Introduction to Anglo-Saxon, Poetry, and Beowulf - Part II

Danish Seafarers.  
Miscellany on the life of St. Edmund.
12th century.

The poem ultimately tells the story of, according to Professor Ben Merkle, "a famous Geat warrior named Beowulf. The G in “Geat” is actually pronounced more like a Y, and so the name 'Geat' is actually pronounced more like how we would say the word 'yacht.' The Geats lived in the south of modern Sweden. From there Beowulf visits the famous mead-hall Heorot, the pride of the Danes, found in northern Denmark. Both the Danes and the Geats are forefathers of what would become the Vikings, who would later raid England, and it is difficult to think of why an Anglo-Saxon poet would want to write a poem glorifying the heroes of these tribes. In order to understand this, we need to know a little something about the history of early England." We have studied that history in our careful reading of Bede's Ecclesiastical History. "Only a generation before," writes Professor Merkle, "the Anglo-Saxons had been Germanic Vikings themselves. They still remembered their previous pagan ways, listened to tales of the great warriors of previous generations and even traded with their Norse pagan neighbors.This sets the stage for a very curious sort of poem: a poem full of Christian allusions, written by a Christian about a pagan culture and a pagan hero, which sometimes pretends that they are worshipers of God and sometimes admits that they are all pagans."

Agenda:

1. Faeder ure.
2. Read Intro in the Omnibus together
3. Read Seamus Heaney's Introduction
4. Continue Lecture on Anglo-Saxon, England, and Beowulf:
1. Notes (10/16): Anglo-Saxon England
5. Read and discuss Beowulf:
1. Reading Journal (10/17): Beowulf, lines 1-257
1.  
6. Review HW:
1. Read Beowulf, lines 1-257.
2. Study your Notes on Anglo-Saxon England
3. Be wise; be perfect.