Beowulf
For teachers
The link below takes you to a BBC page, where you click on 'Launch the Timeline'. The first image
contains the Anglo Saxon info and the second (arrow at bottom right takes you to next page)
contains the Viking info, and that is 1000AD and as far as we need to look for the purposes of
Beowulf. Each of the two images has 6 clickable aspects (jester, bottle, bomb, globe, microphone and
shield - when you hover mouse over them a sound plays also) These lead to 'drop down' snippets either audio clips, historical trivia or teaching points.
You might spend 15 minutes on these two slides, and get pupils to make mini fact balloons in their
books, or go through the snippets and afterwards get pupils to decide in pairs which two things had
piqued their interest so they would like to know more about them. Then set a research homework,
for them to feed back to the group in a later lesson.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/launch_tl_ages_english.shtml
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Just for teachers to read to raise some questions you may wish to address with class in simpler terms!
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What can be known about a unique poem in a unique manuscript, dated around the year 1000 AD? What do we know
about the circumstances of its composition? Is it literary, oral, or something in-between? What can we never know? Beowulf
is both strange and familiar: it has some links with ancient classical poems like Homer's; 19thc ideas of it have been
received and reworked in the course of the 20th century in academe, children's literature and adult popular culture;
and yet it remains an ancient artifact of a culture whose world we can never share.
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The manuscript and its editions always present us with a linguistic obstacle: Old English has a different kind of grammar from
Modern. Old English is like Latin or Russian, or many other languages whose grammar is expressed by inflection. In an Old
English sentence, especially in the poetry, syntax (the order of words) much more fluid than in Modern. Spelling will seem
inconsistent, even random, in our terms; the alphabet contains some unfamiliar letters derived from runes.
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Translation of a language removed in kind and in time is a process of exploration, not a neat matching of word and idiom to
sense, or the grammar of one language to the grammar of another. We will use translation as our primary means of reading
Beowulf.
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What kind of overlap can be found between our written, literary experience of the poem, and its earlier oral delivery, which
may have been memorized, reconstituted anew each time, and was always designed for being heard? In Beowulf and other
Old English poems, impact was always made through oral performance. When such poetry is written down, it is
neither strictly oral nor graphic.
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Within the poem, no distinction is made between myth and history, although it is now read as though it were 'history with
fabulous elements' or 'myth with some correspondence to fact.' Beowulf cannot accurately be described as fiction or
fact. It is a kind of narrative comprised of analogical episodes, people, creatures more or less human, praise, blame,
lyrical moments, grim comedy and even grimmer tragedy.
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The poem makes an icon of a former age, constructed as such very consciously by a maker of poems, literate, somewhat
literate or not at all literate, from familiar elements in this particular way. Analogies are built which bridge the pre-Christian
and Christian Germanic worlds, by making the characters in the poem noble, monotheistic pre-Christians, for an audience of
Christian Germanic people; the poem is not anachronistic, and is, even in our terms, accurately placed according to 'history.' It
is a story about 'those others who were ourselves'.
Links
 Beowulf graphic novel sample pages
Use the photocopies from the graphic novel. Discuss how style of
artwork matches style of the narrative. Get pupils to plan, design
and produce a panel like the examples using the extract we will
read. Do in pairs and stress that language choice is as important as
the images, because it has to be condensed.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_(hero)
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grendel
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grendel%27s_mother
Film, internet and TV resources for teachers
 Watch ‘Beowulf’
 Watch Michael Woods documentary
 teaching resources (beginners)
 audio clip
 more web resources - ideas
Other ideas
 Learn how to make notes while watching extracts from the
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documentary
Research some aspect of Beowulf in library or online
Write positive or negative film reviews of the movie
Design two book covers, one for children and one for adults
Presentation : They will make a 3 minute presentation in pairs
during the final week English during this project. Make sure you
introduce this in the first lesson and keep reminding them that
it’s their homework. Teach them some presentation skills
(stance, voice) and remind them that they can make
powerpoints, but that BOTH will be assessed on their spoken
contribution, so they shouldn’t just rely on reading a screen.
