1. English Literature I: BEOWULF and Anglo-Saxon Period and Literature
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Beowulf
Source : Alexander, Michael. Beowulf : A Verse Translation. England : Clays Ltd, St Ives plc, 2003. Pp xiii-xli. Print.
Read the introduction to Beowulf and answer these questions :
1.The Venerable Bede wrote the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum in 731. What do we learn about the Angles there ?
2.How does the name « England » originate ?
3.Does Beowulf have any historical characters ? Who ? What do we know about them ?
4.Who wrote Beowulf, when was it written and what was its inteded audience ? Does the original manuscript survive ?
5.Why did the monks need to translate the gospel into English instead of leaving in Latin like they did in Gaul ? Why is this important for Literature ?
6. What makes Beowulf a remarkable poem ?
7.What is the primary theme of heroic poetry ?
8.What is Beowulf, the protagonist, like ? How is he different from Achilles or Aeneas ?
9.What do these names suggest : Grendel, Bjorn, Heorot, Beowulf ?
10.Beowulf belongs to the epic genre. What are the 4 characteristics of this genre ? Explain them briefly.
11.What do the monsters in the poem symbolise ?
12.Beowulf is a Christian poem. How is this made evident ?
13.Beowulf is different from other epic poems such as Homer’s The Illiad and The Odyssey ? Why ? What is the Ethos of this poem ? ( Ethos : the set of beliefs, ideas, etc. about the social behaviour and relationships of a person or group)
14.What are the monsters and why do they attack ?
Find the answers in your Booklet. If you surf the Internet to find more information, please write author, title of the article, website, etc., underneath your post.
15. What made King Alfred the greatest of the Anglo-Saxon kings?
16. List the characteristics of Anglo-Saxon civilisation. Describe them briefly.
17. When did Christianity come to Britain? Who brought it ? How was the conversion carried out? What did the new religion contribute to English Literature?
18. How is Anglo-Saxon Literature divided? What marks these divisions?
19. Talk about the following topics: Role of Nature in AS Literature. Tone. Time. A.S. Ideals of conduct.
20. Explain: supernatural element – style and poetic techniques – Alliteration – Kennings – Predominance of consonants – Onomatopoeia – style and construction.
21. What is the importance of Beowulf? Talk about the origin of the poem.
22. Beowulf: Describe the settings and characters.
23. Explain the following characteristics of Beowulf: fusion of Christian and Pagan elements; Wyrd.
24. Beowulf: Describe its tone and the role of Nature.
25. Beowulf: Talk about its supernatural elements, its historical & national elements.
6. What makes Beowulf a remarkable poem ? Beowulf is the best-known Old English poem because shows old English poetic style and versification at their best. Compared with other narrative verse, Beowulf is richer and more elevated in style. As an epic, it is of the same family as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey of the eight century BC. More condensed and more elegiac in tone than Homer's poem.
ReplyDeleteWell done, Dani.
DeleteHowever, because you've enrolled as a 'free' student, you needn't do any of the tasks the regular students do to pass the subject. But if you want to read the sources, watch the videos, read the replies, you are of course welcome to this Blog.
Delete4. Who wrote Beowulf, when was it written and what was its intended audience? Does the original manuscript survive?
ReplyDeleteThe poem is anonymous and likely to remain so. Most scholars think that Beowulf reached mature literary form between 750 and 950. Earlier and later dates have been proposed, but linguistic and metrical tests point to a date about the year 800. The poem’s interest is not dependent on knowledge of this kind. Yet to understand Beowulf it is necessary to distinguish the Anglo-Saxon audience from the persons in this story set on the continent several generations earlier. The audience, despite their regard for their ancestors, knew themselves to be significantly different. Life in England, may have been more settled and cultivated than the old life back home, but a more certain difference lies in the poem’s Christianity. At the first crisis in the story, it is said of Danes sacrificing to idols that they were not aware of God. The author and the audience of Beowulf knew themselves to be in a new and better dispensation. Later audiences have found it a good story, but for it first audiences it was a good story about their ancestors.
A few manuscripts in English survive from the 7th century. Vernacular verse survives in simple manuscripts and in single copies anonymous and untitled in the British library. Enough remains, however, to suggest that old English literature flourished extensively, both verse and prose. Most of the 31 thousand lines of verse surviving, chiefly in manuscripts from about the year 1000, are explicitly Christian although their Christianity is not like some varieties of Christianity that flourish today. We don’t know the circumstances of Beowulf’s composition.
