Thor’s Day, August 15: Meet Beowulf!

EQ: What is Old English, and what did it look and sound like?

  • Welcome! Gather work, Beowulf packet, pen/pencil, wits!Get ready to write/read!
  • Submit Missing Work!
  • Lecture/Presentation: Old English Poetry
  • CLOZE: Britain Before 1066 (YOUR notes yesterday/today)
  • BeowulfIntro: Sight and Sound
  • Reading Beowulf

ELACC12RL-RI1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence

ELACC12RL-RI2: Determine two or more themes or central ideas of text and analyze their development over the course of the text

ELACC12RL3: Analyze the impact of the author’s choices

ELACC12RL6: Analyze a case in which grasping point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant.

ELACC12RL-RI9: Analyze works of British literary and historical importancefor theme, purpose and rhetoric

ELACC12RL10: Read and comprehend complex literature independently and proficiently.

ELACC12SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions

ELACC12SL2: Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media in order to make informed decisions and solve problems

ELACC12SL4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence

“Periods” of English Language and Literature

  • Old English (OE): ???? – 1066
  • Sometimes called “Anglo-Saxon”
  • Example: Beowulf
  • Middle English (ME): 1066 – 1500s
  • Development from Hastings to Spenser, etc.
  • Example: Chaucer
  • Modern English: 1500s – today
  • Doesn’t mean “just like now”!
  • Examples: Shakespeare up to now

Anglo-Saxon Language and Literature

  • Saxon words tend to be short (1-2 syllables) with simple sounds, giving us our most basic English words: love, hate, life, death, skin, bone, food, drink, good, bad, big, small, etc. Saxon words are the oldest and most essential in English.
  • Saxon poetry does not rhyme – words/vowels too short!
  • Alliteration – repeating beginning consonant sounds
  • Heavy beats, usually 4 per line; 3 of these alliterate

I war with the wind, with the waves I wrestle;

I must battle with both when the bottom I seek….

I am strong in the strife, while still I remain;

As soon as I stir, they are stronger than I.

They wrench and they wrest, till I run from my foes;

What was caught in my keeping is carried away.

If my back be not broken, I baffle them still.

Hard rocks are my helpers, when hard I am pressed;

Grimly I grip them. Guess what I’m called.

Anglo-Saxon Language and Literature

  • Saxons did not write! They composed oral poetry.
  • “Folk literature”: ORAL Literature passed from generation to generation – not written down!
  • A favorite poem was customized by a s¢op, “shaper,” who sang to warriors in mead hall – still not written down!
  • Finally written downby Christian missionaries in the so-called “Cotton Manuscript.” These changed Pagan poems to suit Christian needs, replacing “Gods” with “God,” etc.

Excerpts from Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.

The so-called “Cotton Manuscript,” the oldest version of Beowulf that exists. It was probably written by a Christian monk in about 1000 CE. It was badly damaged by a church fire in 1731.

Beowulfin Saxon (Old English)

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,

monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra

ofer hronrade hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan. þæt wæs god cyning!
ðæm eafera wæs æfter cenned,
geong in geardum, þone god sende
folce to frofre; fyrenðearfe ongeat

þe hie ær drugon aldorlease
lange hwile. Him þæs liffrea,
wuldres wealdend, woroldare forgeaf;
Beowulf wæs breme (blæd wide sprang),
Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in.

Swa sceal geongguma gode gewyrcean,
fromum feohgiftum on fæder bearme,
þæt hine on ylde eft gewunigen
wilgesiþas, þonne wig cume,
leode gelæsten; lofdædum sceal

in mægþa gehwære man geþeon.

  1. List two modern English words derived from Anglo-Saxon:
  2. A line of Saxon poetry has ____ “heavy beats”; ____ of these alliterate.
  3. What is alliteration?
  4. What is folk literature?
  5. What did a s¢op do?

Who finally wrote down (and changed) Saxon poems?

