Beowulf Essay Directions

Select one of the following essay topics.  Respond to the topic in a well-organized five-paragraph essay.  Remember to use standard V introduction and conclusion format: the opening paragraph begins with a general statement and narrows down to a thesis.  The reverse order, with the thesis broadening to a more general statement, is used for your conclusion (see V Introduction). Finally, incorporate 10 words from Vocabulary List 5 in your essay (and number them!).

1. A folk epic is a long narrative poem, transmitted via the oral tradition, relating the deeds of a legendary hero of the remote past.  How does Beowulf meet this definition and fulfill the essential components of the epic form?
2. Describe the essential characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon hero king as exemplified in Beowulf.  You may consider Beowulf alone, or you may consider three different figures, such as Beowulf, Hrothgar and Wiglaf.
3. Comitatus is the mutual relationship between the Anglo-Saxon warrior king and his thanes.  Explain this relationship, its code of conduct and how it reflects the values of Anglo-Saxon society as revealed in Beowulf.
4. Despite its being a work of the Dark Ages, Beowulf continues to be a thrilling story that captures the reader’s imagination, even in today’s world of technological advances. Why is this folk epic still worthy of being studied in school and/or being read on one’s own?

Refer to The V Introduction and Conclusion for help.

The V Introduction/Conclusion

The Introduction

• starts with a general statement and gradually narrows down to a specific thesis
• includes the title of the work under consideration and its author
• looks like a V

Example:

     Throughout time, mankind has struggled to explain his world. The legends and myths of the ancient Greeks are one example of man’s attempt to create an order for his world. These stories formed a religion, a code of ethical behavior involving superhuman forces. The Anglo-Saxons who lived in Scandinavia and Britain between 450 and 1100 A.D. also attempted to explain their world through their religion. At first pagan, these people eventually converted to Christianity, and, as they did so, their myths and legends were imbued with Christian symbols, meanings and terminology. An example of this mingling of the pagan and the Christian is the epic poem Beowulf, a product of a time in which a people superimposed one view of life upon another in order to rationalize both their past history and their present world.

The Conclusion

• starts with the thesis and broadens to a general statement
• refers back to the introductory paragraph
• states the title and the author
• ideally leads the reader forward
• looks like a Λ

Example:

     The world of Beowulf reflects a world at a crossroads. Replete with monsters and men of superhuman strength as well as allusions to God, Christ, heaven and hell and redemption, the Anglo-Saxon epic presents a civilization with two, often conflicting, world views. Yet, for the audience sitting beside the fire in the mead hall, the merging of the contrary traditions actually demonstrated its efforts to cope with a changing world. People today are experiencing a similar challenge. The world as we know it is transforming every day; the world of tomorrow is both exciting and frightening. Perhaps this explains the proliferation of New Age religions such as Scientology or Eastern religions such as Zen Buddhism. In our on-going struggle to make sense of an incomprehensible world, are our modern day superhero comic books and movies really that different from the folk epics of the past?

"Review Sheet" Test

DIRECTIONS: After compiling and "checking" your Reconstruction vocabulary, construction at least 15 to 20 questions. Your questions should cover the political, economic-financial, and diplomatic events of the period 1865-1877. [These questions would/will require written responses varying from a minimum of one sentence to one well-developed paragraph. But you are not answering them as part of this test.] In terms of focus, these questions can be quite specific/detailed [but not picky] or broader/larger in scope [but not vague/overly broad].
Following each question, you are to attach the key vocabulary terms that go with and/or help answer that question. You may use a key term more than once. You may add other key terms to your questions—ones that are not on the jumbled list below. You must use all of the key terms at least once......

TERMS:

• Impeachment
• 13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments
• 10% Plan & loyalty oaths
• Mexico, France & Maximilian
• Redemption/Redeemers
• Property values
• Carpetbaggers
• Scalawags
• Industrial capitalism
• Radical Reconstruction/Congressional Reconstruction
• Thaddeus Stevens
• Election of 1868 & Grant
• Political machines
• Black Friday
• Wade-Davis Bill
• Military Reconstruction Act
• Boss Tweed & Tammany Hall
• Deflation vs. inflation
• Crime of '73
• Laissez faire economics
• Greenback Party
• Specie Resumption Act of 1875
• Andrew Johnson
• Tenure of Office Act
• Alaska & Russia
• Seward's Folly
• Black Codes
• Credit Mobilier
• Whiskey Ring
• Ku Klux Klan
• Union League
• Gold standard/gold vs. Greenbacks &/or silver
• Election of 1876 & Hayes vs. Tilden
• "waving the bloody shirt"
• Electoral Commission & Compromise of 1877
• Monroe Doctrine
• Panic of 1873
• Freedmen's Bureau

Due: Beginning of class Monday, 11/23/09

Value: 100 or more points

Beowulf Epitaph Directions

You are to write an epitaph for the warrior king Beowulf or for another literary or cultural hero.  Your epitaph will take the form of a poem written in imitation of Anglo-Saxon poetry.

The requirements of your poem are as follows:

1. A minimum of six lines
2. Caesuras breaking up each line
3. Alliteration carried throughout each half of the line
4. A minimum of three kennings
5. Use of sense imagery
6. No use of rhyme
7. Use of elevated language

Graphics component:

1. Your poem must be illustrated.  Keep appropriate to the time period of your hero and the occasion.  If you select an old-fashioned font, make sure the font is easily readable.  Also make sure your poem is not washed out by the illustration.
2. Your name should appear on the front of your work.

Beowulf Passage Analysis

1. Select one of the following passages:
• page 11, lines 126-169
• page 105, lines 1518-1556
• page 51, lines 749-789
• page 121, lines 1758-1784
2. Take notes on the passage. Consider both life in Anglo-Saxon society and the literary form of the Anglo-Saxon epic:
• Life in Anglo-Saxon society
• heroic ideal
• comitatus (relationship between king and vassals)
• heroic paradox
• values
• traditions
• hospitality
• pagan/Christian influences
• Epic 
• hero
• supernatural/magical
• kennings, epithets, litotes, alliteration
• repetition
• themes
• motifs
• set speeches
• catalogs
• genealogy
3. After taking notes, decide on the significance of the passage. Is it one main point or three interrelated points? Develop a paragraph around your answer. 
4. Your paragraph should 
• state the actual line numbers in/near the opening sentence
• provide a contextual basis for the passage; i.e., when does it take place? 
• identify who is speaking (character or narrator)
• explain and analyze the significance of the passage 
• use a minimum of three quotations from the passage for support (follow poetry quotation format--slashes between lines and line citations)
• end smoothly