1. Beowulf
Anglo Saxon Poetry

2. How are the values of a specific culture reflected within the literature of the time period?
What do heroes and beasts represent in our culture, and what do they reveal about human nature as a whole?
Bell Ringer
Please write your responses to the following questions in your journal.

3. Ended with Norman Conquest
Anglo Saxon Era
449 – 1066
Began with the invasion of the Germanic Tribes (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes)
Ended with Norman Conquest

4. Anglo- Saxon Culture Society made up of King Council of Elders
Warriors
Fathers
Families
Important that everyone work for the good of the whole.
Brought shame if someone did not take care of the group.

5. Anglo Saxon Village

6. Cultural Elements King took care of everyone
Have to do good deeds to be remembered in the afterlife.
Fatalistic – death’s everywhere.
Wyrd = Fate (very superstitious)
Women strong members of society

7. Oral Tradition Alfred the Great – Anglo Saxon Chronicles
Oral tradition – literature and history passed down because no written language until monks arrived
Power of language
Scops – traveling poets/singers (bards)
As valuable to the culture as warriors
Alfred the Great – Anglo Saxon Chronicles

8. Effect of Christianity
What effect did Christianity have on the Anglo Saxon spirituality / religious belief system?
It gave them hope to live in the afterlife
No longer dependent upon heroic acts or deeds
No longer dependent upon others continuing to speak your name to keep you alive in afterlife
Fame was not the basis of reward

9. Anglo-Saxon Literature: Beowulf
This is a short, informational video about the epic itself and the people of the time.

10. Maps of Beowulf’s Worlds
Modern View

11. Beowulf is an example of Narrative Poetry
Written to tell a story
No known author
Believed to be work of a single author – most likely a Christian clergyman
Author is well-educated, as suggested by his knowledge of the classics
Earliest of the vernacular epics of the Anglo Saxon Era and one of the few that survived intact.

12. Background Written in England
Based on legends set in Germanic Tribes’ homeland
Angles and Saxons from Germany; Jutes from Denmark
Shared common cultural and linquistic background with Danes from Denmark (Hrothgar was their king)
Beowulf was a Geat from Sweden.

13. Two Types of Anglo Saxon Poetry
Heroic
Tells the adventures and qualities of heroes (Beowulf)
Elegiac
Mourns the loss of someone or something (The Seafarer)

14. Epic Characteristics Hero with supernatural strength and abilities
Larger than Life Hero who embodies the ideals of the culture
Quest to uphold the ideals of the culture
Supernatural Intervention
Setting in known world and other worlds
Beginning in medias res

15. What is an epic hero?
An epic hero is the central figure in an epic who has superior qualities and risks personal danger to pursue a grand quest

16. Characteristics of an EPIC HERO
Is significant and glorified
Is on a quest
Has superior or superhuman strength, intelligence, and/or courage
Is ethical
Risks death for glory or for the greater good of society

17. Continued… Performs brave tasks Is a strong and responsible leader
Reflects the ideals of a particular society - Courage, loyalty, honor, bravery, leadership, self-control, daring and wit

18. Language of Beowulf
How did the English Language evolve from the Old English in Beowulf to the Modern English we speak now?

19. Mini-Socratic Seminar
Divide into four equal (or close to equal) groups. Assign one person in the group to be your recorder and one to be the leader to share out.
Discuss the following four questions for about 2 minutes each: (the following slides may help…)
o What core values do heroes possess?
o What do beasts reveal about heroes?
o What do heroes and beasts represent in our culture?
o What do they reveal about human nature?
Each group shares out with the class.

20. What core values do heroes possess?
What do beasts reveal about heroes?
What do heroes and beasts represent in our culture?
What do they reveal about human nature?

21. A HERO IS…

29. A BEAST IS…

36. What core values do heroes possess?
What do beasts reveal about heroes?
What do heroes and beasts represent in our culture?
What do they reveal about human nature?

37. The Hero Cycle

38. Hero ‘s Journey
Think of ways that Beowulf meets the criteria of the Hero in Joseph Campbell’s theory of the Hero’s Journey.

40. Literary Elements/Terms
Caesura
Kenning
Epithets
Alliteration
Assonance
Allusion
Archetype
Beot

41. Pagan
Paganism is a catch-all term which has come to bundle together (by extension from its original classical meaning of a non-Christian religion) a very broad set of not necessarily compatible religious beliefs and practices that are usually, but not necessarily, characterized by polytheism

42. Scop
An Anglo-Saxon poet The scop fulfilled  many roles in an Anglo Saxon tribe.  Among those functions were:
court singer
tribal historian
genealogist
teacher
composer
critic
warrior
traveler and reporter

43. Comitatus
An agreement made between a lord and his thanes, in which the thanes swear to defend a lord to their death, while he provides them with protection and a share of his wealth and weapons

44. Thane
A warrior or retainer who follows and fights for his lord.

45. Fate
The principle or determining cause or will by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as they do.

46. Mead
A fermented beverage made of water and honey, malt, and yeast

47. Caesura
a pause somewhere in the middle of a verse. Some lines have strong (easily recognizable) caesurae, which usually coincide with punctuation in the line, while others have weak ones.

48. Kenning
a compound poetic phrase substituted for the usual name of a person or thing. For example the sea in Old English could be called seġl-rād 'sail- road', swan-rād 'swan-road'. In line 10 of the epic Beowulf the sea is called the hronrāde or 'whale- road'

49. Epic Boast / Beot
A proclamation of things a character has done or will do in an epic
Anglo-Saxons saw nothing wrong with letting the world know who they were, who their noble parents were, what great feats they had accomplished and what they planned to do. This boasting was perfectly polite, even expected. In Beowulf, see lines , , , and for examples of the formal Anglo-Saxon boast.

50. Archetype
The word archetype is commonly used to describe an original pattern or model from which all other things of the same kind are made.

51. Allusion
Allusion- reference in a literary work to another person, event, place, etc.
Note the first significant Biblical allusion: “born of Cain”- indicates Grendel’s evil origins- one of the first Christian references in the poem.
Others: “Almighty” “Fate” “God” “He”

52. Assonance
Assonance- repetition of internal vowel sounds within a line of poetry
“in the darkness, growled in pAIn, impAtient- -- Assonance

53. Alliteration
Alliteration occurs when the initial sounds of a word, beginning either with a consonant or a vowel, are repeated in close succession. The function of alliteration, like rhyme, might be to accentuate the beauty of language in a given context, or to unite words or concepts through a kind of repetition.

54. Epithet
A word or phrase, often but not always disparaging or abusive, that expresses a character trait of someone or something.

55. Elegy
An elegy is a song or poem expressing lament, grief or regret. Many of the oldest and most lasting poems in human history have been laments.  It is sometimes also called a dirge.