Micaela Ramirez and Brian Segovia
Brian and Mica: yes, the poet is anonymous but Alexander does point out to the fact that the author must have been a cleric or clerics (senior clerics often were the rulers' kinsmen and worked for them). He also says that the poem was composed by a court audience and they would have heard its recitation over 3 evenings.
Delete15. What made King Alfred the greatest of the Anglo-Saxon kings?
ReplyDeleteAlfred the Great, (born 849—died 899), king of Wessex (871–899), a Saxon kingdom in southwestern England. He obviated England from being conquered by the Danes.
Education policies: He was responsible for adapting the Latin manuscripts into Old English. He encouraged education ,reading and writing. He also wanted the Mass to be performed in Old English rather in Latin.
His way to the English Throne: When Aethelred died in 871, and Alfred succeeded him.When he was born, it seemed illogical that Alfred would become king, because he was the 4th male son; he said that he never wanted to become King.He would have been happy only being a person who is very involved with education and learning.
Battles against the Danes: After the Danes marched to Wessex and several unsuccessful battles .He persecuted the Danes from a fort in the Somerset swamps, and not before Easter he secretly gathered a military force, which triumph over them at the Battle of Edington. They fled, and their king, Guthrum, was baptized,under Alfred’s promotion. It was the last time that Wessex faced insecurity. Alfred had a relieve from war until 885, when he confronted an attack in Kent by a Danish army, supported by the East Anglian Danes. In 886 he attacked and secured London, a success that allowed him to be recognised as King for all the English that weren’t under the Dane’s rule.The lack of success of the Danes to defeat Alfred was largely a result of the defensive actions he undertook during the war. He strengthen all fortification and built now ones at crucial places , some changes were made for their steady manning . Alfred reorganized his army and used ships against the invaders as early as 875. Later he had larger ships built to his own design for use against the coastal raids that continued even after 896. Wise diplomacy also helped Alfred’s defense. He kept friendly relations with Mercia and Wales; Welsh rulers sought his support and supplied some troops for his army in 893.
His monarchy: Alfred was successful in government as well as at war. He was an intelligent administrator, organizing his finances and the service due from his thanes (noble followers). He analyse the administration of justice and took steps to guarantee the protection of the feeble from the abuse of ignorant or corrupt judges. He promoted an significant code of laws.
Whitelok, Dorothy "Alfred King of Wessex" Encyclopedia Britanica. April 2018
Gabriel Malagueño and Leisa Martinez
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteVery well done, guys!
Delete20. Explain: supernatural element – style and poetic techniques – Alliteration – Kennings – Predominance of consonants – Onomatopoeia – style and construction.
ReplyDeleteSupernatural Element: AS made no distinction between the natural and the supernatural. Even though some real characters are present in the poem, the hero encounters, for example, imaginary and mythical monsters quite frequently, among other things such as magic.
Style and poetic techniques: An early poetry style of Germanic origin is used in AS verses, which are not rhymed (“Blank verse”).
Their poems have a strongly marked rhythm, depending on number of beats or accented syllables. Each line has four beats or accents. Each line is divided into two parts, each containing two accents, with a pause or “caesura” after the second beat or accent.
Even if there is variation in the number of unaccented syllables, producing shorter or longer lines, the number of beats or accents remains the same in all lines. The purpose of this is to ease the chanting of accented syllables along with the harps Gleeman played. This creates a captivating rhythm.
Alliteration: This technique consists of the repetition of a consonant sound, usually at the beginning of a word. One or more accented syllables in the first half of a line almost always alliterate with one or more accented syllables in the second half. As a result, both halves are connected.
Kennings: These are phrases that indirectly give an alternate name to persons, things or events. They are built elaborately with a metaphoric result, i.e. “the pathless deep” resembles the notion of the sea or an ocean, or “the sky candle” could be used make reference to the sun.
Kennings are not only enthusiastic or sombre descriptions. Along with Alliteration, they tackled the difficult task of memorizing long passages for recitation, as well as achieving rhythmic effects.
