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• HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT BEOWULF?
• WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE?
• DO YOU THINK EPIC NARRATIVE IS STILL RELEVANT IN THE 21ST CENTURY?
WHAT DO YOU KNOW?
• The Anglo-Saxons were Germanic tribes that conquered Celtic Britons in 5th century.
• They emphasized bravery, honor and glory in battle.
• It was a patriarchal society based on the concepts of kinship, comitatus and fraternity.
WHO WERE THE ANGLO-SAXONS?
• Is the close relationship between anindividual and the other members of thetribe.
• Members of the tribe were related byblood or by marriage. But even if theywere not, anyone who was in the tribe wasconsidered to be kin (family).
• The most important claim of kinship thatone could make was king.
• Ancestor worship (fathers, grandfathers,etc.).
KINSHIP
COMITATUS• It is a Germanic power arrangement in whicha king was obliged to rule in consultationwith his knights.
• Knights or thanes swore absolute fidelityto their king, who, in exchange, gave tothe knights land, money, jewelry, war gear,feasts in his hall, and other benefits.
FRATERNITY• It is the close social bonds among the menof the tribes.
• The Anglo-Saxons lived together, workedtogether and died together.
• Everything was done to benefit theirsociety.
GLORY AND FATE• An Anglo-Saxon warrior’s motivation was to live
and die with glory. This concept determinedeverything they sad and did off and on thebattlefield.
• Violence was the part of everyday life. Thebonds of fraternity demanded that the death of atribe member be avenged.
• Wergild was money paid to the family of thevictim of a murder by the offender. The Anglo-Saxons believed in destiny determined by pagangods.
THE HISTORY OF ENGLISHEnglish is divided into three periods:
• Old English (ca. 449-1100)
• Middle English (ca. 1100-1500)
• Modern English (ca. 1500-).
While many people think of Shakespeare's English asold, Shakespeare wrote and spoke Modern English,albeit, an early form of it. Chaucer's poetry,including his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales,are a good examples of Middle English poetry. Beowulfis an Old English poem. Old English is sometimes knownas Anglo- Saxon.
THE OLD ENGLISH ALPHABET
• RUNES: Old English makes use of unfamiliarletters, most of which derive from the runicalphabet, an alphabet used by the Germanictribes.
• These letters are þ (thorn) and ð (eth) (often
used interchangeably to represent the "th" soundof "that" and "thin"), æ (ash) (the vowel soundin cat), and ƿ (wynn), which represents “w".
• ROMAN ALPHABET: 20 letters were directly adoptedfrom the Latin alphabet B, C, D, E, F, L, M, N,O, P, R, S, T, etc.
POETICSALLITERATION: Alliteration is the repetition of stressed
sounds, particularly consonants from the beginning of words
or syllables. Poetically, alliteration can have a similar
function as rhyme. An example of alliteration is the tongue-
twister "She sells seashells by the sea shore.”
CAESURA: Old English poetry is also commonly marked by the
caesura or pause. In addition to setting pace for the line,
the caesura also grouped each line into two couplets.
POETICSVARIATION: The Old English poet was particularly fond of describing the same person or
object with varied phrases. The Beowulf poet refers in three and a half lines to a
Danish king as "lord of the Danes" (referring to the people in general), "king of the
Scyldings" (the name of the specific Danish tribe), "giver of rings" (one of the
king's functions is to distribute treasure), and "famous chief".
KENNINGS: Kennings are a special form of compounding that are metaphoric in meaning.
For example, the kenning hronrad (hron + rad), literally "whale's road," refers to the
sea; and rodores candel, literally "sky's candle," refers to the sun.
KENNINGS:BREAKER OF TREES
RING GIVER
BONE HOUSE
BLOOD WORM
HEAVEN'S JEWEL
WAVE SWINE
WOUND SEA
WHALE’S WAY
SWAN OF BLOOD
FEED THE EAGLE
GIRL OF THE HOUSE
BANE OF WOOD
SLEEP OF THE SWORD
BATTLE SWEAT
SPEAR DIN
LIGHT OF BATTLE
RAVEN HARVEST
BEOWULF
BEOWULF: SHRINKING THE EPIC
Monster Grendel's tastes are plainish.Breakfast? Just a couple Danish.
King of Danes is frantic, very.Wait! Here comes the Malmo" ferry
Bring Beowulf, his neighbor,Mighty swinger with a saber!
Hrothgar's warriors hail the Swede,Knocking back a lot of mead;
Then, when night engulfs the HallAnd the Monster makes his call,
Beowulf, with body-slamWrenches off his arm, Shazam!
Monster's mother finds him slain,Grabs and eats another Dane!
Down her lair our hero jumps,Gives old Grendel's dam her lumps.
Later on, as king of GeatsHe performed prodigious feats
Till he met a foe too tough(Non-Beodegradable stuff)
And that scaly-armored dragonScooped him up and fixed his wagon.
Sorrow-stricken, half the nationFlocked to Beowulf's cremation;
Round his pyre, with drums a-muffleDid a Nordic soft-shoe shuffle.
By Maurice Sagoff
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