Beowulf Dialect Journal: #1-2

1. "They decked his body no less bountifully with offerings than those first ones did who cast him away when he was a child and launched him alone out over the waves." pg. 5

Shield Sheafson was exiled when he was an orphan. Shield came from nothing and turned into a great king. This sorta relates to the story of Moses of when he was drifting alone on a river as a child with treasures (precious to him) and when he was founded he became the prince of Egypt. So Shield is this allusion to Moses. 

2. "Grendel was the name of this grim demon haunting the marches, marauding around the heath and the desolate fens; he had dwelt for a time in misery among the banished monsters, Cain's clan, whom the Creator had outlawed and condemened as outcast." pg. 9

Grendel is an exile of God and he is a descent from Cain, Cain being from the Bible. In the Bible Cain killed his brother Abel and was marked by God. Through Cain's bloodline everyone has been seen a monster or an outcast of society. 

Beowulf Notes

2-Part Structure

• Sunrise and sunset on a hero's life.

SUNRISE:

We see the sunrise of Beowulf's career. We are introduced to him as a young man who is out to win fame and honor his father's debts. His defeat of Grendel and Grendel's come at the beginning of his fame. He will go on and win other honors.

SUNSET:

We see the sunset of Beowulf's career and life. The second part of the story takes place over 50 years after the first part. Beowulf is an old man and has been king for a long time.

3-Part Structure

• 3 Monsters - 3 battles - each with each battle increasing in difficulty

• This structure focuses on the monsters. This is a story of three monsters and three battles. The danger of each battle and each monster increase as the story progress.

• Grendel: The battle with Grendel is fought in Heorot and with Beowulf waiting to ambush him. Beowulf fights with his bare hands.

• Grendel's Mother: The battle with the mother is fought in her lair. Beowulf, the intruder, swims for a day the depth of a fiery lake while the mother waits and ambushes hime. He saves himself by uses an ancient sword that he finds in her hall.

• The Dragon - 

Flytes or Flyting - a game of verbal taunting between warriors. A type of epic boasting. Ex) Beowulf and Unferth at the beginning.

Metonymy - a figure in speech in which one thing is represented by another that is comonly and often physically associated with it. Ex) Bendigeidfran's size, "No house could contain him," could be a metonymy for the size of his army or kingdom.

Synecdoche - a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole thing. Ex) Beowulf using "keel" to refer to his ship.

Appositive - a building up of phrases that mean the same thing. This was characteristic of oral poetry to have a set of stock phrases that could be used to fit a pattern. The build up is suppose to have climatic effect. Ex) The shepherd of evil, guardian of crime

Motif - any recurrent image, symbol, theme, character, type, subjects, or narrative detail.

Motifs in Beowulf

• Kin Killing

• Feuds and ambushes

• Women mourning

• The arming of warrior, swords

• Heads and limbs

• The giving of gifts

Allusion - a reference to a person, event, statement, or theme found in literature, the arts, myths, religion, or popular culture. Beowulf contains numerous allusions to the Bible.

Roles of Women

• Hostess

• Peacemakers

• Monsters

Branwen Daughter of Llyr Questions

1) Connections: Characters – compare the characters of the two stories, which characters are alike. You can compare kings, warriors, women. Answers should be 2-3 sentences for each character.

Cet and Efnishen are both very cunning warriors with superior intelligence, mental toughness, couragenous, and selfless. They also care a lot about their country and their people, they do what they believe is the right thing to do and don't let anyone stop them from achieving their goal. Efnishen scarficed himself in order to stop the Irish from coming back to the dead whereas Cet sorta killed Conchobar in order to stop his crazy reign over the country and to avenge Mesgegra's death.

2) Compare the conflicts in the two stories in 2-3 sentences.

In Conchobar they had a king who was aself-bsorbed and in Branwen they struggled to keep the peace. So in both stories they struggled to keep the peace between two kingdoms and in themselves and each other because in Conchobar, Conchobar left his warriors in war so he can show off to the ladies and in Branwen was suppose to be the peace between them and because that didn't work out Efnishen killed all the Irish as they broke out into a war.

3) Compare the following themes in the two stories: The Role of Kings (think about who is a better king and why); The Role of Women (and yes there are women in “The Death of Conchobar”); The concept of magic (think about who uses magic in each story and what the purpose of magic is for); hospitality (yes its there in Conchobhar just not as clear); paganism vs. Christianity (perhaps more important in Conchobhar—think about the ending); man alone in a hostile world. Each comparison needs to be 2-3 sentences long.

The Role of Kings: In Conchobar wasn't a very good king because he was too self-aborsbed and that lead to his downfall. In Branwen Matholwch was a good king at first because he put up with insults and married his sister for peace between them, but that didn't work out so well because she didn't keep the peace. Later, when everything got really stressful, it lead to his downfall and started punishing his wife by sending her into the kitchen and that upset Efinseh and he set out to start a war.

The Role of Women: In Conchobar the women in the story were obsess with the way Conchobar looked and took him away from battle to chat with him and idolize him. Whereas, the women in Branwen were used in marriage to bring peace between two kingdoms.

