Dreams and Omens (or Mr. Sandman, Bring Me a Dream)
Foreshadowing is somehow vital to the epic. The reader knows how the story is going to end mostly from the beginning on. This knowledge is either provided by a prolog, and invocation or directly through the story. If the story gives away the ending, then this happens mostly through dreams that one of the protagonists has.
In "The Epic of Gilgamesh", on their journey to the Cedar Forest Gilgamesh and Enkidu are always performing a dream ritual before they are going to sleep. Gilgamesh is having five horrible dreams about falling mountains, thunderstorms, wild bulls, and a thunderbird that breathes fire. However, he is unable to understand what these dreams mean. Enkidu is interpreting them, as a good sign and he is certain that they are going to defeat Humbaba.
In the Odyssey, the future is given away by omens sent by the gods. Not everybody, however, can interpret them. Apparently, you have to be skilled in order to be able to read these signs. Helen for instance reads an eagle carrying a goose stolen from a pen swoops down beside him as an omen that Odysseus is about to swoop down on his home and exact revenge on the suitors. Also there is the scene where the prophet has the vision about the walls of the palace that will be dripping in the blood of the suitors.
In "Das Nibelungenlied", Kriemhild has a nightmare about her falcon that is killed by two eagles. She, too, has to ask somebody for advice because she doesn't know what to make of that. Her mother Ute tells her that the falcon is her future lover and that he is going to die.
As we can see, omens and dreams appear in a number of epics. Not everyone, however, is able to read them. Most often the hero has to ask somebody to interpret the sign for him. Apparently, you have to have a special skill to be able to read omens. And indeed, it is evident that the characters who possess this skill are either women (or even enchantresses) or in Enkidu's case a man created by the gods (he is not human). Apart from that, the dreams and omens are a major foreshadowing device because they give away the further plot.
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| Kriemhild's Dream |
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