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Background Info The English Companion Anglo-Saxon Villiage Write Your Name in Runes

Beowulf Why read Beowulf? Why Should I Care?

Come on, do we //really// have to tell you why you should care about //Beowulf//? Beowulf, a great and glorious hero arrives from over the sea, clad in a shirt of shining mail, ready to do barehanded battle with a demonic monster. If that leaves you wanting more, //Beowulf// is ready to deliver. Once the demonic monster bites the dust, his bigger, badder, even more demonic mom arrives to avenge her son's death. But that's still not the climax. Just in case anyone doubted Beowulf's prowess at this point, a dragon shows up to test him to the limit. This isn't dry-as-dust literature that you fall asleep over; it's the kind of thing you pay ten bucks to see while eating popcorn! (Although the recent //Beowulf// movie goes just a //little// bit off-script.) OK, if you're still not hooked, try this: //Beowulf// is the oldest major work of literature in English. In fact, it's in such old English (technical name: "Old English") that it seems like a foreign language to us today, because our words have changed so much since it was written. It's a glimpse of an ancient Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian culture. But this history lesson isn't just names, dates, and agricultural innovations. Instead, it's gleaming golden armor, straining sinews, and wild drunken parties that go all night because everyone would rather tell stories about past glorious victories than think about the fact that they'll probably die horribly tomorrow. It's a brutal world, but one that offers the possibility of fame – and maybe even fortune, if you're lucky.

In short, it's dragons and demons and heroes, //and// it'll get you some street cred with your teacher for having read the first recorded epic poem written in some form of English. []

media type="youtube" key="5_CsCRea-B8" width="667" height="432"Archetypes Explained

Beowulf Overview Themes in Beowulf

Elegies

The elegy began as an ancient Greek metrical form and is traditionally written in response to the death of a person or group. Though similar in function, the elegy is distinct from the epitaph, ode, and eulogy: the epitaph is very brief; the ode solely exalts; and the eulogy is most often written in formal prose.

The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead, and finally consolation and solace. (Poetry. org)

Modern Elegies media type="youtube" key="AscPOozwYA8" height="345" width="616"

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