Comparisons of the Court (Alexis, Monica, and Brandy)

Games:

• King Arthur's Court: carol dances, jousting, tournaments, guessed about the presents, singing, music
• Mysterious Court: dancing and carolling, hunting-Gawain is game, music, sports

Decorations:

• King Arthur's Court: jewels, colorful banners, silver dishes, rich metals, silk curtains, drapes, colorful beverages (before they're consumed), brilliant colors, fabric from Toulouse and Turkestan.
• Mysterious Court: glorious colors, red-gold, party colors, foreign silk from Toulouse and Turkestan, fine carpets, silver dishes, quilted cushions, built of fine stone, gorgeous castle.

Attitudes:

• Arthur's Court: merry, happy, joyful, welcoming, offended and combative toward the Green Giant, Arthur demands a story, childish, having fun.
• Mysterious Court: hospitable, welcoming, merry, joyful, jubilant, polite, laid back.

Characters and a theme

Bjalki: he is a man in King Hrolf's army
Bera:She's a farmer's daughter and is in love with Bjorn. Once Bjorn gets turned into a bear and gets killed, she eats some of his meat at Hvit's urging. Then she had three boys: Elk-Frodi, Thorir, and Bodvar.
Bjorn: Son of King Hring and Hvit's stepson. After refusing to sleep with Hvit, she turns him into a bear. Since he is a man at night, he still meets with Bera and gets her pregnant. He predicts his own death and sets up inheritances for his sons. He then fights to the death.
Bodvar Bjarki: son of Bjorn and Bera, and that's all we really know about him now.
Drifa: daughter of King Hrolf. She is hospitable, which perhaps foreshadows that she will be a peace bride.
Elk-Frodi: son of Bjorn and Bera, he is a man above the waist and an elk below. He gets the least of the treasure left by his father and is very angry about this. He leaves and becomes basically a highway pirate who kills for money.

Revenge: Queen Olaf and King Helgi meet, and the rest of their relationship consists of trying to get revenge on one another. When Olaf turns down Helgi's marriage proposal, he avenges his humiliation by raping her. In turn, Olaf does not tell Helgi he has produced a daughter (Yrsa), and orchestrates the marriage of Helgi and Yrsa. This is a great revenge because, only when Yrsa and Helgi have been married for years and have had a child, does Olaf come and tell the truth, prompting Yrsa to leave Helgi heartbroken and depressed. This tells us the background of Hrolf's twisted family tree, and sets up the other great revenge of the story. Skuld, another child of Helgi, wants to get revenge on Hrolf and on their father. It is suggested that this is because of their dysfunctional family and the fact that she didn't get the life she deserved. The revenge theme could also be suggesting that the idea of revenge is bad as, except in Skuld's case, it never seems to turn out as planned.

Hrolf Kraki Characters

• Halfdan: He was the king of Denmark and was defeated and killed by Frodi, his brother.
• Frodi: he is Halfdan's brother, who defeats and kills him and takes over Denmark, seeking to kill his nephews Helgi and Hroar.
• Helgi: Son of Halfdan. Hides out with his sister's husband then finally kills Frodi and, with his brother, takes over Denmark. He has three children: Hrolf, Skuld, and Yrsa (also his wife and Hrolf's mother). When Yrsa remarries Adils, Helgi starts a feud and ends up getting killed by Adils.
• Hroar: Another son of Halfdan, helps his brother kill Frodi and take over Denmark. Marries Ogn and settles in England. He cuts off Hrok's foot because Hrok threw his ring into the sea. Hrok kills him as revenge for this.
• Signy: daughter of Halfdan and wife of Saevil, who hides the boys when Frodi is out to kill them. She has Hrok and envies her brothers, so she asks Hrok to get their ring from them.
• Regin: Helgi and Hroar's foster father. He helps try to hide the boys when their uncle is out to kill them, and helps them gain revenge a few years later.
• Vifil: he lives on an island and is very skilled at magic. He hides Helgi and Hroar when they are escaping Frodi.
• Heid: she is a seeress who tells Frodi where the boys are hiding, but she also tells him that they will kill him.
• Olof: she is a warrior queen who is beautiful and cruel. She vows never to marry a man. Helgi asks for her hand, and she appears to agree, but then gets him drunk, shaves his head, covers him with tar, and kicks his men out of her country. When he gets her pregnant by rape, she arranges for their secret daughter to marry him without knowing it. Then, when they are happy together, she ruins their union by divulging the secret.
• Yrsa: She is the daughter born of the union between Helgi and Olof. She then married Helgi because she didn't know he was her father. They had Hrolf, but then learned of their shameful relation. She went to live with her mother, married Adils, but was never really happy.
• Hrok: son of Signy and Saevil. He throws Hroar's ring into the sea, which gets his foot cut off, prompting him to kill Hroar. He then asks for Hroar's wife, Ogn. Helgi defeats him and breaks his arms and legs, rendering him useless.
• Adils: He is the king of Sweden who asks for Yrsa's hand after she parts from Helgi. He doesn't see the need to tell Helgi, which starts a feud.
• Skuld: She is the daughter of Helgi and an elfin woman. She is therefore half elf and has magical powers. She shows a bad temperament even as a young girl.
• Berserkers: These are warriors who belong to king Adils. They completely lose control in battle and will attack anything in their path until everyone is dead. They also fight without armor.
• Svipdag: son of Svip, joins Adils' retinue, does battle with Berserkers. He leaves Adils for a better king and joins Hrolf. He warns that Adils will probably be treacherous.
• Svip: Swedish farmer and father of Svipdag. He has a dream warning him that Svipdag is in trouble and sends his other sons to save the day.

