1. Beowulf I

2. 1. Setting the scene: 2. Critical Terms:
a) who were these people & how did they live?
b) the Beowulf manuscript
c) Christian and pagan elements
d) the story thus far
2. Critical Terms:
a) categorizing Beowulf
b) talking about Beowulf

3. Burial mound at Sutton Hoo

4. Drinking horns

5. Helmut and rings

7. Beowulf MS

8. Categorizing Beowulf Narrative poem: a poem that tells a story
Historical narrative: a story that purports to represent real, past events

9. Epic: a long narrative poem celebrating the great deeds of one or more legendary heroes, in a grand ceremonious style. Also known as heroic poetry.

10. Legend: a group of stories handed down through popular oral tradition, usually consisting of an exaggerated or unreliable account of some actually or possibly historical person

11. Romance: a broad term, usually denoting a narrative with exotic, exaggerated, often idealized characters, scenes, and themes. In the Middle Ages, tales of exciting adventures written in the vernacular (French) instead of Latin.

12. Fairy tales: short narratives featuring mythical beings such as fairies, elves, and sprites. These tales originally belonged to the folklore of a particular nation or region

13. Allegory: a story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning.
Christian allegory: an allegory with Christian themes

14. Elegy: an elaborately formal lyric poem lamenting the death of a friend or public figure, or reflecting seriously on a solemn subject

15. Formulae: the stock phrases and established patterns of a genre
Oral–formulaic poetry: poetry which displays the formulae of oral tradition

16. Talking about Beowulf
Alliteration: the repetition of the same sounds in any sequence of neighbouring words: eg.
Often Scyld Scefing seized the mead-benches from many tribes, troops of enemies (4-5)

17. Stress: where the emphasis falls: eg.
/ / / /
God–cursed Grendal || came greedily loping (711)*
*Seamus Heaney’s translation

18. Caesura: a pause, metrical or rhetorical, occurring somewhere in a line of poetry. The pause may or may not be typographically indicated. Indicated in scansion (the analysis of poetic meter) by "||."

19. Alliterative metre: the distinctive verse form of Old Germanic poetry: eg.
/ / / /
He slithered along the stones, || stark-hearted he found
his enemy’s footprint ( )

20. Two phrases, each with two stresses and a Caesura (pause) between
Alliteration: two instances in the first phrase, and one or two in the second

21. Flyting: verbal sparring; boasting matches between warriors: eg
Flyting: verbal sparring; boasting matches between warriors: eg. Unferth's exchange with Beowulf (499–606)
Kenning: compound words: eg. "whale– road" = sea

22. Sources:
Harris, Robert. "A Glossary of Literary Terms." VirtualSalt . 4 Jan   11 Sept <
Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical Terms By Jack Lynch, Last revised 3 August <
Thompson/Gale Glossary of Literary Terms <
The Virtual Classroom Glossary of Literary Terms <
Bedford/St. Martins Glossary of Literary Terms <

24. Covers from the Beowulf comics by Gareth Hinds

25. Beowulf computer game