ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE: BEOWULF [English Literature I ]
Instructions:
In groups of 3, choose ONE question about the essay by Alexander and compose an answer. You will have to create a GoogleDoc to be able to work together as a group and make your contributions. Once you have your answer ready and checked for mistakes, you copy and paste it into the Blog. You should copy and paste the question first. At the end of your post, write ALL your names.
I
Bibliography [in your Booklet]:
Alexander, Michael. Beowulf :
A Verse Translation. England: Clays Ltd, St Ives plc, 2003. Pp
xiii- xli. Print.
DEADLINE: Fri 19, April, 2019 - 12:00 PM
(no entries will be evaluated after this time!)
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 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)
13.What are the monsters and why do they attack ?
