literature: The Dream of the Rood , The Wanderer and The Wife's Lament

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Slide 1: Slide
EngelsMiddelbare schoolvwoLeerjaar 4,5

This lesson contains 24 slides, with interactive quizzes, text slides and 6 videos.

time-iconLesson duration is: 15 min

Items in this lesson

Slide 1 - Slide

The Dream of the Rood, The Wanderer, and The Wife's Lament - Lesson Aims
Lesson Aims:
You can
- Share your reading experiences with literary works using proper arguments (on paper as well as in a conversation/presentation).
- Identify different types of literary texts and interpret them using literary terminology.
- Give an outline of literary history, placing literary works in the right perspective.

Slide 2 - Slide

Themes The Dream of the Rood:
* Paganism and Christianity
Themes The Wanderer:
* Loneliness, suffering, and religion 

Themes The Wife's Lament:
* Sorrow, depression, and loneliness/solitude


Slide 3 - Slide

Literary terms The Dream of the Rood:
* Contains alliteration throughout the verse,
example: “brightest of beams” and “garnished with gold” 


Literary terms The Wanderer:
* Contains kennings for example: 
Lines 46-49: When the exile awakens from his dream of being back in the mead-hall he sees "sea-birds bathing, wings spreading"

Literary terms The Wife's Lament: 
* Contains enjambment, caesura, and imagery
Ex: 

Slide 4 - Slide

variation

the repeating of a single idea in different words, with each repetition adding a new level of meaning.


heaven-kingdom's Guardian    holy Creator

the measurer                                   mankind's Guardian

Glory-father                                     Master almighty

eternal Lord

Slide 5 - Slide

Caedmon- Hymn of Creation

late 7th century (Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum)

illiterate Northumbrian cowherd

a dream


Slide 6 - Slide

Slide 7 - Video

4 surviving manuscripts
  • The Beowulf Manuscript
  • the Exeter Book
  • the Junius Manuscript
  • Vercelli Book

There are also a few historical poems in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle


Slide 8 - Slide

Exeter Book: riddles

In the Exeter Book there are some riddles or enigmata. They use double-entendre, whereby one answer is suggested but another is meant.


A curiosity hangs by the thigh of a man, under its master's cloak.

It is pierced through in the front; it is stiff and hard and it has a good standing-place.

When the man pulls up his own robe above the knee, he means to poke the head of his hanging thing that familiar hole of matching length which he has often filled before.

Slide 9 - Slide

religious verse
  • the Dream of the Rood &  The Wanderer
  • the cross (personification)

Slide 10 - Slide

the Dream of the Rood
Listen to the explanation and features of the poem (next slides), then answer the questions.

Slide 11 - Slide

Slide 12 - Video

Slide 13 - Video

Where was this Old English poem/fragment found?

Slide 14 - Open question

What do we know about the author of the poem?

Slide 15 - Open question

Slide 16 - Video

the Wanderer
  • comitatus tradition (relationship lord and followers )
  • honour
  • christianity
  • elegy: poem that laments the loss of worldly goods, glory, or human companionship
now read the poem in the reader and answer the questions

Slide 17 - Slide

Slide 18 - Video


A

Slide 19 - Quiz


A

Slide 20 - Quiz

The Wife's Lament:

Slide 21 - Slide

Slide 22 - Video


A

Slide 23 - Quiz


A

Slide 24 - Quiz