Grendel Attacks the Danes
Part 1
Grendel Attacks the Danes
• Lines 1-14 speak of the warriors singing and
praising God for creation. This is an example
of allusion.
– An allusion is a author’s reference to another
____________, event, _______, place, piece of
____ or music that the reader would be familiar
with.
– Make a tally mark every time you see an allusion
and jot down the line number.
Grendel Attacks the Danes
• Line ____ references a mead hall, which was
like a barracks where the soldiers slept, ate
and drank… a lot.
• In line 20, there is a reference to ______. He
is the son of Adam and Even who killed his
brother out of jealousy and thus is the world’s
first murderer. The bible tells us that he was
________ (out of protection from others).
– Gen. 4:1-16
Grendel Attacks the Danes
• Lines 25-26 is another blatant example of the
unknown poet’s attempts to infuse this story
with _______________.
– He is attributing all things that go bump in the
night, everything that a medieval person would be
frightened of, as a descendent of Cain because of
his ______________ to God.
• Line 36 is one of my favorite instances of
__________… Grendel being the ultimate
creeper!
Grendel Attacks the Danes
• Line 37 gives us food for thought (haha) about
how big Grendel was. Consider how many
men he was able to grab easily in one fell
swoop.
• (Cartoon strip for lines 1-50)
• Lines 54-55 gives us an idea of how bad things
have gotten if the ______are no longer
partying it up, but running back home to their
wives and mamas.
Grendel Attacks the Danes
• Line 56 points out how Grendel could have
worn them down so completely… how alert
could you be after being hunted every time
you stopped to ______?
• Lines 59-60 are a short ________to those few
men who were brave enough to stand up to
him.
• Line 62 tells us how long _________has been
tormenting the Danes.
Grendel Attacks the Danes
• Lines 64-66 show us how old time _______got
from place to place.
• Lines 74-79 is a great example of keening.
– Keening is a literary term for renaming a
_______with a __________________… (kind of
like combining a pronoun with an adjective
phrase)
– Try to keep a list of the many ways Grendel,
Beowulf and Grendel’s mother are referred to.
Grendel Attacks the Danes
• Line 77 – I take back my earlier statement… THIS
is the ultimate example of Grendel being a
creeper!
– When I read that he hunted them from the marshes,
always there, __________, ________, I can’t help but
hear “I always feel like, somebody’s watching me” play
in my head!
(Music video/Movie intro)
• Line 84 tells us that as God’s _______________on
earth (stealing the Pope’s job) King
_________was protected by God and that’s why
Grendel cant’ get him.
Grendel Attacks the Danes
• In addition to your list of allusion and keening
examples, make a list for yourself of the
names of the main characters, weapons, and
places of the story as they share VERY
Germanic spellings and pronunciations.
Work Cited
COMING SOON!!