Curriculum To Do List

• Identify tone and analyze its development over the course of the text.

• Use textual evidence to support your analysis.• Analyze a text’s diction and its effectiveness.• Identify figurative language and literary

devices in a text and explain their purpose. • Analyze explicit vs. implicit meaning in a text.

Beowulf Literary UnitTwo Texts We’ll Study:

1. Epic Poem- Beowulf Poet- unknown Anglo-Saxon

2. Elegy- “The Seafarer”Poet- unknown Anglo-Saxon

The focus of this

presentation!

The focus of this

presentation!

The Beowulf Text

• First work ever recorded in Old English- The Ancestral Language of English speakers.

• Surviving version of text composed around 750 and written down in in the 11th century.

• Originated as a FOLK EPIC, presented by scops.• Referred to as a “self-portrait” of a culture.• Viewed mostly as an historical text until the

20th century.• Considered England’s National Epic.

England- The Name Says it All!

• Britain’s Invaders- Britons, Gaels, Celts, Romans, and eventually the Anglo-Saxons.

• Anglo-Saxons: pagan tribes from the area we know today as Germany.

• Invasion Motivation: deep-Sea fishermen and farmers seeking new land and better waters.

• Britain acquires the name “Angle-Land” from its Scandinavian invaders.

A Snapshot of Beliefs and Cultures

• Christianity and Pagan culture battle for victory in this newly invaded country.

• The text Beowulf represents both belief systems and cultures.

• “Good” vs. “Evil” dominate the plot.• Depicts warrior culture and a very hierarchical

social structure (kings, warriors, commoners, servants/peasants).

Anglo-Saxon Literature Basics

• Poetry (their good stuff)-heroic: recounts the achievements of

warriors (Beowulf).-elegiac: laments the loss of people and the past (“The Seafarer”).

• Prose- Composed in Latin b/c the vernacular was viewed as a “vulgar tongue”.

Epic Poetry

• Basic Elements: Epic Hero, a quest, valorous deeds, divine intervention, and great events.

• Showcases characteristics such as: courage, strength, and dignity.

• Begins usually “in medias res”.• Overall tone is serious.• Style is lofty.• Long speeches that catalog battles, weapons, and

royal gifts.• Function as entertainment and an education.

Epic Hero

• High Social Status and/or standing.• Larger-than-life figure who nonetheless is mere

mortal…interesting!• Is the “good guy”.• Important to his culture and his people!• The epitome of what it means to be part of its

culture and its time.

Things to Consider…

• Elements of Christian and Pagan Beliefs and Cultures

• What is good and what is evil?• Allusions- the Creation story, Cain and Abel• Why is Grendel so angry?• What does the description of Hrothgar tell us

about Anglo-Saxon Warrior kings?• How does this work of art convey a sense of

everyday Anglo Saxon culture (beliefs, customs, etc.)