Unit One:
From Legend to History
Anglo-Saxon Literature
What did Anglo-Saxons Value?
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Religion
Religion helped unify the cultures.
Religion gave them a similar identity.
Leaders
Their successes were honored with epithets.
Land and Power
They continually invaded and conquered to
acquire more land. (land = power)
Bravery/Prowess/Trust
Honored heroes with gifts, oaths of allegiance, or
power of leadership (and eventually legacy of lit.)
Beowulf
The First
“English” Epic
Refresh Your Reading Skills
 Use
context clues and marginal notes
 Consider the cultural connections
 Paraphrase
 Summarize
 Apply literary terms
Prepare to take notes over the first
chapter,“The Monster Grendel.”
Divide Your Paper into
Two Columns under the title
“The Monster Grendel.”
Paraphrase
Summary
“The Monster Grendel”
Paraphrase
A monster in the darkness growls impatiently against the
scop’s song, a song that reminds mankind how God
created the Earth, separated land from oceans, created the
sun and moon, and inhabited it with natural beauty and
people who loved it then as they do now. Just like their
forefathers, Hrothgar’s men lived happily until this monster,
Grendel, stirred. Grendel, who haunts the moors and the
wilderness, lives in a hell on earth as an outcast. He is a
distant descendent of Cain, man’s first murderer who was
banished by God and eventually bred evil in the world.
Cain’s descendents became the spirits, fiends, goblins, and
other forms of evil that forever oppose God’s Will and are
continually defeated.
“The Monster Grendel”
Summary
Grendel, a descendent of Cain’s demon
spawn, growls in anger while the
scop recounts Grendel’s wicked
heritage for Hrothgar’s men.
Conclude your notes for pages 2123 independently. Check your work
with a classmate when announced.
Now it’s time to transition from
reading for general comprehension
to reading with critical thinking skills
such as:
application of cultural details
and
recognition of literary devices.
Literary Devices
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Epic and Epic Conventions (6)
a. Opening statement of the theme;
b. Appeal for supernatural help in the telling of
the story (an invocation);
c. A beginning in medias res;
d. Long lists, or catalogs, of people and things;
e. Accounts of past events;
f. Descriptive phrases such as kennings,
Homeric similes, and Homeric epithets (such
as “wide-wayed city” and “clear-voiced
heralds” in the Iliad)
Additional Literary Devices
(Apply the terms in bold print;
define all terms as homework)
Epic
 Epic conventions
 Epithet
 Allegory
 Allusion
 Archetype

Caesura
 Kenning
 Alliteration
 Lyric Poetry
 Narrative Poetry
 Scop
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Discussion of “The Monster Grendel”
Recognizing and Applying
Cultural Connections
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The narrator’s word choices make reference to
two types of people. Who are they? (cultural
connection)
Answers: pagans and Christians
Which belief system or heritage influences the
narrator?
Answer: a Christian influence
Describe the narrator’s tone (or attitude) toward
the subject of God?
Answer: “God” is spoken of with reverence,
helping us to see he is a Christian, and perhaps
more modern, narrator who wrote down the epic.
“The Monster Grendel”
Recognizing and Applying
Literary Terms
Summary
Grendel, a descendent of Cain’s demon spawn,
growls in anger while the scop recounts
Grendel’s wicked heritage for Hrothgar’s
men.
 Scop/Cultural Element (lines 4-5, p. 21) “the
harp’s rejoicing/Call and the poet’s clear songs, .
. .”
 Cain and Abel, God: Christian elements (lines 2123) “[Grendel parents are descendents] of Cain,
murderous creatures banished/By God . . .”
 “The Almighty” (line 24); “the Lord’s Will” (line
28-29): Christian elements
Now Modify Your Notes.
Rename the columns with the
headings listed.
“The Arrival of the Hero”
Summary
Literary Terms
…
…
…
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“The Arrival of the Hero”
Summary
Literary Terms
“Unferth’s Challenge”
Summary
Literary Terms
“The Battle with Grendel”
Summary
Literary Terms
“The Monster’s Mother”
Summary
Literary Terms
Now that you understand how to
read Anglo-Saxon literature and
how to apply literary terms, you are
capable of tackling college-level
reading and writing assignments.
Well done!!!