Preparing for Class:
October 27
Heroic Poems
Deor
- Deor is a scop (or poet/singer),
but he's a wanderer when we meet him. How does he console himself for the
unforseen tragedy that he has survived?
- How are the examples of others
in extreme situations appropriate for this particular speaker to cite?
- What evidence can you find that
if he were living today, Deor might be diagnosed with clinical depression?
- What does he find to be true for
Christians who live on middle-earth?
- What in his own experience confirms
this insight?
The Finnsburgh Fragment
- Before reading this fragment,
you should go back to Beowulf and review the story of Hildeburgh,
who was married to Finn, King of the Frisians (pp. 100-103). This poem zooms
in on the attack on the visiting Danes that started the entire conflict.
- When the Danes see fire approaching,
what do they immediately suspect as the source of the attack?
- Why is it that an attack by dragons
seems to them so much more plausible than an attack by their hosts?
- What does the poet find significant
about the fight at Finnsburgh?
Waldere
- Here we have another fragment,
and the translator's introduction to this section does a good job of orienting
you to the situation and the speakers.
- What does Hildegund value about
Waldere, her fiance?
- What's Guthere's rebuttal to her
speech based on?
- How does Waldere answer him?
The Battle of Maldon
- This is the longest of the heroic
poems, but it's still missing its opening and closing sections. What is happening
with Byrhtnoth when this segment opens?
- Who are the seafarers? Why does
he let them cross the ford at low tide rather than picking them off as they
wade over?
- As the battle begins, we are told
that "The time had come for all the doomed men to fall in the fight."
How does this reflect traditional Anglo-Saxon beliefs?
- Your translator, Kevin Crossley-Holland,
believes this poem to be the finest expression of the Germanic heroic code
in the surviving Anglo-Saxon literature. Mark and be ready to discuss (and
write about) some passages that illustrate the code of comitatus when you
get to class.
The Battle of Brunanburgh
- This final poem celebrates a battle
fought in 937 in which the Kings of Wessex lead an allied Anglo-Saxon force
against the Scots and seafarers (led by Constantine and Anlaf), and they win
the day.
- The Wessex kings, descended from
King Alfred, are Æthelstan and Eadmund. What are they doing as the story
opens?
- What is the cost of victory for
the Anglo-Saxons? How does the poet feel about their opponents? What is the
cost for them?
- How does the poem suggest a theme
of nationalism, promoting the unified Anglo-Saxon rulers of England?
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