Beowulf and the end: Resolution, Paganism, & Christianity - Part I

The Gokstad Viking ship,
Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway.

Professor Merkle notes: "Beowulf’s translator, Seamus Heaney, gives us an excellent summary of the Germanic warrior culture enshrined in Beowulf. It is “a society that is at once honour-bound and blood-stained, presided over by the laws of the blood-feud, where the kin of a person slain are bound to exact a price for the death, either by slaying the killer or by receiving satisfaction in the form of wergild (the ‘man-price’), a legally fixed compensa- tion.” The “claustrophobic and doom-laden atmosphere” of this culture “gives an intense intimation of what wyrd (fate) meant.” Everyone thinks of themselves as “hooped within the great wheel of necessity, in thrall to a code of loyalty and bravery, bound to seek glory in the eye of the warrior world. The little nations are grouped around their lord, the greater nations spoil for war and menace the little ones..."

Agenda:

1. Pray
2. Review and discuss RJ: Beowulf, lines 2070-3182
1. When Beowulf returns from his exploits in Daneland, what does he do with his treasure haul, and how has Beowulf's status changed as a result?
2. What happens for the next 50 years?
3. Cur draco oppugnat? (Why does the dragon attack?) How does this fit with fairy tales?
4. Why didn't Beowulf gather an army to fight the dragon?
5. How does Beowulf fight and slay the "fire-drake"?
6. What happens in the end? Explain the resolution. 
3. Review, discuss, and take notes on the following comparison of Christian and Anglo-Saxon Society:
1.  In lines 2020-2068, Beowulf foresees the grim consequences of a proposed marriage between the Danes and Frisians. How does this inform and foreshadow the ending of the poem?
2. In lines 2911-2927, what does the messenger who tells the Geats of Beowulf's death predict?
3. What do these episodes tell us about the pagan culture of death before the conversion to Christianity? 
4. Review HW:
1. Beowulf Exam Friday (11/15). Study your Notes on Anglo-Saxon England and your RJs on Beowulf.  
2. Binder Check Friday (11/15). 
3. Finish reading Beowulf. If you haven't already.Take notes as you read.
4. Be wise; be perfect.