Film & Fiction: Beowulf 2

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Germanic characteristics

1. Courage in battle

2. Loyalty to the king

3. Belief in Monsters/Demons

Characters

Hroðgar (Hrothgar)

Beowulf

Grendel

mother of Grendel

Grendel's mother

Beowulf. The history

• Poem - often considered the first piece of written English poetry/literature
  
• Written in Old English
• Manuscript from around 1000 A.D.
• But! Oral tradition

BEOWULF

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra
ofer hronrade hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan. 

þæt wæs god cyning!

Listen! We of the Spear-Danes in the days of yore, of those clan-kings, heard of their glory,
how those nobles performed courageous deeds.
Often Scyld, Scef's son, from enemy hosts
from many peoples seized mead-benches;
and terrorised the fearsome Heruli after first he was found helpless and destitute, he then knew recompense for that,
he waxed under the clouds, throve in honours,
until to him each of the bordering tribes
beyond the whale-road had to submit,
and yield tribute. 

That was a good king!

Who was Hrothgar?

1. a Danish King
2. Beowulf's uncle
3. an Old English war lord
4. a ruler of Dane law

Alliteration (alliteratie)

The hero of the story 

The monster that must be defeated

The name of the king Beowulf sets out to help

The second monster that Beowulf has to fight

The name of the mead hall that is being terrorised by the monster

The third monster that Beowulf has to fight

Heorot

Beowulf

Grendel

Grendel's mother

Hrothgar

A nameless dragon

Beowulf is …..

1. a sonnet
2. a frame story
3. an epic poem
4. an allegory

Beowulf is written in

1. Old English and alliterative verse
2. Middle English and alliterative verse
3. Old English and rhyme
4. middle English and rhyme

Alliterative verse means that ….

1. there is a set pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
2. nobody understands what the poem is about
3. words in a sentence have the same vowels
4. words in a sentence begin with the same consonant

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