There are about five epic conventions involving the text of the epic. In
The Faerie Queene, Spenser uses the first epic convention in
medias res (Lat. “into the middle of things”) since the beginning of
Book I, Canto I starts with “A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine..”
which is middle of the story.↙
A second epic convention in terms of the textual
aspect is the invocation of the Muse at the beginning of an epic poem. In The
Faerie Queene, Spenser remains true to this tradition. ↙
Epic similes, also called Homeric simile, are a third textual epic
convention. There are many examples of this convention in The Faerie Queene.
For example, comparing Error's defiling 'quality' to the flooding of the
Nile and the mudd it leaves, ↙
“As when old father Nilus gins to swell/With timely pride above the Aegyptian vale,/His
fattie waves do fertile slime outwell,/And overflow each
plaine and lowly dale:/But when his later spring gins to avale,/Huge
heapes of mudd he leaves,” ↙
The fourth epic convention with regards to the textual
aspect, is the use of frequent, long speeches in elevated tone : for example,
“Una's” speech in stanzas 51 and 52 of Book I. ↙
The last epic
convention in terms of text is the frequency of epithets, re-namings of,
mainly, characters by stock phrases. For example: “The Knight of the Redcrosse”
is among others named “the Champion (stout)”, “the valiant Elfe”, “the Elfin
knight”. ↙
These epic conventions, covering both text and
content, bring us to the third type, the content-related characteristics. ↙
A first one, and perhaps the most important deals with the hero of the
epic. The hero is the Redcrosse Knight who engages in a journey with the fair
and faithful Una and his Dwarf servant to defeat the horrible dragon who
terrorizes the land of the lady's parents and who hided themselves and their
nationals in fear of the beast. He contains all the characteristics of an epic
hero. ↙
A next epic convention in terms of content is the intervention
in human affairs by Gods or supernatural forces and such supernatural
intervention occurs in the battle between Redcrosse and Sansjoy. ↙
A third epic convention concerning the content is the vast setting of
the story: Faerie Land and hell.
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