Instructor: Angela Bailey

Background•An Anglo Saxon poem.

•First composed by an unknown poet around 700 A.D.

•Was in circulation as an oral narrative for many years prior.

•Originally written in Old English

• Old English originates from Germanic and Anglo-Saxon languages.

•Some characters, such as the royal family members, correspond to actual historical figures.

•A pagan story with a Christian narrator.

Background• 30,000 lines of Anglo-Saxon poetry

survive today• 3, 182 (10%) of the lines are from Beowulf

• Setting - Denmark and Sweden• Author - Unknown, probably a monk• Composed in the 7th or 8th century• Oldest surviving English poem

OldEnglish

The Title• Anglo-Saxon word Beo means “bright” or “noble”

• Anglo-Saxon word wulf means “wolf”

• Beowulf means bright or noble wolf

• Other sources say Beo means “bear”

Characters•Beowulf

•King Hrothgar

•Grendel

•Grendel’s Mother

•Unferth

Beowulf• Epic hero• Geat (from

southern Sweden)• Nephew of Higlac

(King at story’s start)

• Sails to Denmark to help Hrothgar

Hrothgar• Danish king• Builds Herot

(banquet hall) for men

• Tormented by Grendel for 12 years

• Loses many men to Grendel

• Joyless before Beowulf’s arrival

Grendel• Referred to as

demon and fiend• Haunts the moors

(swampy land)• Descendant of

Cain• Feasts on 30 men

the night of 1st attack

Grendel’s Mother

• Referred to as she-wolf

• Lives under a lake

• Challenges Hrothgar when she kills one of his best men

Themes• Theme: the fundamental and often

universal ideas explored in a literary work.

• The Heroic Code vs. Other Value Systems

• A Good Warrior vs. A Good King• Establishing Identity