Predominance of consonants: A strong characteristic of the poetry during this era, mainly because of the Germanic and Scandinavian inflection of the language. The consonants are explosive, and their noise drowns the neighbouring vowels.
Onomatopoeia: It is the use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning. E.g. “crack”, “shriek”, etc.
The style and construction of the poetic phrase derives from another characteristic of the language: the Anglo-Saxon language expresses changes of tense, number and person either by modifications of the root vowels or by differences of termination. Its syntax, which is that of an inflected language, shows a very complex use of cases and great freedom in the arrangement of words. This freedom enables the placement of words to obey the needs of the alliterative line or the exigencies of emphasis.
López Rodrigo – Velazquez Lionela
Good job, guys!
Delete2. How does the name « England » originate ?
ReplyDeleteDuring the fifth century Germanic tribes coming from the coast of Denmark and the Rhime colonized Britain. These tribes were the Angles (settled in the north), Saxons (conquered the South) and Jutes (Conquered the Southeast).
The Welsh, the people who lived in Britain, called their conquerors Saxons. On the other hand, the Saxon’s King who was Alfred of Wessex refered to his people as English. Consequently, his successors started to call their homeland Engla-land, meaning “the land of the English”.
Montini, Cecilia and Valiente, Micaela.
Ceci and Mica: all in all, your answer is good. Let me point out 2 things, however. 1) It is RHINE ( for the River Rhine, the river flowing through Germany), not RHIME. 2) The word England comes from the phrase " Land of the Angles or Angles-land" which sounds similar to Engla-land / England. Well done, girls!
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ReplyDeleteQUESTION N° 18. How is Anglo-Saxon Literature divided? What marks these divisions?
ReplyDeleteThe Anglo-Saxons ruled England for about 600 years, founding the basis of its culture and language. Old English was spoken in very different dialects, each of them with their own characteristics. That’s why, when they arrived in England, they brought with them a rich folk literature, most of it celebrating the great deeds of heroes, real and mythical.
For many years their literature consisted in story-telling and songs, delivered by scops or gleemen, that were passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth. These recitations and chants were the real beginning of English Literature.
Some of these poems were then written down in manuscripts with the coming of the Church. However, only a few famous poems such as “Beowulf” or “The Seafarer” have survived.
Anglo-Saxon Literature is divided according to genre or subject matter, depending on the period in which they were composed. They may belong to two main periods, marked by their conversion to Christianity: Poetry of the Pagan period and the Prose of the Christian period.
Poetry was filled with the love for battle, pride and their thirst for blood, in verses with a strongly marked rhythm. The poets were inspired by swords, ships, battle scenes and the terrors of the sea. Their imagination was based on their experience - dark and gloomy weather, loneliness, melancholy, etc. No clear distinction was made between the natural and supernatural, with nature as a background to create the appropriate atmosphere for the story.
Within the Poetry, it may be divided into epic (narratives that showed dauntless warriors ideals) and lyric (displayed the darkest aspects of life and nature).
On the other hand, in the Christian Prose we can find sermons, paraphrases of the Bible and the lives of Saints. Despite of having turned away from their themes, paganism was still underlying in the telltale fashion of some written records.
TOURN, Luisina and LODI, Malena
Excellent, girls. Very well done.
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ReplyDelete6. What makes Beowulf a remarkable poem ?
ReplyDeleteBeowulf is one of the few poems which have survived during time, the only copy of it is a single medieval manuscript dated about the year 1010. It is the first large poem in English with more than three thousand lines and It is written in Anglo Saxon (West Saxon dialect of Old English).
This poem tells us a lot about the darkest aspects of nature and gives us a nice historical background. It is also considered an epic poem, and those are few in English, it represents many Christian and pagan ideas and also touches some deep topics such as death and loneliness, it also comes from an oral tradition.
On the night of 23 October 1731 a fire broke out, many manuscripts were damaged, and a few completely destroyed, Beowulf escaped the fire relatively intact but it suffered greater loss by handling in the following years. Placed in paper frames in 1845, the manuscript remains incredibly fragile, and can be handled only with the utmost care.
Corti, Carolina; Massin, Emanuel.
Well done, guys!
DeleteI'd also like to add that makes it even more remarkable is that it is a 'window' into the cultural customs and every day life of the Anglo-Saxons in their homeland, i.e. in Norway, Sweeden, Denmark, Finland. BEOWULF takes place in these countries, not in England, but it was written by the descendants of these people. So it is a quite interesting literary and historical document.
