Medieval Cosmology: Beowulf study session - Part III

Norse Cosmology

We have been studying Norse culture and history, which is a series of violent actions and reactions of a brave and strong and cold people. Our objective today is to see the universe and its cosmology the way the medievals themselves saw it, both pagan and Christian. Here we have an illustration of the Norse cosmology.

Agenda:

1. Pray
2. Read the "Worldview" section of Beowulf in the Omnibus Reader (p. 4).
3. Study Packet: review, discuss, and take notes on the major sections of Beowulf:
1. Session XIIII
2. Session XIV
3. Session XV
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.

Beowulf study session - Part II

The Oseberg ship prow,
Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway.

We have been studying Norse culture and history, which is a series of violent actions and reactions of a brave and strong and cold people. Our objective for this week is to prepare for this week's exam at the end of the week.

Agenda:

1. Pray
2. Read the "Worldview" section of Beowulf in the Omnibus Reader (p. 4).
3. Study Packet: review, discuss, and take notes on the major sections of Beowulf:
1. Session XIIII
2. Session XIV
3. Session XV
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.

Beowulf, Dragons, and the Resolution and my birthday.

Today I am 35.

We have been studying Norse culture and history, which is a series of violent actions and reactions of a brave and strong and cold people. Our objective for this week is to prepare for this week's exam at the end of the week.

Agenda:

1. Pray
2. Latin Proverb: Non scholae, sed vitae discimus. 
1. This proverb contains the purposive essence of classical education: "Not for school, but for life do we learn." School is not job training, nor is it to perpetuate the "system" of school. Knowledge is valuable, and is not utilitarian. We should be life-long learners, not merely because our knowledge has use. We learn because it conforms to those transcendent qualities of being, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, which Christ our Lord made incarnate.
3. Review and discuss RJ: Beowulf, lines 2070-3182
1. How does Beowulf fight and slay the "fire-drake"?
2. What happens in the end? Explain the resolution. 
4. 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? 
5. 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.

   

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.