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