Review of Week 2: Aug 28, 30 (9:25)

Overview: Tuesday, August 28 (9:25)

by Kati-Jane Hammett

When class began, we went over some practical issues regarding the blogging policies (logging in, changing usernames), the logistics of secretarial duties for the Review of the Week assignments, and the expectations for the current bloggers.

Moving into a discussion of manuscript culture, Dr. Seaman laid the groundwork by reminding the class that Anglo-Saxon culture was primarily oral, but a written component existed. The written component, however, was overseen by the Church. It is important to note that medieval manuscripts are more like transcripts. Medieval Anglo-Saxon culture emphasized the community experience of texts, rather than the individual’s experience.

Until the late 1400s, manuscript culture dominated the written culture. The earliest Old English texts we have are from the 7th century, following the re-Christianization of England, and thus produced within monasteries.  These include Christianized versions of older texts or tales. It isn’t until the 12th century, after the Norman conquest, that you have any personal ownership of books.

Most stories were relayed orally, by a scop, and the audience would expect certain “big moments” from a recitation of a well-known tale, but wouldn’t expect a consistent regurgitation of exactly the same telling of that tale. Repetition of phrasing, or concept repetition, is also evidential of an oral tradition, though it tends to be more like recurrence with variation. The scop in Beowulf tells several stories of heroes and their victories and defeats.

Continuing our discussion of “The Wanderer” from last class period, Dr. Seaman posed the question, “Why is he wandering?” What we can definitively tell from the text is that his lord died, and whether or not he was directly responsible, he feels as if he’s to blame. His job was to keep his lord alive. Now, the speaker laments his lack of a lord. The sorrows he expresses are both personal and also an older man’s reflection on “wyrd.”

Moving on to discuss “The Dream of the Rood,” Dr. Seaman spoke briefly about dream visions and the amalgamated concept of Christ as warrior-hero, battling death and sin on the cross. We commented on the unique perspective in this poem, that of an inanimate object, and the tonal tension as the cross is both honored and horrified by its participation in the crucifixion. The cross also presents itself as a thane of Christ. Dr. Seaman remarked on the visual imagery, where the cross is alternately described as being covered in jewels, then covered in blood. The cross also seems to experience Christ’s wounds, allowing the Christ-figure to retain its “victorious warrior hero image.” At the end of the poem, the narrator reemerges to give a homiletic explanation. (Some important background: During the Middle Ages, there was an emphasis on the power of religious objects – relics – a power that was accorded them through their connection to Christ.)

We also briefly touched on “The Wife’s Lament,” and Dr. Seaman noted that viewing these poems or manuscripts as self-contained is inaccurate, and that our perception of them as complete is largely a misconception aided by the very good work of scholars in the field. “The Wife’s Lament” is placed in a section of riddles in the Exeter Book. Unlike the first half of Beowulf, these shorter poems are all reflective and melancholy. We discussed the “Lament” as evidential of one of the roles of poetry at the time, the expression of individual experience in a community setting.

Settling in to our discussion of Beowulf, Dr. Seaman first gave us some stylistic terms (appositive style, kenning, and litotes) and discussed their application to the form of the poem. With regard to kenning, Dr. Seaman noted that Germanic language does this anyway, putting two words together to make a third word or compound concept, and that it is useful to remember that kennings in their conception may not have been entirely about poetic turns of phrase, but more a natural linguistic practice.

Moving on to the plot or content of Beowulf, Dr. Seaman reminded us that Anglo-Saxon culture valued and respected success, so any reading of Hrothgar’s building his hall as evidential of hubris is likely incorrect. Hrothgar is proud of his success, and his people are also proud to have a strong lord. Hrothgar and the hospitality of his hall are shamed by Grendel’s attacks. Hrothgar gives Beowulf’s father shelter after Ecgtheow started a feud, then Hrothgar went as far as to pay the wergild for Ecgtheow. Beowulf has come to repay this debt, but also to find honor and glory. Dr. Seaman talked about the medieval concept of accumulated identity, and how someone would seek out experience and reputation to make their way in the world. After defeating Grendel and his mother, Beowulf attacks Grendel’s corpse, reflective of his disrespect for Grendel, and takes his head as a trophy. Throughout the first half of the text, Beowulf’s character seems brash, arrogant, and also spontaneous and intuitive in battle.

Some concepts we discussed that arise from the Prologue: In the first three lines, the speaker is conjuring a shared nostalgia for the “olden days,” later (in lines 4-11) describing the ideal king as an intimidating protector.

Quotes

“The Wanderer”:

“[E]ver since long ago I hid my gold-giving friend/ in the darkness of earth, and went wretched,/ winter-sad, over the ice-locked waves,/ sought, hall-sick, a treasure-giver” (lines 22-25)

“The Wife’s Lament”:

“I had few loved ones or loyal friends/ in this country, which causes me grief.” (lines 16-17)

Beowulf:

“There the son of Ecgtheow would have ended his life/ under the wide ground, the Geatish champion,/ had not his armored shirt offered him help,/ the hard battle-net, and holy God/ brought about war-victory” (lines 1550-1554, emphasis added to show appositive style and kenning, respectively)

“In the end it finally comes about/ that the loaned life-dwelling starts to decay/ and falls, fated to die” (lines 1753-1755, containing one of Dr. Seaman’s favorite kennings)

Terms

scop [shōp] – Old English poet (oral performer).

