1. English 10
Beowulf September 19, 2016

2. Grendel’s Mother/Battle with Grendel’s Mother (l. 397-605 and pp
Grendel’s Mother/Battle with Grendel’s Mother (l and pp ) Words to watch for:
vane (l. 400): a device that turns to show the direction the wind is blowing (n.). loathesome (l. 538): disgusting; hateful (adj.). fetters (l. 565): shackle or restraint (n.). spoor (p. 59): the track or scent of an animal (n.). obsequious (p. 67): obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree (adj.). fetid (p. 70): smelling extremely unpleasant (adj).

3. Grendel’s Mother/Battle with Grendel’s Mother (l. 397-605)
Grendel’s mother is not as strong as a man so she took one victim and fled (l ).
They traded deaths and no one won (l ). Grendel’s mother came for revenge. Compare this to Grendel’s motivation.
She takes Hrothgar’s closest friend (l. 414). To inflict the same level of pain as losing her son?
Hrothgar challenges Beowulf to seek out Grendel’s mother (l. 446).
Beowulf sinks through the water for hours to get to Grendel’s mother’s lair (L ) (trait of an epic – __________________).
Her lair is underground, the water is hot and the lair is fiery (l. 470, ). An image symbolizing Hell. Remember that the author is thought to be Christian.
The iron sang its fierce song (l. 477). It made a loud sound (__________________________).

4. Grendel’s Mother/Battle with Grendel’s Mother, con’t
Beowulf is motivated by fame/glory and it keeps him fighting (l , ). Is that noble, as we would expect from a hero? __________________________________________________
Beowulf takes Grendel’s head and shows it to Hrothgar to prove the battle with him is over (l. 601).
Read pp
Grendel’s mother is described as looking and hissing like a snake with greasy flesh, red lips and bile and blood dribbling from her (p. 53). How is that like Grendel’s description? _______________________________________________________________________________________
Grendel’s mother is described as always having been (p. 54) and the wife of Cain (p. 63).
Unferth wants something bad to come. He identifies with evil (pp ). It looks as if something bad does come and get him (p.59) and Hrothgar’s best friend.
Beowulf puts his faith in himself as his best weapon (p. 63).
Beowulf tells his men to wait for 2 days and 2 nights (p. 64) and laughs as he dives into the pool (p. 65). Is he laughing in the face of danger? Is this heroic or boastful like we expect in an epic? __________________________
There is an explanation for Beowulf being able to dive so far down on p Not a superhuman feat like it is in the poem.
Beowulf strangles her (p. 71) unlike the poem, where he cuts her head off.
Watch 11:22-17:36

5. English 10
Beowulf September 21, 2016

6. Beowulf battles the dragon lines 606-735
Kinship (l. 696): blood relationship (n.).
Hoary (l. 648): grayish white (adj.).
Unsheathed (l. 658): drawn or pulled out from its sheath or covering (adj.).
Uttered (l. 706): make (a sound) with one's voice (v.).
Slain (l. 729): killed (a person or animal) in a violent way (v.).
Beowulf speaks of his intention to face the dragon and says that he is calm – he needs no “hot words”: an idiom for bold, angry or unkind words (l ).
_______________________________: a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., rain cats and dogs, see the light).
Beowulf leaves to battle the dragon. He is “still brave, still strong” (l ). Although he has reached old age, his character is still heroic.
Beowulf lets out a battle cry “so load…[that it] hung in the dragon’s ear” (l ). This is an __________________ for the sound lingering in the dragon’s ear.
Beowulf battles the dragon and is injured (l ).
Beowulf is a “beaten warrior” (this is a_________________________ - descriptive phrases or compound words that substitute for nouns) and his followers abandon him but Wiglaf stays. He thinks about what he owes Beowulf as a kinsman (l ).
Wiglaf exhorts men to stay and fight (l ).
____________________________________: speech given to motivate or rouse someone to action.
Wiglaf suggests Beowulf is old and has lost strength and needs to lean on younger arms (rely on younger warriors) (l ).

7. Battle with the dragon in Beowulf A New Telling – pp. 77-101
scudding (p. 80): moving fast in a straight line because or as if driven by the wind (v.).
shingle (p. 80): a mass of small rounded pebbles, especially on a seashore (n.).
sanctuary (p. 87): a place of refuge or safety (n.).
pyre (p. 87): a heap of combustible material, especially one for burning a corpse as part of a funeral ceremony.
quench (p. 98): extinguish (a fire) (v.).
Beowulf wants to go home. Hrothgar gives him gold and horses, which he loads on a ship (p. 78).
He gives his sword to the coast guard because the coast guard told him that fighting Grendel would be like fighting the sea (a sword would not help defeat the sea) (p. 80).
Beowulf is not greedy or ambitious and gives his treasure to the king (_______________) (p. 82).
The Geats are invaded and the king takes revenge. He gets ambushed and dies. Beowulf swims home in the half-frozen sea, bearing his uncle’s body. An impossible feat, like the ___________________________ (exaggeration) of Beowulf’s abilities we see in the poem (p. 89).

