Journal Prompt (5min)
Describe the struggles of a hero or heroine
who you’ve recently seen in a movie or read
about (fictional). What did they have to
overcome on their journey? What obstacles
did they have to face? What was required of
them to achieve their end goal?
Please take notes
Beowulf
Is a long heroic poem
considered the
supreme achievement
of Anglo-Saxon
poetry because of its
length (3,182 lines)
and sustained high
quality.
Why is Beowulf important?
Beowulf is both the first English
literary masterpiece and one of
the earliest European epics
written in the vernacular, or
native language, instead of
literary Latin.
The story survives in one fragile
manuscript copied by two scribes
near the end of the 10th or the
first quarter of the 11th century
(roughly 1000 AD).
While the poem is Old
English, it focuses on the
Geats (a people who lived in
the southern part of
Sweden) and Danes.
No one knows who
“wrote” Beowulf.
Like all early oral poetry, it
had as many authors as
singers who performed it.
It is from this poem that
we derive many of the
details for our
reconstructions of AngloSaxon social life.
Scops (pronounced "shops") were both composers
and storytellers who traveled from court to court —
the entertainers of Anglo-Saxon times.
Scops were expected
to know a broad repertoire
of tales and no doubt
be able to compose tales
in tribute to the patrons
who financed them.
(A Modern Scop:Benjamin Bagby)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y13cES7MMd8
An important aspect of Beowulf is the
way in which it is told/written.
•The scop uses kennings, alliteration,
caesuras, and foreshadowing in telling his
story.
•He also takes great care in describing
Beowulf’s appearance as he readies for
battle, as well as other parts of the story.
•These create a strong (and difficult) voice.
Kennings
are a special form of compounding
Words that are metaphoric in meaning.
banhus (ban + hus), literally "bone-house," refers
to the human body;
hronrad (hron + rad), literally "whale's road," refers
to the sea;
Rodores candel, literally "sky's candle," refers to the
sun
Alliteration
DefinitionA figure of speech in which consonants,
especially at the beginning of words, or stressed
syllables, are repeated…
•In [Old English] poetry, alliteration was a
continual and essential part of the metrical
scheme .
•"Five miles meandering in motion."
Foreshadowing
The action of Beowulf is not
straightforward.
The narrator foreshadows actions
that will occur later, talking about
events that are yet to come.
Characters talk about things that
have already happened in the poem
and recall incidents and characters
outside the poem's main narrative.
Caesura
Old English poetry has a strong rhythmic quality,
with each line punctuated with a pause in the middle
called a caesura.
Out from the marsh,
from the foot of misty
Hills and bogs,
bearing God’s hatred,
Grendel came,
hoping to kill
Themes
&
Look for the struggles of …
Conflict
•good against evil
•strength against weakness
•light against dark
Epic vs. Narrative
The first factor that
distinguishes epics from
other forms of narrative
poetry is scale:
-epic poems tend to be
too long to be read or
performed in a single
sitting.
Second distinguishing factor is style:
Epic poems are written in what might be
termed high style, avoiding popular metres and
verse patterns. Formal language versus
colloquial.
Third distinguishing
factor
Epic poems always deal
with persons and events
that are considered to
be historically real by
the poet and their
audience, essentially,
the tale of the tribe.
The fourth
distinguishing factor
the
epic hero cycle.
Key Elements in the
Hero’s Journey
• The plot is complicated by
supernatural beings or events.
• The actions of the hero
often determine the fate of a
nation or group of people
• The poem reflects values
such as courage and honor.
The hero takes a journey
to foreign lands.
3 phases of the hero journey:
•Separation – a break away
from local social order, the
beginning of a quest.
•Initiation – a long deep retreat
inward with a series of chaotic
encounters which provide new
insight.
•Return – reintegration into
society, coming back as as a more
evolved person.
The general points of the cycle include:
•a test (to test worthiness to complete said quest)
•a main antagonist, often supernatural
•a magical/unreal world, unable to be visited by a
normal human, that the hero visits (e.g. the
underworld or the world of the gods)
•a resurrection
(either from being dead or from a dead-like state
of mind, or a hero who was thought to be dead
who was rediscovered)
From the
story
described in
your prompt
explain how
the hero’s
journey fits
the three
phases – be
sure to give
examples.