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Goals for the Beowulf lectures

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Goals for the Beowulf lectures Examine poetic features of Beowulf Look at mixture of pagan and Christian elements Present a reading arguing for a three-part structure ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Goals for the Beowulf lectures


1
Goals for the Beowulf lectures
  • Examine poetic features of Beowulf
  • Look at mixture of pagan and Christian elements
  • Present a reading arguing for a three-part
    structure of the poem
  • Examine the heroic in the poem

2
I. BeowulfContexts
  • A. Linguistic Old English
  • B. Historical
  • 1. Romans (43-410 C.E.)
  • 2. Germanic Tribes Angles, Saxons, Jutes
  • 3. Danish invasions (9th century)
  • 4. Norman invasion 1066
  • C. "Cultural"
  • 1. Tribal affiliation
  • 2. Sutton Hoo

3
The London Stone
4
London Stone, circa 2005
5
I. BeowulfContexts
  • A. Linguistic Old English
  • B. Historical
  • 1. Romans (43-410 C.E.)
  • 2. Germanic Tribes Angles, Saxons, Jutes
  • 3. Danish invasions (9th century)
  • 4. Norman invasion 1066
  • C. "Cultural"
  • 1. Tribal affiliation
  • 2. Sutton Hoo

6
Invasions
7
Sutton Hoo Belt Buckle
8
Sutton Hoo Helmut
9
Sutton Hoo Buckles
10
Sutton Hoo Buckles
11
Sutton Hoo Hinge Clasp
12
Sutton Hoo Bowls
13
Sutton Hoo Purse
14
Sutton Hoo Purse Details
15
Sutton Hoo Sceptre
16
Sutton Hoo Shield
17
Sutton Hoo Shield
18
Sutton Hoo Shield Detail
19
Other Old English texts
  • Caedmon
  • Bede
  • The Battle of Maldon
  • The Dream of the Rood
  • The Wifes Lament
  • Old English riddles

20
Old English Riddle
  • I am mans treasure, taken from the Woods,
    Cliff-sides, hill-slopes, valleys and downs.
  • By day wings bear me in the buzzing air, Slip me
    under a sheltering roof-sweet craft.Soon a man
    bears me to a tub.
  • I am binder and scourge of men, bring down the
    young, ravage the old, sap strength.Soon he
    discovers who wrestles with me My fierce
    body-rush.
  • I roll fools flush on the ground. Robbed of
    strength,reckless of speech, a man knows no
    power over hands, feet or mind.
  • Who am I who bind Men on middle-earth, blinding
    with rageAnd such savage blows that dazed?Fools
    know my dark power by daylight.

21
II. Beowulf as Oral Formulaic Poem
  • Performed from memory as part of an oral
    tradition using a style that facilitated this
    type of poetic performance
  • A. Type scenes l. 3020
  • B. Alliteration (opening)
  • C. Kenning (1341 1966)
  • D. Caesura (46)

22
III. Christian/Pagan Mix
  1. How did we get this MS?
  2. Monastic transmission
  3. Quid Hinieldus cum Christo?
  4. Grendel and Cain (l. 85 ff 104 ff.)
  5. Pagan worship scene (l. 175ff)

23
Values of this poem?
  • Beowulf never kills his kin l. 2736
  • Unferth l. 587
  • Hathkin and Hrethel 1. 2432
  • World of fratricide/world of Heorot

24
IV. Light and Darkness Imagery
  • A. Monsters in a strange, dark land
  • 85 158 7551407
  • B. Inversion of social order
  • 144

25
V. Beowulf Two parts or Three?
  • Tolkien argues that the poem is in two parts
  • 1936Beowulf The Monsters and the Critics
  • Looking at the digressions in the poem, I will
    argue that it actually breaks into three parts, a
    reading that acknowledges the importance of
    Grendels mother

26
VI. Digressions
  • A. The Opening
  • B. Foreshadowings
  • C. Flashbacks/insertions
  • Reading criticallyliterary critical method

27
VI. Digressions
  • A. Opening passage
  • 1. Genealogy
  • 2. Circular structure/life cycle
  • 3. Representing a good king
  • 4. Ironic Foreshadowing line 20

28
VI. Digressions
  • B. More Foreshadowing
  • Future Destruction of Heorot
  • Lines 81 , 1016

29
VI. Digressions
  • C. The Fight at Finnsburg/Lay of Finn (1062)
  • 1. Sung to Hrothgars court after Grendels
    defeat
  • 2. Story of failed alliance by marriage
  • 3. Linked to situation of Queen
    Wealtheow/Grendels mother
  • Line 1167 ff

30
VII. Gender in Beowulf
  • A. Connected figures in Wealtheow/Grendels
    Mother
  • B. Refutation of Tolkien thesis
  • C. Status of women in Anglo-Saxon culture
  • D. The monstrous feminine

31
Gender in BW
  • Connected figures in Wealtheow/Grendels Mother
  • Both defined as mothers and connected
    passionately to their sons
  • Line 1215 ff
  • Line 1255 ff

32
VII. Grendels Mother
  • Tolkiens thesis doesnt recognize importance of
    Grendels mother
  • Grendels mother is at the center of the poem
    (Niles)
  • Her part takes up 13 (400 lines)almost as much
    as Grendel

33
Women in Anglo-Saxon society
  • Women in Anglo-Saxon society were limited in
    their roles, but not powerless
  • Scandinavian saga
  • Carol Clover the importance of power vs. gender
    in societal hierarchies

34
Grendels Mother as monster
  • The concept of abjection (Kristeva)
  • that which is expelled from a society in order
    to define cultural borders (Trilling 3)
  • Abjection and the maternal
  • Abjectionme and not me
  • Kristeva (Powers of Horror)

35
Grendels Mother
  • She represents horror at maternal power (and
    women who crosses boundaries (female power, the
    human/not-human)
  • But unlike Grendel, Grendels mothers actions
    are very understandable within feud culture and
    her emotional ties to her son make her like the
    Danes
  • Grendels mother could be seen as an inversion of
    Wealtheow or Hildeburgh
  • (Trilling)

36
Monstrous Mother
37
Heroic maternal
38
Grendels Mother
  • Represents a fundamental threat to the society
  • Notable that Beowulf arms so thoroughly to meet
    her, dispatches her so immediately and doesnt
    bring her head back as a trophy
  • Is she a greater threat than her son? Why?
  • Line 1282how can we read this?

39
The heroic in Beowulf
  • A. Defining good king in opening lines
  • B. Hrothgars parting speech to Beowulf (l.1699
    ff.)
  • C. Heremod as counter-example (l. 1708)
  • D. Beowulfs decision to fight dragon alone
  • Is it heroic?
  • Line 2529 ff

40
The Hero
  • Is being a good king the same thing as being a
    hero?
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