Beowulf

1. Beowulf Unknown Poet

2. Beowulf • Germanic traditional epic • Specifically Anglo-Saxon • Warring culture • 3,000 line epic poem • First literary composition in the English Language • Composed sometime between 600-900 C.E. 700 is our best guess. • Written down 200-300 years later.

3. History of the text • Poem exists in one manuscript only (in British Library) • Survived fire in 18th century • This scare led to the copying, editing, translating of the copy • Now an integral part of the canon. • A group of the most important literature of any given time period, genre, author, etc.

4. Beowulf • Poem written in England • Set in Scandinavia • Follows the Scandinavian prince, Beowulf. • Poem has three major plots • Beowulf, a warrior for the Geats, crosses the sea to help the Danes kill the man-eating monster Grendel. • He must also kill Grendel’s mother • Beowulf returns and rules for fifty years as king. A dragon terrorizes the country and Beowulf must confront it. • Beowulf slays the dragon but meets his own death. He enters the legend of his people as a hero.

6. Beowulf • Poem shows life in the Dark Ages. • Begins with soldiers in a hall, drinking mead • Grendel eats them all. Yum. • Grendel is the spawn of Cain, the murderous brother in the Old Testament.

7. Grendel

8. Objectives • To identify elements of Anglo-Saxon culture • Analyze use of literary elementys: • Imagery • Symbolism • Alliteration • Kennings • Analyze central theme of the poem • Analyze characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon hero • Recognize pagan and Christian elements