Introduction
 Keywords and learning objectives
 Epic poem, saga
 Introduce Beowulf, explain why it’s translated, listen to
extract below
 youtube clip reading opening in Old English
(pupils can learn and practice speaking a few words, like ‘Hwaet!’)
 Read introduction. Pupils make lists in pairs as to why it’s a good
beginning to a story.
‘Beowulf’ is a poem of more than 3000 lines. Because real people
are referred to in the text, we know that it is set in the early 6th
century. Some of the events it records may be based on historical
fact, but it is an epic, or heroic poem – it’s imaginative, intended
to praise the hero , just like in adventure movies now.
The earliest form of English literature developed after the
settlement of the Saxons in England after the withdrawal of the
Romans and is known as Old English or Anglo-Saxon.
We have to read the translation of the poem because Old English
looks like a foreign language to us today!
The beginnings…
 The poem Beowulf tells of Beowulf the Geat, a
warrior from Sweden, who travels to Denmark to
end the twelve-year reign of terror of Grendel and
Grendel's mother.
 Beowulf (Old English - pronounced [be-oh-wulf])
is a legendary Geatish hero and later turned king
in the epic poem named after him, one of the
oldest surviving pieces of literature in the English
language.
Beowulf is an epic. A long poem that tells of heroic deeds.
In the first thousand years AD, Germanic tribes spread all
around the lands surrounding the North Sea – this region
included Denmark, Sweden and the British Isles. Thus
whoever wrote the poem originally would have heard
these Germanic tales at home in Britain.
Scholars don’t know exactly when this unknown author
wrote ‘Beowulf’, but many think it was first written down
between AD 700-800.
In about AD 1000, the Anglo Saxon scribes, who copied
books by hand, produced a copy of the poem that still
exists. The copy is very fragile as its pages are a thousand
years old, but it is preserved in the British Library in
London.
British Library link with podcast and background
How it looked
Beowulf
Beowulf is the earliest known narrative poem in English, and one of
the most famous works of Anglo-Saxon poetry. The poem tells the
breathtaking story of a struggle between the hero, Beowulf, and a
bloodthirsty monster called Grendel. For many winters, the court of
the Danish King Hrothgar has been terrorised by the fearsome
monster Grendel, who comes at nightfall to devour men in their
sleep. Beowulf kills the monster, and is celebrated as a great hero but joy turns to horror when Grendel's mother arrives to avenge
the killing of her son.
This is the only known manuscript of Beowulf, and dates from
c.1000. However, the poem is much older than this manuscript some historians believe it might date right back to c.750.
Beowulf - The Story
The Danish king Hrothgar was enjoying a great reign when he begins having
trouble in his kingdom with a monster Grendel that has invaded his mead
hall. The mead hall is the gathering place of the Danes where they sing and
feast, yet Grendel occupies it nightly devouring any Dane who enters. For
twelve years Grendel prevents anybody from entering the mead hall
causing Hrothgar to be miserable.
From across the sea the Geats hear of the Danes terrible problem with
Grendel and rush Beowulf and a group of his men to aid the Danes. The
men arrive and immediately prepare to take on Grendel at night. They camp
out in the mead hall and wait for Grendel. When he comes they are all
asleep but Beowulf who is only pretending. Grendel snatches up one
soldier and eats him. Next he reaches to eat Beowulf, who grabs Grendel's
arm and rips it off. Grendel fleas leaving a long trace of blood, and Beowulf
and his men rejoice knowing Grendel is dead. Beowulf hangs the arm from
the rafters of the mead hall.
Later that night Grendel's mother comes to the mead hall to avenge her son's
death and snatches up one soldier quickly while also picking up her son's
arm. She flees quickly however because she does not have the strength to
battle like her son.
