1. Instructor: Angela Bailey

2. Background An Anglo Saxon poem.
First composed by an unknown poet around 700 A.D.
Was in circulation as an oral narrative for many years prior.
Originally written in Old English
Old English originates from Germanic and Anglo-Saxon languages.
Some characters, such as the royal family members, correspond to actual historical figures.
A pagan story with a Christian narrator.

3. Background 30,000 lines of Anglo-Saxon poetry survive today
3, 182 (10%) of the lines are from Beowulf
Setting - Denmark and Sweden
Author - Unknown, probably a monk
Composed in the 7th or 8th century
Oldest surviving English poem

4. Old
English

5. The Title Anglo-Saxon word Beo means “bright” or “noble”
Anglo-Saxon word wulf means “wolf”
Beowulf means bright or noble wolf
Other sources say Beo means “bear”

6. Characters
Beowulf
King Hrothgar
Grendel
Grendel’s Mother
Unferth

7. Beowulf Epic hero Geat (from southern Sweden)
Nephew of Higlac (King at story’s start)
Sails to Denmark to help Hrothgar

8. Hrothgar Danish king Builds Herot (banquet hall) for men
Tormented by Grendel for 12 years
Loses many men to Grendel
Joyless before Beowulf’s arrival

9. Grendel Referred to as demon and fiend Haunts the moors (swampy land)
Descendant of Cain
Feasts on 30 men the night of 1st attack

10. Grendel’s Mother Referred to as she-wolf Lives under a lake
Challenges Hrothgar when she kills one of his best men

11. Themes
Theme: the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Heroic Code vs. Other Value Systems
A Good Warrior vs. A Good King
Establishing Identity