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ReplyDelete10.Beowulf belongs to the epic genre. What are the 4 characteristics of this genre ? Explain them briefly.
ReplyDeleteBeowulf it has the epic qualities of inclusive scope, objective treatment, unity of ethos and significant action.
The epic genre resolves these questions of centre and periphery, of nature and supernature. It accommodates the mythic and the monstrous. The good and evil are clearly defined in epics. The perpetual battle of man against a hostile environment. In this case would be, beowulf, the hero, that stands for good, and the giant foes he has to meet are identified with the foes of God, Evil.
A second mark of epic is objectivity. In Beowulf the world-view of oral epic is inflected by a more literary and learned perspective. The heroic life is crystallized into generic scenes: voyage, welcome, feast, boast, arming, fight, reward.
Each action in Beowulf has it fullness, and is set in the envelope of space and time. The ethical universe of poem is also set in its operations of cause and consequence, origin and end. The sense of a known universe is temporal as well as spatial. The coming of day or night or the seasons is regular.
A third epic characteristic is unity of consciousness, a sense of solidarity with the universe and with the audience. The sensibility through which our Beowulf is presented is not merely a reflex of the world it discloses; heroic poetry is not composed by heroes. The poet admires, idealizes, identifies with, the epic synthesis and works in its conventions; but is more reflective.
A fourth characteristic of epic is that the story should have a kind of self-evident and axiomatic significance. Beowulf is of a hero who braves two life-or-death ordeals against monsters. The three fights are encounters with death in different shapes and in strange, extreme situations where the hero is out of his natural element. The theme of the hero’s life-story is the human challenge to death, and its glorious and tragic potentialities.
Mathieu, Giuliana; Vittori, Giuliana.
15. What made King Alfred the greatest of the Anglo-Saxon kings?
ReplyDeleteAlfred king of Wessex from 871 to 899, was the only king in the whole of English history called “Great”. Alfred led Wessex when he was about 22 years old and much of his life was spent in defending it against the Vikings.
King Alfred was the greatest of the Anglo - Saxon for many reasons:
-Apart from helping children with their education, Alfred translated books from Latin into Anglo-Saxon for a better understanding of the English. Philosophy, History, and Religion were included in his translations.
-Besides, he was responsible for encouraging de Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
-Moreover, he took the best laws from other kingdoms and made new laws on his own.
As he had to defend the South of Wessex, Alfred built new ships, as well as forts along the coast and he also improved the army.
Aguirre, Mailen; Mandel,Luciana.
J. F. Aylett "In Search of History" Early Times-1066
Excellent, girls!
Delete16. List the characteristics of Anglo-Saxon Civilisation. Describe them briefly.
ReplyDeleteThe Angles and the Saxons, blue eyed and blond, were sea-faring tribes. They were brave, adventurous, rude, violent and cruel, and they brought with them their vigorous life of warriors. The Anglo-Saxon Civilisation was keen on fighting and this was probably because they had lived near aggressive neighbours, and for that reason they admired the individual warrior leader. The warrior occupied a leading position in their society. These tribes were used to hardships, not only did they fight against themselves and against other tribes, but also against the strong Nordic climate, the wintry, lonely seas, the cold and dark nights. But they admired endurance, which has remained part of the English character from the time of Beowulf.
Another characteristic that is important to take into account is that the Anglo-Saxons brought to England their belief in witches, magic sacred trees and graves, also their gods of darkness, war and thunder; Odin, Thor, Loki and Wyrd, the goddess of unchangeable Fate that rules over all.
As time passed, they settled down to be peaceful and civilised, but their sea-roving spirt remained.
Quatrín, Paula; Suligoy, Ludmila.
Well done! I'd like to correct one fact, though. It is not that the AS Civilisation was fond of fighting but that the Anglo-Saxons - i.e. the people - loved fighting.
Delete21. What is the importance of Beowulf? Talk about the origin of the poem.
ReplyDeleteBeowulf, heroic poem, is the biggest achievement of Old English Literature. It is the most important literary work since it is the first large epic poem in English. The text survives in a single medieval Manuscrpit in the British Library.