oral formulaic – descriptive, used in reference to texts like Beowulf, orally told, which contained certain formulas of plot, characterization, and phrasing (ex. “[…] under the clouds”)

dream vision – a popular medieval genre or form, wherein a narrator recounts a dream or vision, often to instruct

homily – sermon

appositive style – (apposition is a grammatical term; two words, right next to each other, meaning the same thing, or a series of clauses referring to the same object) Beowulf and Old English poetry generally often makes much use of this

kenning – figure of speech in which something stands in for something else as a poetic substitution, such as a noun presented by putting two other nouns together (ex. “whale’s-riding” for “ocean”)

litotes – extreme understatement, through negative statement (ex. ln. 138: “it was easy to find a thane/ who sought his rest elsewhere, farther away” meaning, they are not there)

Overview: Thursday, August 30th (9:25)

by Sam Piergross

Today’s class began with a tutorial on OAKS on how to check our grades. Do not worry too much about missing a RAP quiz or forgetting to respond to a blog question once or twice because they do not hold that much weight in our final grades. Needless to say, the more you miss the more detrimental that will be for your grade. These assignments are meant to help you. In talking about the class blog, we ARE allowed to respond to any of the four questions asked. So far so good with responses and questions! Keep it up; maybe add more textual support in responses.

Then came a sneak peak from Professor Seaman into next week’s material. We will be focusing on Anglo-Norman texts, which will seem more familiar to us even though the prestige language during that time was French. Be aware that one of the readings for next week is online; there is a link on the blog. Before we moved into our Beowulf discussion Professor hit us with a few key dates and thoughts to consider. Around the year 700 was the first Old English writing on record. The year 520 is around the time Beowulf would have taken place, and there is even evidence that suggests Hrothgar could have existed. It was not until the year 1000 that Beowulf was written down in the manuscript form that we have. Almost 500 years!

We then reviewed key terms from last class regarding Old English literary style. Lines 1905-07 contain examples of kenning, litotes, and apposition:

“The sail by the mast was rigged fast with ropes,

a great sea-cloth(kenning meaning sail); the timbers creaked,

the wind over the sea did not hinder at all(litotes-good day to sail)

the wave-floater(kenning meaning boat) on its way;

the sea-goer(kenning meaning boat) sped on”

The appositions here are the repetition of sail in the first two lines and saying the boat is moving forward in the last two lines. There are two more examples of litotes in lines 3029, 3126, and 3129.

We then moved into our discussion on Beowulf beginning his boasting. It is most clearly seen when Beowulf must defend himself after Unferth reports his false version of Beowulf’s encounter with Breca. Unferth is envious of Beowulf and does not want his people to respect Beowulf more than he. It is here some say Beowulf brags about his accomplishments, but in reality those sitting at the table are pleased with how he handled the situation. It would be argued that Beowulf teaches us a lesson here about possessing a balance between individual strength and Wyrd. He mentions that Breca and himself swam together and it was given to Beowulf to stab the sea-monster. Although, in lines 581-83 Beowulf makes a sarcastic comment towards Unferth and during his speech says he killed nine of these monsters, which can be considered boasting. Importantly, Beowulf notes and Unferth doesn’t deny it that Unferth has no such experiences to boast of.

Rituals were the next topic. The sharing of the mead-cup by the Queen is an important and popular tradition these people practiced. The Queen represents her lord (the King) and carries the cup to whomever she believes is worthy to drink from it. Beowulf was given the cup to drink, which symbolizes his acceptance with the Danes. It is interesting to pause here and think about women’s roles in this story (Grendel’s mother aside). It seems their main importance is to be “mindful of customs” (line 612). At the end of the story a Geatish woman sings a sad song at Beowulf’s burial as a ritual of honor. Another place we see a woman’s involvement is when Wealhtheow offers Hrothgar advice on what gifts to give Beowulf. It is customary to give gifts in this culture that was centered on a gift-giving economy. Hrothgar, who is fond of Beowulf, wants to make him a son, but Wealhtheow convinces him that is a bad idea because his kingdom’s kingship is reserved for kin. This reveals that the women of this culture preserved tradition, were peace-weavers, and even gave important political advice.

The second half of the poem gives the audience insight into the underlying tensions between the various groups. These are often times more dangerous than Grendel or the dragon. During the second half, the audience also sees Beowulf transform from warrior to king. At first, Beowulf denies kingship because he considers himself a warrior. Eventually Beowulf becomes King of the Geats, but ends up retaining his warrior-like attitudes because he slays a dragon while king. This is a major difference between Beowulf as king and Hrothgar as king. Hrothgar appointed his thanes to do the fighting and did not physically aid them. Beowulf dismisses his men and continues to fight the dragon single handedly. All but one of his men leaves him to defeat the beast alone. Wiglaf stayed and helped his lord. Beowulf dies during the battle but succeeds in killing the dragon as well, which is repeated after any mention of Beowulf’s death at the end of the poem. Medieval culture accepted the notion that history comes and goes, so having a poem in which the protagonist dies is not out of the ordinary. Beowulf was not written to be the epitome of a classic epic hero, but in many ways he does fulfill the standards (though remember that Beowulf is not written in the epic tradition of Homer, Vergil, or later Milton). He saves his people and restores order, at least for a short period of time.

Preview of Week 3 (September 4, 6)

We will be shifting from Anglo-Saxon England to Anglo-Norman England, after the Norman conquest of 1066 at the Battle of Hastings. We will examine the French influence on English and how French rather abruptly became the prestige language—the language of the courts, church, and aristocracy. Most of the writing in England at the time was done in French (whatever wasn’t in Latin), so we will be reading some work by Marie de France, who penned Arthurian short stories in Anglo-Norman around the late 1100s. We will also be looking at the work of Thomas Malory, who collected together Arthurian stories that had long been circulating, in the late 1400s. He is, thus, writing in English. There will be a RAP for Tuesday and another for Thursday, when we’ll discuss Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, another Arthurian poem, this one written around the same time Chaucer was writing in the late 1300s.

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