The difference is that The Soldier is set before anyone has died, and The Fallen is set after many have been killed. Both poems had different views on the apparent glory to be gained from war. The subject of these poems is generally the same – World War One. The main difference on the subject is the time of the war the poem is set in. The subject of The Soldier is set before the war has actually happened, written through the eyes of a soldier who has signed up for the war, but has not actually gone yet.
These codes included extreme loyalty to the group, death before dishonor, duty before pleasure, respect for rank and status, self-cultivation through the martial arts, duty to enact revenge on clan or individual who harmed you or yours, stoicism and bravery, education and literary, and artistic pursuits. The most important warrior code was the duty to one’s lord to the point of death. As centuries past, the warrior code evolved from fleeing from death to dying for their lord with bravery and honor. With the samurai’s devotion to bushido, samurai were honest, reliable not on money or possessions, but rather on pride, duty, and compassion, and were taught this code of living. The Tokugawa Shogunate was the last feudal Japanese military government in which the Tokugawa clan created House Laws that replaced the old samurai code of loyalty unto death and revenge with civil laws of a central federal government.
The hero's duty was to fight, and the only way he had of gaining honour and immortality was through heroic action on the battlefield so he continually prepared his life for the life-and-death risks of battle. The Homeric hero believed that men had to stand together in battle; men had to honour each other; and they had to refrain from excessive cruelty. He should loathe deliberate acts of cruelty and injustice, if he was ready to kill a victim; he believed that he should do it quickly with an honourable death. An exception on this point is Achilles, who disfigures Hector’s body out of personal grief for the death of his friend Patroklos ‘And now thought of shameful treatment for glorious Hector’ (Homer. Book 22, line 395).
The Vikings of Scandinavia in northern Europe were a war band society that raided many other peoples who couldn't resist them. They were sailors and had long boats which combined oars and sails making them the fastest boats in the world around 1000. They sailed all over Europe ransacking villages and monasteries like those in England, Ireland, and Scotland in 793. They developed settlements and controlled northern England between 866 and 954. Most of the Vikings' history was orally transmitted from generation to generation in the form of epics.
There is a long monologue of Macbeth: “… He's here in double trust; First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself….” —1.7.15-19 Here, Macbeth tells us the double trust of Duncan. From Macbeth’s words, it is easy to find that he is the last possible person to murder Duncan. Therefore, theoretically Duncan is very safe in Macbeth’s castle. But the irony is that the safest place becomes the most dangerous one. Duncan’s trust on Macbeth gives Macbeth the chance to carry out the murder.
American anthropologist, James F. Downs studied the community of Nez Ch’ii in the late 60’s and reported very briefly on the death rites of their culture. The Navajo Indians do not fear death, but they do fear the dead. This fear manifests from the belief in ghosts and when a person dies, the ghost, whether it is one of a friend or foe, is always the evil part of that total person. According to their faith, “The dead are dangerous because the ghost of a dead man may return to trouble the living.” (Downs 1972: 108) Great care is taken to avoid the dead, and this will go as far as abandoning the structure a person has died in and often leaving the body there along with their belongings. In order to avoid the loss of the structure, the relatives often take the obviously dying to a hospital.
However, the Swedish Vikings raided the Baltic sea, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia. • Some people say that England used to be heavily populated by Scandinavian settlers. • The settlements in Ireland lasted around 400 years. • Genetic evidence exists that the Vikings had been in the northwest of England and isle of man. • But in other parts of England there is less Scandinavian admixture.
It was considered braver to touch an enemy with one’s coup stick then to kill a man, as one could easily kill a man by shooting them with an arrow (or rifle) from far away without any danger to themselves. The Whites on the other hand viewed killing as a necessity, where a dead enemy is a better option. Despite warfare progressing with rifles and horses being widely available to the Indians, fatalities in Indian warfare remained low. The Whites also found the Indian belief of scalping an enemy horrific. The Whites believed that after killing an enemy it was disrespectful and unlucky to touch a dead enemy.
Wilfred Owen believed he had a duty to tell the truth. How does he tell the truth about war in the poem ‘The Sentry’ Wilfred Owen served in World War One as a second lieutenant, giving him a true taste of war and the horrors it brought along with it. Unlike other war poets, such as Rupert Brooke author of ‘The Soldier’, Owen used his experiences of war and put them into words, rather than idealising war. He never wanted to glorify war or make it out to be something other than the truth. He said his main concern was ‘war and the pity of war’ He felt it was his responsibility as a poet to tell the truth and bring to light to atrocities of modern warfare, in a way others could or would not.
Death in the Epic of Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh has a lot of “death” in it, not in the senses of people dying but more of the spiritual significance and how the people interpreted death before the days of Christ. This poem of the one-third God and two-thirds mortal, Gilgamesh tells us a lot about what the people of that time believed about in death. To them it was impossible to avoid death because you where a mortal and destiny can not be changed. From the death of a small animal to the death of a hero, death always has a great effect on the world of Gilgamesh. The first great death in Gilgamesh’s life with his friend Enkidu that cascaded into the future was the death of the watchmen, Humbaba.