Beowulf and his men are enraged so they follow her to her home under a
lake. Beowulf dives into the lake and finds her lair. He struggles with her
and eventually finds a sword that is shining with the light of God. He takes
and uses it to behead her. He later chops the head off of the dead Grendel
and takes it to the surface. He comes out of the water and his men are all
joyful as they go to give the great news to Hrothgar. Hrothgar is ecstatic
and gives gifts to the men.
50 years later Beowulf is the king of the Danes but a Dragon is terrorizing the
people. Beowulf by then is old and yet he still goes to fight the Dragon and
takes a group of men with him. When they arrive all but one of them flees.
Wiglaf helps kill the Dragon, who slashes at Beowulf's throat, killing him.
Beowulf did make a speech before dying saying that Wiglaf was the last true
warrior. Wiglaf later yelled at the other men for running away. When all
was said and done the Danes built Beowulf a funeral pyre to honor him.
Getting the basics of the story
The pages in your booklet are in twelve sections or stanzas.
Mark them on the pages, so you can see the divisions.
Now write one sentence to summarise each section.Your
sentences can be long if you need to fit in a lot of information
– just remember to use commas properly.
The main things is to condense it though, so be sure to pick out
what is most important to each section before you try to
write your sentence, or you will end up rambling.
Reading for meaning
1. a) What does the dragon wait for before he attacks the
2.
3.
4.
5.
land? When does he return to his lair?
Does this remind you of another mythical ‘monster’,
one with a human form? (Think blood, sharp teeth)
Why does Beowulf think that the dragon has destroyed
his home? What does this tell you about part of the
poem’s PURPOSE?
What do lines 104-108 tell us about Beowulf? (hint :
what is happening to him and what does he think about
it?)
What is the sequence of events leading to Beowulf’s
death? What actually kills him?
Extension
The poetic form of Beowulf is blank verse with four stresses (or
‘beats’) to each line. The original Old English poem also uses
alliteration – each line contains a threefold alliteration. We
read a translation, and the modern poet who translated it
sometimes follows this style - sometimes he doesn’t.
Find 2 examples of places where he:
a) Follows the rhythm and alliterative structure
b) Varies them
2. Why do you think the modern poet doesn’t follow the
original structure exactly?
1.
Language variation
One feature of Old English Poetry is to use kennings, for
example ‘hoard-guardian’ for dragon.
 kenning - a literary device in which a noun is renamed in
a creative way using a compound word or union of two
separate words to combine ideas
 If you call "school" a "student's home" -- then you have
created a kenning.
 If you tell your friends that your parents are the "pocket
money providers" -- then you have created a kenning.
 Keyword :
The kenning is a device used in Old English poetry when a
compound term is used to describe something without actually
naming it, for example ‘sea-floater’ for ship.
Kennings were used both for variety and to engage listeners in a
mental challenge. Remember poems like this were meant to be
HEARD not READ in those days.
 The language of Beowulf
Beowulf is much admired for the richness of its poetry - for the beautiful sounds of the
words and the imaginative quality of the description. About a third of the words in
Beowulf are words known as kennings. Kennings are words that are in themselves
metaphorical descriptions, and were a typical feature of AS poetry. Kennings combine two words
to create an evocative and imaginative alternative word. By linking words in this way, the poets
were able to experiment with the rhythm, sounds and imagery of the poetry. Beowulf contains
over a thousand kennings.
Some well-known Anglo-Saxon kennings include:
 bone-house - the human body
 battle-light - sword
 wave-floater – ship
Descriptions of the sea included:
 hronrad- whale road
 fiscesethel - fish home
 seolbæp - seal bath
1. Consider carefully how you could creatively rename each of the following
through the use of the kenning technique.
1. a teacher
2. a bus driver
3. firemen
4. television
5. meatloaf
6. police
7. pop tarts
8. music
9. love
10. computer
.
What kennings are used to describe the dragon?***
What kennings are used to describe Beowulf?***
Write 5 complete sentences which use kennings to
achieve a creative description.