Concept of magic: In Conchobar brainballs were sorta these magic trophies that these warriors collected from their prey that had the ability to kill whoever was hit by it. In Branwen we have this magic cauldorn that can bring people back from the dead.

Hospitality: In Conchobar, women were a great comfort to warriors and a break from war. They gave whatever the men wanted and most of all gave them attention. In Branwen, peace before war was a common thing, the King of Britian built a house for the King of Ireland to show this honor and apolizges and gave him everything he could to make up for marrying Branwen.

Pangaism vs. Christianity: In Conchobar, the story starts out with a pangan theme, but ends with a christian theme. It shows the transformation of Conchobar being this awful person into this saint like figure. However, in Branwen, the story stays pagan and everyone has god-like abilites.

Man alone in a hostile World: Cet was sorta this man that faced the world alone, especially in terms of killing Conchobar, yet at the same time Conchobar is also this man in terms of getting upset at the Jews for killing Christ. In Branwen, Efinshin faces the King of Britians army basically by himself and takes the sacrifice of stopping the Irish army from being reborn in the cauldron.

4) Compare the endings of the two stories: how are they alike.

Conchobar's and Branwen's endings are alike because they both end with some sort of death or tragedy. In Conchobar, the story ends with the death of Conchobar and Christ whereas in Branwen, the story ends with the death of everyone, but five women who are left to repopulate the world.

5) List your favorite moment from each story.

Conchobar: My favorite moment is when Fingen tells Conchobar that all he can do to keep himself alive is to sit upon his throne for as long as he lives or else he will die.

Branwen: My favorite moment is when they hide in sack flours, and Efinshen goes around smashing heads like it's nothing.

6) Find a photo for each of the characters in Branwen - post these to your blog.

7) Find a song that fits a theme of Branwen.

Shrug - Christina Grimmie

8) In your own words retell the story.

Branwen is married of to the King of Britian without her brother's consent. The King gives her brother all sorts of gift including a caldron that brings back the dead. When Branwen gives birth, her brother feels that the King didn't give them enough gifts. So the King punishes Branwen by sending her to work in the kitchen and she gets tired of this and sends a messager starling to her brother saying "Help!". This starts a war, where the caldron gets smashed and everyone dies, but a group of five women.

Words of the Day #4

Perfidy - deliberate breach of faith or trust; faithlessness; treachery; noun

The perfidy of Eliza's friendship surprised everyone, but me, because I knew who she really was as a person.

Morose - gloomily or sullenly ill-humored, as a person or mood; adj.

Sugar Mamas was selling cupcakes non-stop until a morose costumer entered and ruined the atmosphere by mumbling how much the prices of our cupcakes were stupid.

Words of the Day #3

Peruse - to read through with thoroughness or care; verb

Sally peruse through her basketball game and ended up making three half court shots.

Mitigate - to lessen in force or intensity, as wrath, grief, harshness, or pain; moderate; verb

The doctor tried to mitigate the patient's injuries, but in the end, he lost his patient.

The Death of Conchobar Script.

GROUP ACTIVITY

Rewrite the story in your own words and give your own telling of it. This should be a script with characters (one of your characters can be a narrator). You will act this out in front of class tomorrow. Your acting/presentation should take 2-3 minutes and I will time it on a stopwatch. Good luck.

Narrator: Once upon a time there were warriors showing off and were tossing around the brain of Mesgegra. The warrior Cet entered the room.

Conall: You and other warriors can't compare to me because I got thez brains.

Conchobar: True that.

Cet: (overhears the conversation and takes the brain) I shall use this brain to avenge Mesgegra's death.

(Conall and Conchobar follow Cet and enter war)

Women: Come here Conchobar ~

(Conchobar goes to the women and Cet uses the brain of Mesgegra to sorta kill Conchobar)

Narrator: Conchobar tells his warriors that kingship goes to anyone that can carry him to as far as his house. Cenn, one of his warriors, said he would carry Conchobar to his house. He brings him to his physician Fingen.

Fingen: I shall heal you Conchobar, however, I cannot take it out of your head because you will die. So for the rest of your life, just chillax (fix Conchobar's head with thread).

Narrator: Conchobar acted like this for seven years until Fingen showed up to his curb and told some news.

Fingen: Jesus is dead. The Jews killed Jesus.

Conchobar: What has this world come to!!!!~

Fingen: Jesus was nailed onto the cross.

Conchobar: I'm going to kill all the Jews (gets up and kills).

Narrator: As Conchobar fought, the brain of Mesgegra fell from his head and Conchobar died his soul being carried to the Heavens as he was baptism in his own blood, the first pagan in Ireland to welcome be in the Kingdom of God.

Words of the Day #2

Meticulous - taking or showing extreme care about minute details; adj.

The meticulous robber took necessary measures when it came to erasing his fingerprints.

Officious - objectionably aggressive in offering one's unrequested and unwanted services, help, or advice; meddlesome; adj.

Sarah often describes her cat as officious because she always comes home to a messy house.