In comparison to other narrative verse, this is far richer and more elevate in style. The poem is relevant as a national document, because it gives us an idea of the English Anscestors´s life and their emotions.
As for the origin, Beowulf comes from Denmark and Sweeden, the Germanic or Anglo-Saxon people from this region. During the 7th or 8th Century before the arrival of Christianity. Yet, it was written in England, in English for an English Christian audience.
Banegas Katerina and Solari Daiana
That's right, girls.Good job.
Delete25. Beowulf: Talk about its supernatural elements, its historical & national elements.
ReplyDelete- Supernatural elements: They contribute to create the atmosphere of mystery.
Grendel, the main antagonist, embodies envy and agression, an uncivilized beast whose name suggests cannibalism. He's said to be a descendant of Cain and therefore he is cursed, a troll of superhuman size and strength, his eyes full of hellish light, living in the moors and marshes; he terrorizes Heorot for twelve years, killing and devouring the warriors. Finally, Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands, seeing that the troll is magically invulnerable to any sword or human weapon.
Grendel's mother is also a monster, she emerges from caverns under the sea to avenge her dead son. As Grendel, she can't be harmed by human weapons and steel melts against her hideous body, and so it takes a magic sword to defeat her. Still, her blood is so venomous that it melts the sword.
Lastly, dragons are also present in this poem, symbolizing greed for gold. The dragon is aroused by the theft of some jewels from the treasure he is guarding, sets out in fury and begins to lay waste the land, burning all that lays in his path. In defeating the dragon, Beowulf himself is mortally wounded.
- Historical elements:
Beowulf is not a historical character and his deeds belong to legend, but the poem takes place in a believable historical world, the world of those who ruled the coasts surrounding Denmark, in the fifth and sixth centuries.
In the poem, Hygelac is mentioned as the king of the Geats, a people of southern Sweden. He is certainly historical: the sixth-century Gregory of Tours, and two other Latin historians, tell us he fell in a warlike raid on some people living near the mouth of the Rhine in about the year 521.
The successors of King Alfred in the tenth century, the first kings of a united England, claimed three kings mentioned in Beowulf among their ancestors. Most prominent of these forebears is Scyld, founder of the dynasty of the Scyldings, rulers of the Danes. Another king mentioned in Beowulf is Offa, king of the continental Angles. He was claimed as an ancestor by Offa, the eight-century king of Mercia. The poem also tells of Hengest, who may be the Hengest who, according to Bede, was employed to defend Kent in 449. Hengest of Kent was a Jute, Offa of Mercia an Angle, Alfred of Wessex a Saxon.
- National elements: the lifestyle pictured in the poem conforms to the description of the Anglo-Saxon society, their customs, celebrations in the hall of their lord, with the usual mead drinking, eating and listening to heroic tales chanted by the gleeman.
It tells of warriors, either feasting or fighting, they are devoted to glee in the hall or glory in the field, and their possessions are gold cups or gold armour, the outward and visible signs of that glee and glory. When Scyld dies, they follow Scandinavian custom: he is clothed in armour, surrounded with treasures, placed on a ship and sent back to the sea.
Besides, Beowulf typifies the Anglo-Saxon ideas of personal conduct: the heroic ideals of unflinching individual courage, of a glorious personal transcendence of human limitations, is married in Beowulf to the complementary ideals of responsibility towards kindred and of mutual service between a lord and his people. Northern heroic tales involve a conflict between the obligation to lord or kinsman and obligation to an ally, a spouse, a host or a guest. These themes are raised in Beowulf, usually in the interrelated set of stories framing the central action; such stories are often alluded to rather than related fully.
Altamirano, Rocío; Gómez, Paulina.
Great, girls. Very well done!
Delete17. When did Christianity come to Britain? Who brought it? How was the conversion carried out? What did the new religion contribute to English Literature?
ReplyDeleteChristianity came to Britain in 597 AD when Pope Gregory The Great sent St. Agustine to convert the pagans Anglo-Saxons into the Roman religion.
Agustine first arrived in the Jutish Kingdom of Kent and set up his archdiocese at Canterbury. In the next generations, the rulers of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were converted. One was the King of Northumbria by the Italian monk Paulinus in 625, his people were more lastingly evangelized by Irish missionaries originally from Iona. Later, the Archbishop of Canterbuy from 669 to 690, Theodore, a Syrian Greek monk, completed the organization of a well-educated Church.
