106-013 Beowulf

Formerly available as 106-208/308. Students who have completed 106-208 or 106-308 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually 106-024 Introduction to Old English A and 106-029 Introduction to Old English B.

This is an advanced course in Old English in which the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf will be read in the original. Students completing this subject successfully will have achieved a deeper understanding of the subtleties of Old English, enabling them to perceive rhetorical figures, formal structures and narrative strategies in medieval literature; will have an understanding of the perceived essential elements of Western epic and of how new works in the tradition draw upon and/or work against generic expectation; and will have studied the impact of Christianity on the traditional pagan Germanic heroic ethos.

Class participation, and written work totalling 4000 words.

• B Mitchell & F Robinson, Beowulf. Blackwell, 1998.
• S Heaney, Beowulf: A Verse Translation. Norton, 2002.