Read these extracts from Beowulf.
(lines 260-266, 407-426, 632-638, and 2507-2512 - examples of the
formal Anglo-Saxon boast.)
We have read some of the exploits of Beowulf. We know, too, that the
Anglo-Saxons saw nothing wrong with letting the world know who
they were, who their noble parents were, what great feats they had
accomplished and what they planned to do. This boasting was
perfectly polite, even expected.Your assignment is to write a formal
boast about yourself and perform it for the class. Tell us your deeds,
who your family are, what you plan to do, and how you're not gonna
take nothing from nobody! Your accomplishments may be academic,
athletic, musical, social, artistic, etc. No need to be shy or humble!
Further, include at least two examples of an original kenning.
Language variations
In this extract there are several words which do not have
their usual meaning : ‘vessel’ (line 19), ‘barrow’ (line37),
‘keen’ (line 79)
What are the meanings of the words here?
What are their more usual meanings?
Use a dictionary to help you!
What are the meanings of ‘rased’ (line 48) and ‘hale’ (line 59)?
Find homonyms for both words.
What do the homonyms mean?
Make a note of different spellings and meanings in your book.
Focus on language
Key term : dynamic verbs
This kind of verb can lend more action and drama to
writing. Use a dictionary to find out what dynamic means
and where the word comes from. (clue : dynamite,
dynamo)
Can you find 5 dynamic verbs on the first page of
the extract?
List them and next to them in brackets write a less dynamic
word choice, to show you understand the difference. An
example would be :
hurled (dynamic) threw (less dynamic)
Focus on language
positive words
Key term : negative and
Look at second page of the extract :
There is a very clear mood here (we can call it a tone or an
atmosphere also) which comes through strongly because of
the word choices. If you highlight your text in two different
colours to show positive and negative vocabulary, you will
quickly identify which words contribute to the mood.
Now try it yourself. Write a description of a football match
using either as much positive or as much negative language as
you can, to make your reader feel the mood as strongly as
possible.
Writing to inform, explain and describe
Use the information you have learned about Beowulf
to write his obituary for ‘The Anglo Saxon Times’.
Decide what point of view you wish to convey : that
he was a great hero, or someone who hung on to
power for too long perhaps?
An obituary is a newspaper announcement of
someone’s death. It might contain a biography,
mentioning the most important events in the
subject’s life, details of how and where they died
and perhaps comments from other people.
Writing to explore, imagine and entertain
Imagine that you are one of Beowulf’s
companions who accompanied him to
fight the dragon, but who ran away when
they saw how fierce it was.
Describe what happened and how you felt
about , both at the time and later.
Include:
 The reason you agreed to go in the first
place
 A description of the approach to the lair
 A description of your first sight of the
dragon and your reactions
 How you fled and watched the fight from
a nearby forest
Look at these artists’ ideas of what Grendel may
have looked like. He has been represented from
everything from a tragically deformed human
being to a mythical monster.
Why do you think we always like monsters in
our stories and poems and films? Try to think
of 3 reasons in your pairs and be prepared to
feed back to the group in 5 minutes.
Design, draw and label your own
version of Grendel, Grendel’s
mother or the dragon.
When you have produced your image, either by drawing it or
making a collage – write a couple of paragraphs explaining
your choices.
Eg : ‘I thought making Grendel’s mother have scales over half of
her face, would show that she has two sides to her, the nice
side who loves her son, and the side who corrupts the King.’
Using the Facebook or Twitter templates,
make a page for Beowulf or Grendel. See
my example below!
Storytime!
You will be taking it in turns to sit on the Story Teller’s
throne or on the sheepskin rug, surrounded by your
eager listeners, while you recount your own epic saga by
crackling firelight.
Don’t forget how it was done by the professionals – raise
and lower your voice, leave dramatic pauses, use accents
and animal sounds if appropriate, clap, bang on the floor,
roar, whisper – whatever it takes to make your audience
imagine they are there in your tale.