Christianity contributed extensively to English Literature due to the fact that it carried with it new words to the language, a richer culture and the most important, the copying and keeping of manuscripts. Monks wrote down laws, charters and poems which were up to those times mainly oral, so the result was a written literature beginning to evolve. We can see that fusion of literary and oral tradition in Bede’s story of Caedmon, about Creation found in the opening chapters of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, among many others poems that combined Old English poetry with Christian elements.
Rivera, Paula; Bogado, Diego.
Yes, that's it. Good job.
Delete5. Why did the monks need to translate the gospel into English instead of leaving in Latin like they did in Gaul? Why is this important for Literature?
ReplyDeleteNineteenth-century enthusiasts for the Germanic past often supposed that Old English poetry would be pagan, but this it not so. The English invaders were not aware of God, unlike the Britons, but surviving verse written in English is Christian. Literacy came with Christian monks from Rome and later from Ireland who translated the gospels into English, and wrote down laws, charters and poems in English. In France, it was different; the Franks who settled the northern part of Roman Gaul were, like the Angles, a Germanic people. But the future French learned to speak a bastard Latin, and the future English did not. If the clergy wanted to reach the people, they had to put the god spell, the good news of Christian redemption, into English. That is why English was written; a few manuscripts in English survive from the 7th Century. Vernacular verse survives in simple manuscripts and in single copies, anonymous and untitled. Enough remains, however, to suggest that Old English Literature flourished extensively, both verse and prose. Most of the 31.000 lines of verse surviving, chiefly in manuscripts from about the year 1000 are explicitly Christian although their Christianity is not like some variety of Christianity today.
Altamirano, Leandro; Ledesma, Diego.
Well done, guys!
Delete1.The Venerable Bede wrote the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum in 731. What do we learn about the Angles there ?
ReplyDeleteThe Venerable Bade (AD 673- 735) was an English priest and is thought of as the first English historian. His most famous work is Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum or The Ecclesiastical History of the English People which was completed in 731 AD. In this work is detailed the history of the Christian Church in England and the conversion of the English to Christianity from the time of Saint Augustine through the eighth century and how was successfully achieved.
This work is also considered one of the most important original references on Anglo-Saxon history and is a key source for the understanding of the development of the English identity.
Yes, indeed. Bede is also responsible for the Bible that the Catholic Church used for centuries, up until the 1960s. He translated it from the Latin. And he contributed to our Calendar.
DeleteNahuel: as you are attending the subject as a 'listener' because you have enrolled as a 'free' student, you are not asked to do any of these assignments. But you are welcomed to read the tasks and the answers left by your classmates.
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ReplyDelete8.What is Beowulf, the protagonist, like ? How is he different from Achilles or Aeneas ?
DeleteBeowulf is the nephew of Hygelac, king of the Geats and son of Edgetheow, is the type of hero in that it is his eagerness to seek out and meet every challenge alone and unarmed that makes him glorious in life and brings him to his tragic death. He also has a hero’s delight in his own prowess, and magnanimity to lesser men. It’s typical not only in its central figure but also in its world and its values.
This was the manner of the mourning of the men of the geats, sharers in the feast, at the fall of their lord: they said that he was of all the world’s kings the gentlest of men, and the most gracious, the kindest to his people, the keenest for fame.
This Beowulf’s last words Its not said of heroes such as Achille -the brilliant Achilles ‘a breaker of cities’ who never becomes a shepherd of the people - nor even aeneas, that they were gentle gracious and kind to their people. Beowulf exemplifies the heroic ideal in a socially responsible form and stresses mutual obligation more than individual glory ‘the bonds of kinship nothing may remove for a man who thinks rightly’.
Gómez, Laura; Fernández, Gimena.
Yes, indeed. Well done. I'd also like to add that Beowulf is a combination of pagan Anglo-Saxon warrior and Christian Knight: He is fierce in battle, loyal to his king and to his people but he is also a protector of those people who are helpless, he's noble and chaste.
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ReplyDelete7. What is the primary theme of heroic poetry?
ReplyDeleteThe heroic motive is this desire for ‘a name that shall never die beneath the heavens’, for a personal immortality.