The Death of Conchobar

Pre-reading

1) What are the qualities of a warrior/hero (think of the Odyssey, the Iliad)?

Cunning, Tragedy, Battle Skills, Stands for the value of the culture, and Nimble.

2) What are the qualities of a good king?

Kindness, Caring for the people/country, No Ego, and No Mistreating Power. 

3) What does a society with a king and warriors look like or act like? 

I assume it's very prepared place and ready to take action anytime. Very packed together.

4) What do you expect from a story about heroes and kings?

Tragedy, Problems that they run into in their life, Dramatic, Fights, Death, and Marriage (peace pledges).

5) What does Oral Tradition mean to you and how do you expect it to affect the story?

Oral tradition means to me that a story or event has been told through generations to be used as life lessons or to pass down culture. I think that it might mix up truth with some misunderstandings considering that the story has been passed on.

As we read

1) Keep track of all the characters that appear. Who is the protagonist? The antagonist(s)-- (think type of conflict).

Men of Ulster - Conall, Cu Chulainn, Cet mac Matach of Connacbt, Cenn Berriade, Fingen and Loegaire. They are trash talking each other and trying to see who is the best warrior by how many brains they've collected.

2) What is the main theme of the story (what is the author trying to say about life).

Religion. The author is trying to say that life has many different paths and we can take whatever path we choose, so Conchobar was pagthen and the becomes christian due to a enlightenment he has while he hears of the crufixtion of Christ.

3) List at least two symbols in the story. Why are these important?

Brain trophies are one symbols in the story and resemble paganism.
Religion is another symbol in the story and it's important because we have paganism and christianity mixed together in this short story.

4) Try to outline the plot.

The brain of Mesgegra was being tossed around until Cet took the brain away from them and plans to kill Conchobar with it to avenge Mesgegra's death. Cet and Conchobar are in war together and as the battle is going Conchobar leaves his army to show off to a group of ladies and then Cet hits him on the head with the brain of Mesgegra. Ceen Berriade carries Conchobar to his home and have his physican Fingen look at him and they all decide that they would rather Conchobar look bad and be king then have him die. Conchobar is cannot take action and his head is healed with a thread of gold. Conchobar gets mad about the Jews curfixing Christ and gets angry and the brain pops out of his head and dies. Conchobar's soul is taken from Hell and carried to Heaven.

After we read


1) What is up with the ending? Why is it important? Is this a Christian story or a Pagan story?  What clues (evidence) help you determine this?

The ending ends with Conchobar's death as he gets upset with the curfixtion of Christ. This is important because most of the story was told in paganism. I think this is a Christian story, because we see Conchobar go on to this path of enlightenment and is baptism with his own blood to go to Heaven with Christ instead of Hell.

2) What does the story tell us about life in Ireland during this time period? 

Life in Ireland during this time period was a little messy, you have a king that loves fooling around and winning, and then you have warriors just killing people to win their brains. It's a disturbing community...

3) What do you think about Conchobhar? Is he a good king? What is his personality like?

I don't think Conchobhar is a good king because his personality is all about himself and winning. For example, he left a battle to go show off to a group of girls.

4) What do you think about Cet? Is he a good warrior? What inferences can you make about him?

I think Cet is just doing what he thinks is right and what should be done. I wouldn't say that he was a good warrior, but he for sure wasn't a bad warrior. I think Cet did the right thing and went about it the right way.

5) What other warriors appear in the story? 

Conall, Cu Chulainn, Cet mac Matach of Connacbt, Cenn Berriade, and Loegaire.

6) Summarize this story.

The brain of Mesgegra was being tossed around until Cet took the brain away from them and plans to kill Conchobar with it to avenge Mesgegra's death. Cet and Conchobar are in war together and as the battle is going Conchobar leaves his army to show off to a group of ladies and then Cet hits him on the head with the brain of Mesgegra. Ceen Berriade carries Conchobar to his home and have his physican Fingen look at him and they all decide that they would rather Conchobar look bad and be king then have him die. Conchobar is cannot take action and his head is healed with a thread of gold. Conchobar gets mad about the Jews curfixing Christ and gets angry and the brain pops out of his head and dies. Conchobar's soul is taken from Hell and carried to Heaven.

Words of the Day #1

Obsolete - no longer in general use; fallen into disuse; adj.

Humans became obsolete when robots took over the world.

Philistine - a person who is lacking in or hostile or smugly indifferent to cultural values; noun

The philistine didn't really care when he couldn't score a touchdown for his team.

Vocabulary #1

Obsolete - no longer in general use; fallen into disuse; adj.

Philistine - a person who is lacking in or hostile or smugly indifferent to cultural values; noun

Meticulous - taking or showing extreme care about minute details; adj.

Officious - objectionably aggressive in offering one's unrequested and unwanted services, help, or advice; meddlesome; adj.

Peruse - to read through with thoroughness or care; verb

Mitigate - to lessen in force or intensity, as wrath, grief, harshness, or pain; moderate; verb

Perfidy - deliberate breach of faith or trust; faithlessness; treachery; noun

Morose - gloomily or sullenly ill-humored, as a person or mood; adj.