Sentence Correction This story from the misty regions of Englands past is about a hero. To save people, he faces the following violence, horror, and even.

Sentence Correction

• This story from the misty regions of Englands past is about a hero. To save people, he faces the following violence, horror, and even death. The epics events take place in the distant past but this story still speaks to people today. Perhaps beowulf is interesting because their are still so many people in need of a hero, or rescuer. Beowulf is ancient englands hero.

Sentence Correction

• This story, from the misty regions of England’s past, is about a hero. To save people, he faces the following: violence, horror, and even death. The epic’s events take place in the distant past, but this story still speaks to people today. Perhaps Beowulf is interesting because there are still so many people in need of a hero, or rescuer. Beowulf is ancient England’s hero.

Old English & Anglo-Saxons

• Take notes on the following terms: epic poem, epic hero, oldest English story, bard/scop, burden of the bards, kenning, alliteration, assonance, hyperbole, and animism.

What do these stories have in common?

• The Odyssey• The Illiad• Gilgamesh• Beowulf

• They are long, old stories with poetic lines that have regular meter and rhythm.

• The main characters are heroes with superhuman qualities

• They have mythology: gods or godlike beings

• The action takes the route of journey or adventure and the outcome involves an entire race or country.

Epic poem =• A long narrative poem

that relates the great deeds of a larger-than-life hero who embodies the values of a particular society.

Epic hero =• The central figure in a

long narrative that reflects the values and heroic ideas of a society.

• Who are our heroes?

• What qualities do they have?

• How can a hero reflect or show what values a culture has?

Epic Heroes

Beowulf: The Oldest English Story

• Beowulf, composed by scops or bards around the year 700 and written in Old English, is the oldest English story that we know of today.

• It was passed by word of mouth for approximately 300 years before it was finally written down by an unknown Christian scribe and poet around the year 1000. This forgotten poet is believed to have changed it from a story with pagan beliefs to one with Christian morals, the story we know today.

• Knowing the history of this story is important because Beowulf was a very different as an Anglo-Saxon oral tale compared to what it became after it was written down by a Christian scribe who changed it to teach moral lessons of faith in one God.

Old English Middle English Modern English 500 - - - - - - - - - - -1066 - - - - - - - - - - 1485 - - - - - - - - - - present Beowulf Canterbury Tales Macbeth Frankenstein composed in 700 started in 1387 1605 1818

• Originally, Anglo-Saxon stories were passed down orally by story tellers called bards or scops. These bards were important because their stories could do the following:

• Preserve bits of history,• Create heroes, • Provide a way for soldiers to

be remembered after their dutiful deaths

• For a culture that did not believe in an afterlife, stories past from generation to generation were the only way to be remembered – to cheat death.

Burden of the bards . . .

• Bards or scops had a tough job of remembering so many lines.

• The story of Beowulf, for example, is around 3,200 lines long.

• Two literary devices that helped the bards remember their lines were kennings and alliteration.

• Kennings are descriptive figures of speech or compound words that take the place of a common noun. In short, they are multiple-word nicknames.

• They were used as stock phrases to help the bards with the following:

1. Add descriptive detail to the story

2. Bide time while thinking of the next line

3. Flatter the thanes and soldiers and kings

As you read “The Battle with Grendel” (p 30-32), find as many kennings for Grendel, the monster, as you can. Write down all the examples that you find.

Kennings

• “mankind’s enemy”• “shepherd of evil”• “guardian of crime”• “infamous killer”

Kennings for Grendel

Kennings for Grendel continued. . .

• “Almighty’s enemy”

• “hell’s captive”• “sin-stained

demon”• “afflictor of men”

• Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in words that are close to one another.

• Alliteration is an essential feature in Anglo-Saxon poetry. Often, in just one line of Anglo-Saxon poetry, two or three of the stressed syllables alliterate.

• Look for alliteration in the following lines from Beowulf: the Battle with Grendel’s mother (p.34-35). Write down examples that you find.

Alliteration

“Then he saw The mighty water witch and swung his sword, His ring-marked blade, (went) straight at her head; The iron sang its fierce song, (and)Sang Beowulf’s strength. . .”

“Then he saw The mighty water witch and swung his sword, His ring-marked blade, (went) straight at her head; The iron sang its fierce song, (and)Sang Beowulf’s strength. . .”

“Then he saw The mighty water witch and swung his sword, His ring-marked blade, (went) straight at her head; The iron sang its fierce song, (and)Sang Beowulf’s strength. . .”

Assonance

• Assonance = the repetition of similar vowel sounds in words that are close together.

• Assonant vowels must be followed by different consonants, otherwise the words are rhymes, not assonants.

• For example, the words face and base rhyme while the words face and fade are assonant.

Hyperbole

• A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion or create a comic effect.

• Hyperboles are also known as overstatements used to make a point.

• Examples: – “It’s a 150 degrees in the shade!”– “Kill yo self!”

• The tale of Beowulf is full of kennings, alliteration, assonance and hyperboles.

Animism

Before the Romans invaded the British isles and introduced Christianity, the religion of the Celts (the creators of the original Beowulf) was a form of animism which comes from the Latin word spirit. Animism is the belief that all natural things have a spirit. “The Celts saw spirits everywhere – in rivers, trees, stones, ponds, fire, and thunder. According to the Celts, these spirits or gods controlled all aspects of nature, and they had to be constantly satisfied. Priests called druids acted as intermediaries between the gods and the people. . . .

. . .Some think that Stonehenge was used by the (Celtic) Druids for religious rights having to do with the lunar and solar cycles” (Holt, Rinehart & Winston 2000).

Slides 28-30 = Tours to Europe

Last year’s tour to London & Paris

This year’s tour to Italy & Spain!

• Day 1  -  Fly overnight to Italy • Day 2  -  Rome

Arrive in Rome • Day 3  -  Rome

Take a guided tour of Vatican CityVisit the Sistine ChapelVisit St. Peter’s BasilicaTake a guided tour of Rome:

• Forum RomanumVisit the ColosseumTake a walking tour of Rome:

• Trevi Fountain • Pantheon • Day 4  -  Assisi • Florence

Travel via AssisiVisit the Basilica of St. FrancisContinue on to Florence

• Day 5  -  Florence Take a guided tour of Florence:

• Piazza della Signoria • Ponte Vecchio

• Chiesa di Santa Croce • Gates of Paradise

Visit the DuomoSee a leather-making demonstrationEnjoy free time in Florence

• Day 6  -  Florence • Night ferry Travel via PisaSee the Leaning Tower of PisaVisit the Pisa BaptisteryVisit the Pisa CathedralTravel to LivornoBoard a night ferry to Barcelona

• Day 7  -  Barcelona Arrive in Barcelona

• Day 8  -  Barcelona Take a guided tour of BarcelonaVisit Parque GuellTake a walking tour of Barcelona:

• Las RamblasOptional: Barcelona Flamenco Evening

• Day 9  -  Depart for home