DRAWING ASSIGNMENT FOR BEOWULF

Draw two pictures that will illustrate the ending of the death of Grendel’s mother section of the text. You’ll get a piece of paper in class; put one drawing on each side.  Full points for complete accuracy (show what the text says), most points for mostly right, HALF POINTS FOR EFFORT.

·         Lines 1623-1639     The procession of Geats back to Herot

·         Lines 1643-1650      The entrance of Beowulf into Hrothgar’s court

Turn these in on Monday in your regular classroom.  I’ll pick them up at the end of the day.

FRIDAY IN CLASS
Discussion focussed on the section between Unferth's taunt (might have finished that up in some classes) and the end of Beowulf's actual battle with Grendel.  This is mostly from 499 or later (depending on how far we'd gotten with the taunt and Beowulf's handling of it) through part of the battle--it varied.

Announcement of two quizzes:

• Tuesday, Oct. 27 Beowulf from the beginning to line 990 (end of  Section 14)
• Wednesday, Oct. 28  Fuller quiz over Anglo-Saxon historical intro and invasion history, the literary and cultural material in the textbook, the PowerPoint on the manuscript composition and history,  significant terms, and the three short poems.
• Students received a stapled hand-out of the early history/invasion history of Britain.  STUDY THIS.
• 6th period got the complete study guide.  

TODAY IN CLASS

All of the material for the Wednesday quiz is listed on a hand-out.  I will try to link that, but right now I can't find where it is saved.  GET ONE TOMORROW IF YOU DON"T HAVE IT, but what is listed above is a great start.
And here is the manuscript history to review: Beowulf PowerPoint

In 2nd/3rd, I returned the Seafarer work and encouraged a review of that poem with an emphasis on relating the parts to similar elements we have seen so far in Beowulf.  The idea is to understand that Anglo-Saxon poetry has certain features that are present in many texts--NOT just something that the Beowulf poet did.

• Note the number of times that the poem refers in close connection to God (through Christian influence) AND to Fate (wyrd in Old English).  Lines 41-43, 64-70, and 115-116 are examples of this.
• However, the poem ENDS with the focus on Heaven:  "that eternal joy, / That life born in the love of God/ And the hope of Heaven" (120-123)
• In pagan tradition, immortality is gained through FAME--the stories people tell after you are gone.  Study lines 72-80 to see how this works.
• Also, the end of the pagan tradition is indicated with the fact that throwing coins into a grave (or putting treasure on a burial ship) does NOT go to heaven . . . .See lines 96-102.
• Two terms to connect to this poem:  Mutability (everything changes; what's on earth now will be gone tomorrow) and elegy/elegiac tone (the sense of loss or mournful regret about past leaders, or ways of life, or culture of the past),  See lines 81 and following.

In 6th we didn't try to go over this.  You will be just fine if you go over it on your own.  

Here's a link to the same Burton Raffel translation of "The Seafarer" as the one in your book:

"The Seafarer" in a different textbook
Scroll down to the poem.  I'm using this vs. other individual versions because this has line numbers and they don't.

We didn't talk about kennings/alliteration/assonance today in any class.  Most people had the first two just fine on the homework--we'll look at a couple of (harder-to-find) examples of assonance.

FOR TOMORROW re: poetry review:
Review the Wanderer before class, using the online version that marks key devices:
"The Wanderer" (with study aids!)

Now Back to the Main Event--Keep reading Beowulf.  You have a schedule that says we should finish by Friday.  We may have to adjust that.

• But for tomorrow, you should do your best to get to Friday's schedule:  line 1250, end of Section 19.  
• On Wednesday, after the quiz, your in-class reading should be 1321-1816. It should  be easy enough to finish that by Thursday even if you don't have much time after the quiz.
• More later on finishing up from there-- I will probably "abridge" a few sections and and pick up closer to the end. 

FOR TOMORROW

2nd/3rd, in the Seamus Heaney translation:
Read to line 835, which is at the very top of p. 57.