When he is at the mercy of Grendel’s mother, or of the dragon, Beowulf thinks of his glory, ‘mindful of glorious deeds’. This is the primary theme of heroic poetry: the prowess, strength and courage of a simple man, undismayed and undefeated in the face of all adversaries and in all adventures. His moment of excelling is rewarded by fame; though he must die, his glory lives on.
Beowulf is a heroic poem in the simple sense that it celebrates the actions of its protagonist.
Beowulf, son of Edgetheow, is the type of hero in that it is his eagerness to seek out and meet every challenge alone and unarmed that makes him glorious in life and bring him to his tragic death. It is typical of heroic poetry in central figure and in its world and its values.
The society of the heroic age represented in many literatures centres on a lord who in peace and war is the ‘shepherd of his people’.
Beowulf last word, ‘keenest for fame’, is preceded by terms less expected. It is not said of heroes that they were gentle, gracious and kind to their people. Beowulf exemplifies the heroic ideal in a socially responsible form.
This poem is complex, tragic, full of speeches, often reflective. The unending struggle between good against evil. This is a timeless story of a brave leader who tries to save people from great peril. The hero, stands for good, and the giant foes he has to meet are identified with the foes of God, Evil. The central theme is dominated by religious concepts.
This kind of stories are complicated and tested by a clash of loyalties. It involves a conflict between the obligation to lord or kinsman and obligations to an ally, a spouse, a host or a guest. These themes are raised in Beowulf, in the interrelated set of stories framing the central action; often alluded to rather than related fully.
Moschén Yamila; Spesot, Mariel.
Brilliant girls!
Delete17. When did Christianity come to Britain? Who brought it ? How was the conversion carried out? What did the new religion contribute to English Literature?
ReplyDeleteChristianity had first come to Britain during the Roman occupation and was preserved by the Celts, who had fled to the North and West when the Anglo-Saxon invaded the island. The Irish monks started from the island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland, evangelised the northern tribes, they set up churches and monasteries in the northern England. Then, during the 600 years, Christianity returned to Britain by St Augustine, from Rome, sent by Pope George the Great and the Celtic missionaries from Ireland and Scotland. The A.S. were converted mostly through missionaries from Rome. St. Augustine converted King Ethelbert of Kent and built a church at Canterbury. He became the first Archbishop of Canterbury and promoted the spread of faith throughout the country. By the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries, churches and monasteries became the centers of culture, where the monks copied old manuscripts or wrote new ones. Old English poetry combined a sophisticated Latin literacy with an ancient native tradition of oral verse composition. This fusion of literary and oral tradition is recorded in Bebe´s story of Caedmon, about Creation found in the opening chapters of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
Christianity helped to British literature in a very important way, brought with it new words in addition to a rich culture. During this period the A.S. began to write prose rather than poetry. Poems began with translation from the Latin of philosophy, history and religion, that explains why the first recorded English literature had a religious origin. And the result was a written literature beginning to evolve.
Borda, Mailen; Quiroz Soechting, Priscila.
Good job girls. However, I'd like to make a correction: the Pope who instituted the feast of Corpus Christi in the Catholic Church was 'Gregory the Great', not George.
Delete22. Beowulf: Describe the settings and characters.
ReplyDeleteSettings:
Beowulf is the best-known old English poem and its center of gravity is the desire to make out the sense of life in the heroic age. It is set in an Scandinavian setting. Beowulf is the protagonist whose life is set on the shores of southern Scandinavia and the coasts of the North Sea, specially Denmark and Sweden during the 6th century.
The actions take place in the hall of King Hrothgar´s home, in the watery lair of two friends, and near the entrance of the fire dragon´s cave.
Characters:
Beowulf: the protagonist of this epic poem.Son of Edgetheow and the nephew of Hygelac. He is a Geatish hero who likes to meet every challenge that makes him glorious in life. He is a powerful pagan warrior but almost a Christian knight. He is very loyal and he has the strength of thirty in his hand. He signifies the true heroic character because he us willing to risk his life . He defeats three gruesome mosters,two of whom are descendants of Cain.
Hygelac: king of the Geats, a people of southern Sweden. He’s beowulf's uncle,king of the geats. It is to him that Beowulf wishes his treasures o be sent if anything happens to him.
