Old English Elegy
Today we caught up from last week with a short lecture on the Anglo-Saxons, which addressed concerns that I saw in quizzes and exit tickets about people not quite understanding the background reading, and with discussion of the Dream of the Rood. Towards the end of class we moved on to discussing the elegy readings, particularly what an Old English elegy is and why that genre classification is complicated.
On Thursday we will finish discussing the elegies and move on to heroic poetry; these two genres have many similarities and this will be a good place to get back on track with our schedule. My hope is that, by the time we start Beowulf next week, we will have a good foundation in Anglo-Saxon poetry and culture which we can then take into our discussions of Beowulf.
Homework
No reading in the Broadview anthology for next time. These are all available in the sidebar under "Required Additional Readings":
- Background: "Germanic Legend and Heroic Lay" in the Fulk packet, pp. 193-194 (stop when they start talking about Beowulf) and pp. 216-224 (start when they start talking about non-Beowulf texts)
- "The Battle of Maldon" and "The Battle of Brunanburh" in the "Old English" packet
- "The Finnsburh Fragment" (external website, opens in a new tab)
For those of you who have not written a reading response yet, please upload a reading response to the Dropbox labeled "Response 2 - September 13 or 15" before class on Thursday. As we agreed during class, for this week you can write on Tuesday's readings for Thursday, if you want, because we're discussing both sets of texts on Thursday. In future weeks, you need to write on the texts assigned for that day.
Weekly Writing Prompt - September 15, 2016
Choose one of the prompts below. These prompts are more streamlined, with fewer possible questions; whichever you choose, please attempt to answer the full prompt, rather than focusing on only one aspect of it.
1) Discuss how, in "The Battle of Maldon," the poet juxtaposes the heroic ideals of the poem with the flight of the soldiers. Why does the poet do this? Whose side is he on? Please refer to specific lines and use evidence from the text to illustrate your points.
2) Choose one of the elegiac poems we read for Tuesday and one of the heroic poems we read for today. Compare and contrast. Does reading these two poems together change your reading of either of them? Please refer to specific lines and use evidence from the text to illustrate your points.
3) With reference to Fulk and Cain's "Germanic Legend and Heroic Lay," analyze how one of these poems meet the conventions of "the heroic ethos" of the Anglo-Saxons (Fulk and Cain, 193). What do all three of these poems and this ethos tell us about Anglo-Saxon society? Please refer to specific lines (from both the article and the poems) and use evidence from the text to illustrate your points.
4) Fulk and Cain discuss Deor in their chapter on heroic lay, not in their chapter on elegy. With reference to either the conventions of the elegy or of heroic poetry, make an argument about which genre Deor belongs to; or argue that it belongs to both. Please refer to specific lines from our readings and use evidence from the text to illustrate your points.
5) Fulk and Cain say that "The Battle of Brunanburh "is another poem at the periphery of heroic literature, simultaneously evoking and altering heroic conventions" (Fulk and Cain, 223). Describe how the poem "evokes" but also "alters" or does not otherwise meet "heroic conventions." Why might the poet have done this? Please refer to specific lines and use evidence from the text to illustrate your points.
1) Discuss how, in "The Battle of Maldon," the poet juxtaposes the heroic ideals of the poem with the flight of the soldiers. Why does the poet do this? Whose side is he on? Please refer to specific lines and use evidence from the text to illustrate your points.
2) Choose one of the elegiac poems we read for Tuesday and one of the heroic poems we read for today. Compare and contrast. Does reading these two poems together change your reading of either of them? Please refer to specific lines and use evidence from the text to illustrate your points.
3) With reference to Fulk and Cain's "Germanic Legend and Heroic Lay," analyze how one of these poems meet the conventions of "the heroic ethos" of the Anglo-Saxons (Fulk and Cain, 193). What do all three of these poems and this ethos tell us about Anglo-Saxon society? Please refer to specific lines (from both the article and the poems) and use evidence from the text to illustrate your points.
4) Fulk and Cain discuss Deor in their chapter on heroic lay, not in their chapter on elegy. With reference to either the conventions of the elegy or of heroic poetry, make an argument about which genre Deor belongs to; or argue that it belongs to both. Please refer to specific lines from our readings and use evidence from the text to illustrate your points.
5) Fulk and Cain say that "The Battle of Brunanburh "is another poem at the periphery of heroic literature, simultaneously evoking and altering heroic conventions" (Fulk and Cain, 223). Describe how the poem "evokes" but also "alters" or does not otherwise meet "heroic conventions." Why might the poet have done this? Please refer to specific lines and use evidence from the text to illustrate your points.
Other Notes:
- I have not yet heard from those people doing the Article Precis assignment next week; please send me the article you've chosen ASAP and remember that you need to confirm it with me at least one week in advance.
- Please turn in a $5 copy card by Thursday, September 15.
- View today's Powerpoint here.
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