6th, in the Burton Raffel translation:
In class I said to read sections 8-13, but it's actually only through section 12

FRIDAY IN CLASS
I was out of town, and we were too close to the start of Beowulf to give you a worthy group work assignment or even worthwhile individual questions.  The object was just to READ.  You were supposed to start reading in class, get as far as you could, and read more over the week-end to get to the following point.  Since the sections have different translations, the reading assignment is given two ways.

2nd and 3rd:  line 498, p. 35
6th: through section 7, ending on p. 23

IN CLASS TODAY
We straightened out the Danes (Jutland/modern Denmark) vs. the Geats (Sweden), and noted that there was a different tribe, actually called the Swedish, who also lived in Sweden. And no,
Beowulf is not related in any way to Beo (the son of Schild/grandfather of Hrothgar). We established Hrothgar's creds as a king, noted details of the building of Heorot/Herot (more details to come), the ancestry of Grendel, and what specifically irritated him.  (NOT just "the noise" in the hall)

We made note of the evident knowledge of the Bible (at least Genesis in the Old Testament) on the part of the scop, in that the story of Cain and the Creation story are both mentioned here.  However, be prepared to see mixed messages, though, of both the belief in Fate (wyrd) as well as in Christianity.  The heroic ideal will also reflect values taken from both traditions.

We looked at Grendel's first attack in part to note that we have to infer or deduce a physical description--nothing in the poem describes how he looks.  Killing 30 men in their sleep and carrying them off to his lair, however, suggests considerable size and strength!

NOW--what I just wrote doesn't take the place of reading. If you just didn't read in class or over the week-end, go back and read now.  You have a head-start based on this post; now keep going till you get to the assigned point.

FOR TOMORROW
If you're behind to your best to catch up.  If you're hopelessly stuck, read FIVE MORE PAGES and have some specific questions to ask tomorrow.

If you're on target, just go ahead with five more pages of reading. (In the Heaney text, this means "ten" page numbers, but you're only reading the right-hand side.)

Wednesday in class--
Well,  classes wound up all over the place:  good progress in 2nd, zero progress in 3rd (lock-down), and 6th was somewhere in between.  Even homework (or the lack thereof) was different.

Thursday in class--
So today was a bit uneven as well.  What I can say for sure is the following:

• By now everyone should have the text of Beowulf (though a few in 6th have hand-outs only, and you will get successive sets).
• 2nd and 3rd received a "Glossary of Names" to help you keep track as we read.  This is taken from the book that 6th period is using (p. 124 and following), so the only people who got the hand-out in 6th are the ones who don't have a book.
• By now everyone has seen the PowerPoint on the history of the Beowulf text.  It is important; you need to know the three dates associated with the text (time of the actual events, time of oral composition by a scop,  and the time that the poem was written down), the nature and transmission of stories developed orally, the two collectors associated with the text, and what happened to the manuscript.
• So you need to have a way to view this if you were absent, and to review it later.  Here's where to find it: Beowulf PowerPoint
• We discussed the Prologue, which is the section covered by lines 1-63 in the Heaney translation.

FOR TOMORROW

Everyone was assigned to read more:

• 2nd and 3rd:  you need to read to p. 17, through line 228
• 6th:  I made a mistake and told you only up to Section 2.  It would be to your advantage, though, to read 2 and most of 3. 

Going forward--reading ahead will always be okay so long as you double back and review as we go. The people who read ahead and then review are always the most successful with this  text.

Everyone should expect a fairly rapid reading pace starting on Monday. 

Sutton Hoo Ship Burial

History of Sutton Hoo helmet

TODAY  IN CLASS
(I'll update this part later.)

FOR TOMORROW

The version I've posted is by the same translator as the textbook poem.  But it has some additional study aids that will help reinforce some of the Anglo-Saxon poetry literary terms from your worksheet. Normally I wouldn't want to do that--I'd much rather have you find examples on your own.  But it's more important to learn this material fast so we can move on to the "main event," Beowulf.  

So for tomorrow, read the poem carefully, paying close attention to the highlighted material and explanations in the margins.  Look at this version even if you finished reading the whole poem in class.  I am not asking you to answer any written-out questions, but DO jot down questions you may have as you read.

"The Wanderer" (with study aids!)