Beowulf

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Beowulf

• A bit of background before we read...

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55 BCE

• Julius Caesar invades Britain

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Romans abandon Britain circa early 5th c.

• Britains in conflict with the Celts

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• .the Irish.

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• ....Scots and Picts

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eventually falling to the Germanic tribes from
Northern Europe, known as the Anglo-Saxons

• By 650 the Anglo-Saxons have taken over Britain.

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• The next 200 years or so are small Anglo-Saxon
  kingdoms fighting for power and control.
• They bring with them their way of life from the
  mainland.
• Earls and upper class
• and bondsmen

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• The concept of loyalty and personal indebtedness

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• The importance of kinship crimes against kin
  punishable by death

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597 CE Pope Gregory the Great sends an emissary
to Britain to bring Christianity to the Island.
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1066 The Battle of Hastings

• End of Anglo-Saxon rule, signalled by the Norman
  Conquest
• The Normans have Viking roots and had taken over
  the part of France called
• Normandy.

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About this time, Beowulf is written.
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So, why are we bothering to read something
written 1000 years ago?

• The only surviving example of Old English
  literature. (Its a classic!!)

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Who wrote Beowulf?

• Author is unknown. It is not recorded.
• Some think there were multiple authors
• It seems apparent that the author(s) was learned.
• On a different note, this contemporary authors
  name is John Beowulf.

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• Written about 700CE (sung in the meantime)
• written down about 1100CE
• events that took place around 600CE
• (There is an event that actually took place in
  history, which is how scholars have dated the
  poem, however, it is thought to be fable.)

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There is 1 manuscript.

• Where the transcript goes for the first 500 years
  of its existence is unknown.
• Henry the VIII (when he is dismantling the
  Catholic church and its monastaries in 1536)
  destroys many
• documents found therein
• the Beowulf manuscript
• survives

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• The manuscript is eventually owned by Robert
  Cotton in the mid-17th C.
• The manuscript is also known as Cotton Vitellius
  A.XV

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• It survives the destruction of Cottons library
  by fire in 1731.

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• It now resides in the British museum

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• Beowulf is written in Old English.
• There is an absence of rhyme
• Alliteration is used
• Strong, direct language
• 4 beat lines
• Of course, the sounds and rhythms of the poem
  change in the translation to a more modern English