BEOWULF975-1025 AD

Þæt wæs god cyning!

DRA. BABYNETS NELYA

• HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT BEOWULF?

• WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE?

• DO YOU THINK EPIC NARRATIVE IS STILL RELEVANT IN THE 21ST CENTURY?

WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

WHAT ABOUT THIS MOVIE?

• The Anglo-Saxons were Germanic tribes that conquered Celtic Britons in 5th century.

• They emphasized bravery, honor and glory in battle.

• It was a patriarchal society based on the concepts of kinship, comitatus and fraternity.

WHO WERE THE ANGLO-SAXONS?

• Is the close relationship between anindividual and the other members of thetribe.

• Members of the tribe were related byblood or by marriage. But even if theywere not, anyone who was in the tribe wasconsidered to be kin (family).

• The most important claim of kinship thatone could make was king.

• Ancestor worship (fathers, grandfathers,etc.).

KINSHIP

COMITATUS• It is a Germanic power arrangement in whicha king was obliged to rule in consultationwith his knights.

• Knights or thanes swore absolute fidelityto their king, who, in exchange, gave tothe knights land, money, jewelry, war gear,feasts in his hall, and other benefits.

FRATERNITY• It is the close social bonds among the menof the tribes.

• The Anglo-Saxons lived together, workedtogether and died together.

• Everything was done to benefit theirsociety.

GLORY AND FATE• An Anglo-Saxon warrior’s motivation was to live

and die with glory. This concept determinedeverything they sad and did off and on thebattlefield.

• Violence was the part of everyday life. Thebonds of fraternity demanded that the death of atribe member be avenged.

• Wergild was money paid to the family of thevictim of a murder by the offender. The Anglo-Saxons believed in destiny determined by pagangods.

AN ANGLO-SAXON MEAD-HALL

LANGUAGE OF BEOWULF

THE HISTORY OF ENGLISHEnglish is divided into three periods:

• Old English (ca. 449-1100)

• Middle English (ca. 1100-1500)

• Modern English (ca. 1500-).

While many people think of Shakespeare's English asold, Shakespeare wrote and spoke Modern English,albeit, an early form of it. Chaucer's poetry,including his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales,are a good examples of Middle English poetry. Beowulfis an Old English poem. Old English is sometimes knownas Anglo- Saxon.

THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH: ANGLO-SAXONS

WHO? WORDS?

Romans

Anglo-Saxons

Early Chrisitan missionaries

Vikings

THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH

THE OLD ENGLISH ALPHABET

• RUNES: Old English makes use of unfamiliarletters, most of which derive from the runicalphabet, an alphabet used by the Germanictribes.

• These letters are þ (thorn) and ð (eth) (often

used interchangeably to represent the "th" soundof "that" and "thin"), æ (ash) (the vowel soundin cat), and ƿ (wynn), which represents “w".

• ROMAN ALPHABET: 20 letters were directly adoptedfrom the Latin alphabet B, C, D, E, F, L, M, N,O, P, R, S, T, etc.

POETICSALLITERATION: Alliteration is the repetition of stressed

sounds, particularly consonants from the beginning of words

or syllables. Poetically, alliteration can have a similar

function as rhyme. An example of alliteration is the tongue-

twister "She sells seashells by the sea shore.”

CAESURA: Old English poetry is also commonly marked by the

caesura or pause. In addition to setting pace for the line,

the caesura also grouped each line into two couplets.

POETICSVARIATION: The Old English poet was particularly fond of describing the same person or

object with varied phrases. The Beowulf poet refers in three and a half lines to a

Danish king as "lord of the Danes" (referring to the people in general), "king of the

Scyldings" (the name of the specific Danish tribe), "giver of rings" (one of the

king's functions is to distribute treasure), and "famous chief".

KENNINGS: Kennings are a special form of compounding that are metaphoric in meaning.

For example, the kenning hronrad (hron + rad), literally "whale's road," refers to the

sea; and rodores candel, literally "sky's candle," refers to the sun.

KENNINGS:BREAKER OF TREES

RING GIVER

BONE HOUSE

BLOOD WORM

HEAVEN'S JEWEL

WAVE SWINE

WOUND SEA

WHALE’S WAY

SWAN OF BLOOD

FEED THE EAGLE

GIRL OF THE HOUSE

BANE OF WOOD

SLEEP OF THE SWORD

BATTLE SWEAT

SPEAR DIN

LIGHT OF BATTLE

RAVEN HARVEST

BEOWULF

BEOWULF: SHRINKING THE EPIC

Monster Grendel's tastes are plainish.Breakfast? Just a couple Danish.

King of Danes is frantic, very.Wait! Here comes the Malmo" ferry

Bring Beowulf, his neighbor,Mighty swinger with a saber!

Hrothgar's warriors hail the Swede,Knocking back a lot of mead;

Then, when night engulfs the HallAnd the Monster makes his call,

Beowulf, with body-slamWrenches off his arm, Shazam!

Monster's mother finds him slain,Grabs and eats another Dane!

Down her lair our hero jumps,Gives old Grendel's dam her lumps.

Later on, as king of GeatsHe performed prodigious feats

Till he met a foe too tough(Non-Beodegradable stuff)

And that scaly-armored dragonScooped him up and fixed his wagon.

Sorrow-stricken, half the nationFlocked to Beowulf's cremation;

Round his pyre, with drums a-muffleDid a Nordic soft-shoe shuffle.

By Maurice Sagoff

Beowulf: A Dual-Language Edition by Howell D. Chickering, Jr.

Iċ seċġe ēoƿþancas!