5V Beowulf - an Old English epic poem

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 5

Beowulf

An Old English epic poem

Before reading:
Have a look at the original text
Which words do you recognize?

Old English memory devices

alliteration - the use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words that are close together: sing a song of sixpence

caesuras: a break in a line of poetry, usually by means of a punctuation mark like a comma, a colon etc.:  Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator;

kennings: figure of speech, a compound term that is used in place of a simple single-word noun. For instance 'whale's road' (hron rade) means 'sea',

Sail

woman

Sword

eye

Sea-garment

peace-weaver

battle-light

head-jewel

Fragment 1

Grendel attacks Heorot

Which Christian elements have been added in this fragment?

Fragment 2

Beowulf fights Grendel

What is special about Grendel?

Grendel is both Christian and Pagan. How can we see this in the text?

How does Beowulf kill Grendel?

Fragment 3

Beowulf fights Grendel's mother

Fragment 4

Beowulf defeats the dragon and dies

Write down the best kenning in this text according to you. Also, write down what it stands for.

Would you watch a film version of Beowulf?

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