the Medieval Age were influenced by the Catholic Church and dual religion idea. As to the national view, they were developed from early polis idea to the idea of feudal state from ancient Greek to the Medieval Age, while there was influence of zion theocracy idea and clan political idea in France and Russia in the Medieval Age. As to the idea of war, they underwent the transformation from fighting for economy to fighting for religion from ancient Greek to the Medieval Age, while they experienced the influence of the view of fighting for good or evil religion and for defending nation in France and Russia in the Medieval Age.As for the artistic portray of heroic images, there exist differences and similarities between French and Russian heroic epics in the Medieval Age in artistic technique. The differences are respectively showed by the tragic exaggeration and the view of fast moving time and space. While in the artistic style, they are displayed as the solemn and lofty narrative style and graceful and lyric pastoral style in French and Russian heroic epics in the Medieval Age.