Procedures
Preparation
Instruction
and Activities
Session One: Introducing Old English
- If desired, use the Literary
Guide: Beowulf to introduce the poem. The Overview outlines
basic information about the poem.
- Using the Quick Reference Sheet as a guide, explain
that English is divided into three periods.
- Introduce students to the
unfamiliar letters used in the Old English alphabet. Use the Language
section of the Literary Guide: Beowulf to discuss the
five characters in the Old English alphabet that are no longer used in
Modern English.
- You may want to write the
letters on the board and/or show them the first page of Beowulf. In case they ask,
the manuscript dates to about 1000 CE and was damaged in a fire, which is
why the top and right hand side of the page are badly damaged. The entire
Old English alphabet is available in section 16.2 of The Electronic Introduction to Old
English.
- If you would like to spend
a few minutes illustrating the changes between Old English and Modern
English, write “Žęt węs
god cyning.” on the board, explain to the class
how to pronounce the various sounds, and see if they can translate the
sentence into Modern English. If you want to provide an example of how
Chaucer might write that sentence, you can add “That wes
good king,” “That wes goode
king,” and/or “That wes god king” to the board
after the class has translated the Old English sentence.
- If you would like the
class to hear some of Beowulf in the original Old English, pass out the Old English Beowulf Passage handout and
have the class go to http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/Beowulf.Readings/Beowulf.Readings.html.
While the students can listen to and see four Beowulf passages at this
site, the handout covers lines 1-11 of the prologue. Note: while now is a
logical time to listen to Beowulf read in Old English, your students may
get more out of listening to the poem if you introduce alliteration and
alliterative verse to them first (see below). You may also wish to
distribute the Modern English Beowulf Passage handout
which provides a translation of the passage.
Session Two: The Poetics of Beowulf
- Using the Quick Reference Sheet as a guide, explain
alliteration. You may wish to begin illustrating alliteration by using
tongue-twisters as examples. The Excerpt from W. H. Auden’s poem “The Age of Anxiety”
and the Old English Beowulf Passage handout can be
used for further examples.
- Once your students
understand the concept of alliteration, pass out the Excerpt from W. H. Auden’s poem “The Age of Anxiety”
if you have not done so already.
- Show the example of
alliteration in the Poetics section of the Literary
Guide: Beowulf.
- Using the Quick Reference Sheet as a guide and the Auden poem, explain the basics of Old
English alliterative verse. (Do not work through the whole Auden poem if
you wish the students to work on the assignment alone or in groups.)
- Once your class seems to
have an understanding of alliterative verse, you may wish to turn to the Old English Beowulf Passage handout,
listen to the poem (see number 4 in the first session), and identify the
alliteration and meter of the first 16 lines of Beowulf.
- Pass out the Modern English Beowulf Passage handout if
you have not done so already and/or show the example of kenning and
compounding in the Poetics section of the Literary
Guide: Beowulf. Using the Quick Reference Sheet as a guide, explain
to your students the concepts of compounding and kenning. While your
particular translation may or may not include the compounds and kennings
of the poem, the Modern English Beowulf Passage handout provides
examples for you and your class to examine and discuss. The compounds
represented by the translation are “Spear-Danes,” “mead-benches,”
“hall-troops,” and “boy-child.” The one kenning in the passage is
“whale-road.” While some of these compounds also function as formulas (see
Quick Reference Sheet), they also have
specific poetic functions. Ask your students to discuss the poetic
function of compounding and kennings in the passage.
Example: The Old English for Spear-Danes is Gar-Dena. If you look at the
Old English Beowulf Passage handout, you will see that gar
(spear) alliterates and that the alliterative meter needs a G-word here. And,
if you are familiar with the poem, you will know that Danes are compounded with
many words: Ring-Danes, East-Danes, North-Danes, South-Danes, West-Danes, Bright-Danes. As this is the case, it would be simple enough
to suggest that the meter requires the use of gar in this compound for metrical
purposes, and, sometimes, this is the reason for the use of a particular word
or compounding. However, it is worth noting that this passage is about the
Dane’s conquests against their neighbors. It would seem then that the use of
gar (spear) in this formulaic compound was not only to meet the needs of the alliterative
meter, but also to foreground the Danes as an aggressive tribe. Here in the
first line of the poem we find meter, poetic flourish, and theme all coming
together in the poem’s first use of compounding.
- Either as homework or in
class, ask your students to identify the stresses and alliteration in the Auden poem. You may also ask them to do
the same with the Old English Beowulf Passage handout. If
you ask them to work with the Old English passage, give them the URL for
audio files and suggest they listen to each section before marking the
passage.
- If your translation
maintains compounding and kennings, select some good passages and ask your
students to identify the compounds and kennings and explain their
function.
Extensions
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