King Hrothgar: the king of the danes. He has a great deal of compassion for his warriors and his people. He is a wise and admirable king for them. He enjoys military success and prosperity until Grendel terrorize him. He represent a different kind of leadership and he is a father figure to Beowulf and a model for the kind of king that Beowulf becomes later.
Cain: the old testament of the bible,in the book of Genesis, tells the story of how Cain killed his brother Abel. Cain was marked by God, so other would know him and cast him out of society. The giants, Grendel and Grendel's mother are descendants from Cain.
Grendel: descendant of Cain, the first-born human being, a fratricide. He represent evil and corruption. He is a demonic and bestial as well as human. He is a troll who has a human shape but a superhuman size and he is magically invulnerable to any sword or human weapon. Besides, he lives in moors, inhospital lands. He is the first monster that Beowulf killed.
Grendel´s mother: she is another monster that Beowulf killed. She is virtually undefeatable by any human, but seems to posses fewer human qualities (such as the desire of revenge). She is a descendant of Cain. She finally died in an underwater battle with Beowulf.
Wiglaf: he is a strong, confident and seemengly fearless warrior who aids Beowulf against the battle with the dragon. Wigaf's relationship with Beowulf is parellel to Beowulf's relationship with king Hothgar. He represents that the cycle of heroism continues,even after Beowulf is gone.
Dragon: an ancient, powerful serpent. Horrible in appearance. He is guarding a treasure-trove in Geatland. He is angered when a fugitive steals a single gold-plated flagon. His raids troughout the countryside lead to battle with Beowulf
Aguirre, Nataly; Moreyra, Fabio
Good job guys. I'd like to make a correction, though. When you talk of settings, you mention a 'watery lair'. This is the cave in the marshes where Grendel lives with his mother (not with a friend). Another correction: it is 'inhospitable' lands, not 'inhospital.'
Delete18. How is Anglo.Saxon Literature divided? What marks these divisions?
ReplyDeleteThe A.S. Literature may be divided into two main periods and different genres, the division being marked by their conversion to Christianity: poetry of the pagan period and the prose of the Christian period.
Pagan period (poetry): this was a period of barbarism, confusion and violence. They prized courage about all: gloty and fame in battle. Their poets inspired by sword, ships, a battle scene or the terrors of the sea. The matter of the poems of this period was North European rather than English.Their poems then, tell us not ony about the most sombre aspects of nature but also about the most sombre aspects of life: it´s brevit, death, and loneliness. Tone: it´s dominant tone is elegiac, which reflects the melancholy disposition and their grim sense of an unchangeable Fate that rules over all. Division within Anglo-Saxon Poetry: poems may be divided into EPIC and LYRIC. The epics are filled with the deeds of dauntless warriors, and they show the A.S. Ideals. The lyrics reflects the sombrest aspects of life and nature.
The Chistian Period: The prose: during the Christian period, the A.S. wrote prose rather than poetry. They Turned away from pagan themes and applied themselves instead to paraphrases of the Bible story. Their poetry was utilitarian rather than imaginative. Poems begun with with translations from the latin of philosophy, history, religion and when original works were written, they were of the same type: histories, lives of saints, sermons.
Delbón Melina, Duarte Gustavo
Division within Anglo-Saxon Poetry: poems may be divided into EPIC and LYRIC. The epics are filled with the deeds of dauntless warriors, and they show the A.S. Ideals. The lyrics reflects the sombrest aspects of life and nature.
The Chistian Period: The prose: during the Christian period, the A.S. wrote prose rather than poetry. They Turned away from pagan themes and applied themselves instead to paraphrases of the Bible story. Their poetry was utilitarian rather than imaginative. Poems begun with with translations from the latin of philosophy, history, religion and when original works were written, they were of the same type: histories, lives of saints, sermons
GENERAL FEEDBACK: In this first task, I am not evaluating whether you are capable of paraphrasing your sources, as you can see. That is why I have allowed you to copy directly from the sources, without asking you to say it in your own words. Most of you have answered the questions very well. You can copy and paste the answers (and my corrections / additions) in a Word Document and you will have a summary of Michael Alexander and part of the theory to study from.
ReplyDeleteIMPORTANT!!
ReplyDeleteThose students who have not ANSWERED any questions or have done so AFTER THE DEADLINE, have a BELOW STANDARD automatically. That is to say, they have not passed this task.