8. Beowulf becomes king when his cousin is killed
Beowulf becomes king when his cousin is killed. He kills Onela for revenge and reigns in peace for 40 years (pp ).
A slave disturbs a burial place, steals a jeweled cup to take to his master and invokes the anger of a firedrake (pp ).
Firedrake is described as the most evil of creatures that hunt men’s burial places (p. 91).
“[S]ame flames everywhere, leaping and lapping, laying the countryside bare (____________________________) (p. 92).
Wiglaf notes that Beowulf has aged but his heart is as big and brave as it has always been. He is still a ____________________ (p. 94).
Beowulf tells Wiglaf that, if you can’t beat evil by strength alone, you must use your wits (p.96).
Wiglaf thinks that Beowulf is like the eagle, who is the king of the air (p. 96).
Beowulf calls out to the firedrake that he has come to quench him. Put out his fire – kill him (p. 98).
Wiglaf helps Beowulf kill the firedrake by setting the bees upon it (p.99).
Watch 17:36-23:58

9. English 10
Beowulf September 23, 2016

10. Beowulf’s death (lines 736-897)
Livid (l. 737): furiously angry (adj.).
__________________________: rhythm in Old English verse that typically included a midline pause (l ).
Bewoulf gives a speech from lines 742 to 763 (one trait of an epic).
Figurative language in lines : “unwound his string of days on earth.” The string is being unwound and running out/Beowulf’s days are coming to an end.
Waiting for its word to be spoken (l ): Beowulf is waiting for fate to decide what will happen.
Swearing no unholy oaths (l. 750): Beowulf has made no promises to do evil deeds.
Seeking no lying wars (l. 751): Beowulf has not used lies or deceit to start war.
Wash my sword in blood/born of my own family (l ): Beowulf has not killed or injured kin.
Beowulf is concerned with ______________, ___________________, and ________________________________ in lines
Beowulf says he sold his life for the treasure and he sold it well (l ). He gave his life while protecting his people.
Beowulf’s gifts to Wiglaf (his necklace, his helmet, his rings and his mail shirt) suggest Wiglaf will be king (l ). Beowulf asks him to lead his people, too.
Wiglaf berates the followers that abandoned Beowulf and tells them they disgrace their people (l ).
Beowulf is called “ring-giver and “war-king” (l ). These are _________________________________ (descriptive phrases or compound words that substitute for nouns).
Read 101-end

11. Beowulf’s death in Beowulf A New Telling
Beowulf collapses but not due to injury as in the epic: here the battle is just too much for his aged body (p. 101).
Beowulf is concerned about whether he did the right thing by tricking the firedrake. He says he would have considered that dishonorable when he was younger (p. 101).
Beowulf tells Wiglaf that the world may not be ready to know the truth about his deeds – it needs to have an ordinary kind of ______________ to believe in (p. 102).
Watch 23:58-26:41

12. Review: good versus evil
Good and evil are clearly defined in Beowulf: Beowulf is good; Grendel, his mother and the dragon are evil (all of them are monsters).
Beowulf is trying to save humanity/others when he fights the monsters (one trait of an epic).
Beowulf fights monsters, not men – he is truly on the side of humanity and truly good.
Most of the people in Beowulf are not entirely good or evil (recall that we said that in our class discussion about good and evil).
Only Beowulf and Wiglaf are described as good. They are self-sacrificing and try to save their people without regard for themselves (one trait of an epic).

13. Grendel, his mother and the dragon (the monsters) are evil:
Grendel is one of the descendants of Cain, one of Adam and Eve’s children, who killed his brother, so he and his descendants were banished. Cain’s descendants became “every sort of evil creature”.
Grendel is described as mankind’s enemy throughout the poem.
Grendel’s attacks are driven by jealousy that humans enjoy life in the light while he is condemned to life in the darkness (recall that we discussed light versus dark in our class discussion of good versus evil) and by his lust for murder.

14. Grendel’s actions are evil, too:
Breaks into the hayloft and kills warriors as they sleep;
Creeps around the moors eating people.
Grendel’s mother’s appearance is described in ways that make her sound evil and are similar to the ways that Grendel is described. Her motivation is revenge, though, and she does not attack the Danes until Grendel is killed. But she is just as violent as Grendel.
The dragon terrorizes the Geats because of a thief.
Beowulf defeats all three of the monsters, so good triumphs over evil:
He does it honorably in the epic (bare-handed against Grendel and his mother until he finds a sword, and one-on-one against the dragon).
Note the one difference here between the epic and Beowulf A New Telling: he uses his wits to defeat the firedrake.