Beowulf – Things to know on PART I

Characters:
Grendel: A demeoned/ troll/ human like figure that’s been transformed, who attacks Hereot. Beowulf kills him by ripping off his arm. Descendant from cain
Beowulf: From Geatland, an young warrior/ hero who comes to denmark to kill grendel and succeeds.
Hrothogar: King of the Danes, he is who beowulf comes to. Lives in herot
Fitela: nephew of Sigmund, suggested that he has betrayed Sigmund
Sigmund: A norse mythology figure who’s story of slaying a dragon is told in praise of Beowulfs defeat of Grendel and foreshadows Beowulfs encounter with the dragon.
Wulgar: centinal that brings Beowulf to the king in the beginning
Heremod: example of a bad king. Exiled by his own people, greedy and killed by the jutes
Finn: Frisian King who is killed by the danes.
Hnaef: Brother of Hildebrush who is killed in the Finn digretion. First king
Hengest: Leader of the Danes after
Wealtheow: Hrothgars wife and queen of the Danes. She represents the roll of a woman and queen by being a good host
Unferth: A jester like character that sits at the kings feet. He is a kin killer and is jealous of all the recognition Beowulf gets and tries to call Beowulf out but Beowulf replies and shuts Unferth up. Coward, can't handle the mead, kin killer
Shield Sheafson: God like founder of the Danes. Hrothgars great grandfather who first established them as rulers, moses like character, found drifting in a boat. rule -> pointed by god or related by god.
Halfdane: Son of Beow and father of Beowulf
Beow: Son of Shield and Father of Halfdane, Beowulfs Grandpa
Hildaburg: failed peace pledge that loses brother, son, husband
Able and Cain: first off springs of Adam and Eve. Cain killed able because of jealousy.
Hygelac: Beowulf uncle and king of the Geats

Literary Terms and Examples of Literary Terms:
Kenning (3 examples): Compound Metaphor
*line 160: dark death-shadow (grendel)
* line 142: hall- watcher (grendel)
*line 276: corpse- maker (Grendel)
Litotes (2 examples): Humerous Understatement, Dark humor
• Lines 826- 827,”He was happy with his nights work and the courage he had shown
• Lines 764- 765, “ it was the worse trip the terror monger had taken to Heorot.
In beowuld rebuttal to unferth
Flytes (1 example): Insult; put down; trash talk
*line 499- 528: Unferth telling Beowulf how he failed to beat breca, or beowulfs put down of unferth
Apositive (1 example): Building up
* Lines 593- 594, “ unchecked atrocity, attacks on your king, havoc in herot and horrors everywhere
*Lines 221- 223, "Seafares sighted land, sunlit cliffs, sheer rags and looming headlands, the landfall they sought
Alliteration (1 example): The commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group either with the same consonant sound or sound group
*Lines 160; “dark death-shadow” (also a kenning)
*Lines 200: to sail the swans rode and seek out that king
Censura (definition): Half line. Pause in between the lines. Breaks the stresses up
Symbol: Grendel- god cursed scream
Heorot (Hart- deers)- royality, center of the community
Grendels arm-
Allusion (3 examples):
* Finn digrestion- history
* Sigmeund - story, oral tell that everyone knew
* Bible: Abel and Cain
Epic Boast (1 example): just a resume
* lines 407- 455: Beowulf’s boast Hrothgar about all the monsters he has killed and how he is going to kill Grendel without a weapon.
Epic Hero (definition and how Beowulf fits it):
* as defined by dictionary.com, “ a main character in an epic whose legendary or heroic actions are central to his/her culture, race, or nation” journey, stands for the values for his culture, stronger, wiser, more moral than anyone else
Heroic deeds, bravery, willingnesss to meet fate, respect of king, give gifts, and usually has a tragic flaw.
Beowulf fits this because he is not greedy, He is a good courageous warrior, he is polite and doesn’t seem to have any flaws.

Motifs and Themes:

Exile: Grendel, all of Cains descendents; culture- exiles is the worst thing that could happen to you. plus your value is as part of a group.

Kin Killing: Cain killed abel, Unferth was a kin killer, One of Hrothgars brothers being killed by his other brother while hunting. No way to reslve the problem, you cant pay the werdgile and the next thing taht could happen would be exile.

Ambush: The story of Heremod and Finn, sigmeund

Wergild: Blood money; one of the ways to protcet the ways of a group that has killed someones kim

Wyrd: idea of Fate; everyone has a fate that they will eventually meet. if your supposed to died today in battle, more honorable to meet fate valiantly than to try to run away from it

The Role of Kings: Keep the peace, give gifts, ring giver. Bring up his warriors, a structure a presence a head to keep the society in tacked.

The Role of Woman: Take care of the warriors, be a good hostest. They are also used to keep the peace. looking pretty, raising warriors

The Role of Warriors: be courageous and back there king up. protect the land and king. swear alliegance to the king. die by the king, dont run away

Paganism vs. Christianity: It is hard to tell what religious veiws Beowulf or the people have in this book. God is mentioned on countless occasions along with referring to the bible through Cain and Abel but the idea of wyrd is always there. The ideas are so intermingled it hard to tell which one was the original.
Voice coming through is christian but the reaso bowulf does things is to fit his culture which is paganism

Digressions:
Sigmeund
Finn
Heremod

Vocab 9/7

Scop- N; an old english bard or poet

The scop was well known and famous for his poems

Sinew- N; Strength; power; resilience

The lion had great physical sinew and was uncompareable so he ruled for years

Spawn- N; any person or thing regarded as the offspring of some stock, idea, etc.
Everyone knew the olypimic athletes spawn would be an amazing athlete.

Infamous- Adj; Having an extremely bad reputation
The infamous man had a bad driving record and so graylines didnt hire him.

Hoary- Adj; Gray or white with age, ancient or venerable
The hoary king had been king for many many years now and he decided it was time to pass the crown to his son.

Murky- Adj; Dark; gloomy and cheerless
The murky water was not a place where the kids want to swim.
Purge- V; to rid of whatever is impure or undesirable; cleanse; purify
The king told his people he would purge the land of all evil.

Reparation- N; the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged

The boy had to give his neighbors a cow and chicken as reparation because his brother stole their horse.
Lament- V; to mourn for or over

The who town lament for the lose of the young prince

Heathen- N; a person who does not belong to a widely held religion as regarded by those who do
The heathen felt like an out cast because everyone else was christian.

Cowering- V; to crouch, as in fear or shame

The cowering soldier knew it was his last minutes of life as his prosecutor loomed above him