Strength

Gender

Leaders

Heroes

Monsters

Choices

Technology

Ontology

Group Project: Meditations on Beowulf

20 point Major Grade ~ Presentations Tu-Wed, Jan. 29-30

In groups you will read, study, and discussBeowulf through one of several “critical lenses”:

  • Strength
  • Heroes
  • Leaders
  • Monsters
/
  • Gender
  • Choices
  • Ontology
  • Technology

Your group will make a presentation to define your topic, explain why it’s important, and make a point about how the idea works in life and in Beowulf.

Each presentation needs to:

  • Define and explain the concept that forms the group’s “critical lens.” Don’t just read a dictionary’s definition; show that you understand it by putting it into your own words, and by being able to answer questions about it.
  • Illustrate the concept by discussing what it means and how it operates in Beowulf. This means your presentation will need:
  • athesis, just as if it were an essay – which, indeed, presentations lead to;
  • discussion of 2-3 specific passages. Don’t summarize, but read the passages and explain how point is illustrated at that moment in poem.

Presentations will be governed by the following parameters:

  • You must do all that is asked above: define and explain the concept generally, then tell how it operates in the poem, first giving a thesis and then illustrating it with passages from the text, citing lines.
  • Presentation must fill at least 10 minutes to pass, at least 15 minutes to make an A.
  • All group members must be clearly involved in the presentation.
  • Presentation goes on scheduled day even if some group members are absent. Each individual must be able to carry the presentation to at least a rudimentary degree. This is what will be expected of you in the “real world”; the show must go on.
  • You may use notes, but don’t simply read them. Do something instead, or additionally: poster, playact, puppet show, pantomime, palindromes, panorama, panic (no, don’t).

This is a twenty-point MAJOR grade. Each member of the group must be clearly involved to earn credit. Grade will be determined and recorded using the rubric on the back of this sheet.

Project Rubric: Meditations on Beowulf

\ Score
Criteria \ / Standard
Not Met;
No Credit / Standard
Not Yet Met
20-60% credit / Standard met
PASSING WORK
70 – 80% credit / Standard met
GOOD WORK
80 – 90% credit / Standard Exceeded
EXCELLENT!
90 – 100% credit
Group Work:
_____/10 points / Some group members not involved in Presentation or Project Work / Most work done by one member
Group or member frequently needs redirecting or is disruptive / All do some work but not equally
Group or member sometimes needs redirecting or is disruptive / Work shared more or less equally
Group members need no redirecting, are not disruptive / All members fully involved at all stages of discussion, writing and presentation
Presentation: Content
_____/60 points / Lacks:
- definition of concept
- explanation of concept
- discussion of twoepisodes from poem, quoting text and citing lines / All are thin:
- definition of concept
- explanation of concept
- discussion of two episodes from poem, quoting text and citing lines / Two are thin:
- definition of concept
- explanation of concept
- discussion of two episodes from poem, quoting text and citing lines / One is thin:
- definition of concept
- explanation of concept
- discussion of two episodes from poem, quoting text and citing lines / All three ROCK:
- definition of concept
- explanation of concept
- discussion of three or more episodes from poem, quoting text and citing lines
Presentation AS Presentation
_____/30 points / Presentation runs <10 min.
Group members not focused in presentation or disrupt other presentations / Presentation runs 10 – 11 mins.
Speaker(s) frequently stumble over names / words
Presentation consists only of reading notes / Presentation runs 11-12 mins.
Speaker(s) have a few stumbles over words
Presentation includes more than reading from notes, but not a lot more / Presentation runs 12-14 mins.
Good group focus, no stumbles
Presentation includes dynamic, engaging work beyond reading from notes / Presentation runs 15+ min.
Presentation ROCKS

Group Project Score = ______/ 100

BritLitComp Group Reading/Teaching: Beowulf

Complete this worksheet and submit it today. I will use it to remind you of your mission.

Group Name:

Group Members’ Names:

Group’s chosen “critical lens”:

Group description of what your “critical lens” entails, means, implies:

BritLitComp Group Reading/Teaching: Beowulf

Complete this worksheet and submit it today. I will use it to remind you of your mission.

Group Name:

Group Members’ Names:

Group’s chosen “critical lens”:

Group description of what your “critical lens” entails, means, implies: