Beowulf Notes

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Beowulf Notes
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Contributions Of Anglo-Saxons

• Heroic Qualities
• Bravery
• Loyalty
• Sternness
• Warlike
• Love of Glory
• Worshipped ancient Germanic Gods
• Tiu God of War Sky (Tuesday)
• Woden Chief of Gods (Wednesday)
• Fria Wodens Wife/ goddess of home (Friday)
• Valhalla- heaven

• Pagan Beliefs
• Life was believed to be in the hands of fate
  (Wyrd Goddess of Fate)
• Ruling warlords descended from gods
• Sought revenge treated household cruelly
• 4. Runic Alphabet

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Literary Devices

• Oral Tradition
• (Characterizations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry)
• Used for memorizing
• Strong rhythm
• (a good beat)
• Alliteration
• Repetition of initial consonant sound
• (like a tongue twister)
• Parallelism/ Anaphora
• Repetition of a grammatical pattern
• It is I who
• It is I who

• Caesura
• A pause in the middle of a poetic line
• Kennings
• Metaphorical phrase
• One thing is spoken of as if it were something
  else
• that long sleep
• sky-candle
• whale-road
• foamy-throated sea-stallion
• Unrhymed Verse
• If it rhymes, it isnt AS poetry

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• A scop would perform the poems at victory
  celebrations.
• He would be accompanied by a musician called the
  gleeman.
• The celebrations would be held in large banquet
  halls called Mead-halls
• Mead was a honey-like alcoholic beverage
  enjoyed by AS warriors.
• An Anglo-Saxon warrior was also called a thane.

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BEOWULF

• Epic Poetry (epos- word speech)
• Long narrative poem about a hero or heroic deeds/
  written in a dignified style
• National Epic
• Epic poem relating the deeds of a hero of a
  particular people
• Helps people define their values, mores, social
  systems, and relationships

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RELATION TO LIFE

• Mystery Probed Lifes Direction

Essential Questions

• What are we called to do?
• What are our goals?
• What is the good life?
• What kind of life worth fighting for?
• What does it mean to live life heroically?
• Who are our heroes?

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Conventions of Epic Poetry

• Begins in medias res
• Invocation of the muse
• Statement of theme or purpose
• Supernatural intervention
• Epic questions- answered by the poet

• Formal, long speeches
• Epic Catalogues of names (warriors, ships,
  armies)
• Repetitions of epithets kennings
• Action heroic deeds and journey
• Epic Similes- lengthy comparisons

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Epic Hero Traits

• Performs great, superhuman deeds
• Nations fate rests on outcome of heros
  adventures
• Representative of most admired traits of culture

• Descends into lower regions during quest
• Remains mortal (not a god)
• Boasts of accomplishments
• Extremely generous loyal

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EPIC GENRE ESSENTIAL ACTION

• Mimesis imitation of an action
• Action movement of the spirit

• the battle / the struggle
• Discovery of purpose
• Acceptance of heroic task (journey and/or battle

• the call / the goal
• Indl in isolation
• Living for himself
• Has powers but does not know what they are for

• the establishment
• Part of a community
• Result Leaves a legacy

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Beowulf Notes

• Setting is 6th century Scandinavia (present day
  Sweden and Denmark)
• Author is unknown because the story passed
  through oral tradition
• Juxtaposes both Pagan and Christian elements

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Characters of Beowulf

• Hrothgar King of the Danes (Denmark)
• Grendel a monster who terrorizes the Danes
• Higlac Beowulfs king (King of the Geats -
  Sweden)
• Beowulf A Geat who comes to help the Danes
• Herot The greatest of all Mead Halls in the
  land of the Danes
• Unferth one of Hrothgars men
• Brecca a friend of Beowulfs when he was a
  young man

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Create Annotation Chart

• 3 columns landscape view
• Literary devices
• Epic hero traits
• Epic conventions
• For each numbered section of the reading, you are
  responsible for adding ONE quotation in ANY of
  the three categories. Simply write the page and
  line number(s) for the quotation and briefly
  explain it.