B e o w u l f

• Oldest surviving heroic epic written in Old English

• Written when? – Early 8th cent - late 10th cent

• Only surviving manuscript– 1000 A.D. – Damaged in fire, 1731

Long, long ago…• 6th century

– Denmark and southern Sweden

• Historical facts– Hrothgar– Hrothulf– Great Hall of Heorot

• Fiction– Beowulf

• Germanic historical legend– Important to Anglo-Saxons

• legitimacy

Anglo-Saxon Feasts

• Metaphor for kingdom’s goodness• Time of peacefulness and alliances

– Guests feel safe– All welcome to mead-hall– Entertained by poets and musicians

• Grendel’s intrusion– Great violation of social values

War & Invasions

• Fyrds– Anglo-Saxon armies– “journey or expedition”– Avg. infantry 100 soldiers– 2 or 3 ships– Fought for land

• Set up kingdoms that flourished

Monsters

• Grendel– Menaces Hall of Heorot– Descendent of Cain

• Grendel’s mother• Dragon

– Serpent• symbol of ultimate sin

• Humans, Monsters, or Both?• Pagan tale or Christian allegory?

Themes

• Death• Funerals• War• Pride• Good vs. Evil• Paganism vs. Christianity• Loyalty

– Play loyalty game

Important Terms

• Primary Epic• Scop• Heroic Ideal• Comitatus• Wyrd

• Wergild• Kenning• Alliteration• Caesura• Synecdoche

Characters

• Scyld Scefing -- ruler of all the Danes• King Hrothgar -- the strongest of Scyld's sons;

builder of Heorot;• Grendel -- archenemy of all things good; the

personification of evil• Unferth -- rude, unpopular drunkard with a

rotten boil; believer in Grendel• Queen Wealhtheow -- wife of Hrothgar• Beowulf -- nephew of King Hygelac; slayer of

Grendel, Grendel's mother, the Firedrake, and nine sea monsters; personification of true good

• She -- Grendel's mother; totally evil

Journey into Beowulf…

Loyalty Game

• Consider the importance of group loyalty and how such loyalties sometimes conflict with individual needs or desires.

• Get into groups of 3 or 4• Write a list of questions about what to do in

situations that test one's loyalty to family, friends, self, country, city, etc.

• Write the questions on a set of cards for the whole class.

• Finally, take turns asking one another questions from the cards and discuss answers.

• Great Job!

This Power Point presentation will be a great introduction into the oldest surviving epicin British literature, Beowulf. My presentation is consistent with my teacher profile in that thistype of literature would most likely be taught in an advanced class in the suburbs because of thedifficulty in the written language. This is a piece that is usually taught in tenth or eleventh gradehonors English classes or a regular twelfth grade class.

I will start class with the lights off and the shades pulled while the first slide of mypresentation plays; this will get them in the mood and excited about the day’s lesson plan. I willgo through the history of the document with interesting facts, and add funny trivia about theculture (e.g. because it was insulting to the king to stop eating until the food, usually rotten meat,was gone, they would overeat and puke on the floor or in chamber-pots under the tables to makeroom for the next course). We will do exercises, such as linking to a website that has thestudents try to recognize words written in Old English, and we will relate the theme of loyaltyfrom the text to the students’ everyday lives in the “loyalty game.” The students will have funwith the visual and auditory elements in the presentation, which will hopefully lure them intoreading the full text for class.

It will meet the Ohio Content Standard of Reading Applications in Literary Text. Thestudents will be able to “enhance their understanding of the human story by reading literary textsthat represent a variety of authors, cultures, and eras.” They get a brief look into an ancientAnglo-Saxon culture and will see that some of the elements of that culture still survive today, f orexample language. The students will “analyze variations of universal themes in literary text,”and be able to “identify sound devices.” The students will learn about the structural make-up ofa poem, important literature vocabulary, and about a culture from long ago. My main goal is toget the students interested in reading, researching other cultures, and being able to relate topeople from other cultures through reading about the human experience.

Resources

• http://www.bl.uk/services/learning/curriculum/changlang/k3topicmenu.html#title (site that I used for “Old English” link)

• http://www.webenglishteacher.com/beowulf.html (site that has links to all of the sites that I used)