Beowulf, Part Tres

1. Beowulf is not a very good king. He's not the worst, but he is by no means good. He protects the country with his reputation, rather than teaching his warriors how to battle and building them up into champions like he was. When Hrothgar tells Beowulf to beware of ofermod in old age, that is a foreshadow that Beowulf will end up like he did. He decided to get the final glory of fighting the dragon and he ends up causing the downfall of his country. He dies in his final battle, and because he hasn't taught his warriors to be good fighters, he leaves his country completely vulnerable to attack, and that's exactly what happens. It says a lot about a country when the only person they can get for their king after Beowulf dies is a warrior who has never even proven himself in a real battle. Even his own men don't think he's a good king. In Wiglaf's speech after Beowulf's death, he refers to Beowulf as a warrior or a champion multiple times, instead of saying king.

2. I think the most important part of the final piece of Beowulf is the contrast between warrior and king. When Beowulf was a warrior, the story was full of life and excitement. Once he becomes king, the tone turns more somber and even boring. By showing what kind of king Beowulf was versus what type of warrior he was in the first two parts, we are able to understand that there is a vast difference between champion and leader, which is one of the biggest themes of the story.

3. The most interesting part of Beowulf for me was the comment on warrior society. It showed, unlike most stories written at this time, how the women suffer the most during war. Also, while it doesn't necessarily portray warrior culture in a negative light, it does show that some bad things happen as a result of their code of honor. For example, Grendel's mother tries to extract wergild and it just gets her killed. There is also rampant kin-killing in the story and these countries all fall. It also shows that a champion cannot become a king because if you are a warrior, that's all you'll ever be.

4. The dragon represents Beowulf's pride. It is the final beast which he must overcome in order to peacefully end his life. This is shown in the fact that it's actually Wiglaf who kills the dragon, but Beowulf believes he did it. He dies with that last little bit of glory, even though it wasn't actually his, so he could never truly overcome his own pride.

Words of the Day

She was very upset, because by the time she finally got an iPod, that generation was already obsolete.

The paucity of dedication on the team made the coach want to quit.

A group of Philistines burned the pile of books, as they didn't think that type of learning was important.

She was very meticulous in filling out her application, because she really needed the scholarship to get into college.

The teacher was extremely officious because she felt it was the only way to control her students.

I like to peruse every book I get, so that I don't miss anything.

The doctor decided to prescribe antidepressants now so he could mitigate the pain of the funeral.

Her brother's perfidy made him hard to trust, and she didn't want to tell him her secret.

Everybody wondered what was wrong because the usually sunny person was acting very morose.

Beowulf Part Dos

1. Themes:

• Role of a King: Beowulf is compared with both Heremod and Hrothgar in part two. Hrothgar is a good king because he does whatever is necessary to save his kingdom. Then he gives Beowulf treasures for all his work. He keeps his promises and does what he's supposed to. There is a digression which tells the story of Heremod. He was a horrible king and caused the downfall of his nation. It is foreshadowed that this is what will happen to Beowulf. There are also parallels drawn between Beowulf and Shield, who was an amazing king.
• Role of Women: In this story, whenever women stray from their traditional role as a peace pledge, they are seen as evil. Grendel's mother is seen as a monster because she exacts wergild for her son (a man's job) when all she was trying to do was get even. She was overcome with grief and this was the only way she knew how to handle it. Also, Modthryth was considered a bad queen because she had a killer instinct. In the eyes of society, all it took was a marriage to Offa to make her a good woman and be 'tamed'.
• Hospitality: After Beowulf killed Grendel's mother, he was given a place to stay and shown the best of hospitality. Hrothgar also fulfills his promise by giving Beowulf treasure and other goods for his services. Peace pledges are also a symbol of hospitality.
• Paganism vs. Christianity: This is shown through the monk's interjections in the story. He is consistently saying that only God will be the judge of who lives or dies. If Beowulf is victorious, it's thanks to God. However, there are also blatantly Pagan parts in the story, as Beowulf lives in a Pagan culture.

1. Allusion: The lake where Grendel's mother lives is an allusion to hell. This is because it's burning and because animals (which represent innocence) won't go near there. Also because evil resides there. There is also an allusion to the flood which wiped the earth clean. This was probably put in by the monk, considering it's a Christian story. This shows how Beowulf is trying to wipe the earth of evil by killing all the monsters.
2. Parallelism: Beowulf is paralleled with Shield. This shows that he will be a good king, at least to begin with. he will rule with peace during his lifetime. Beowulf is also shown to be like Heremod, who stupidly caused the downfall of an entire nation.
3. Appositive: A good example is lines 1749-1752. "He covets and resents; dishonours custom and bestows no gold; and because of good things that the Heavenly Powers gave him in the past he ignores the shape of things to come.
   
4. Litotes: In line 1372, the author says "that is no good place" in reference to the home of Grendel and his mother. It is supposed to represent hell, so this is an understatement.
   
5. Wyrd: This is contrasted with the idea that God chooses who lives and dies. When victorious, the characters claim that God played a part. However, before they go into battle, they always say that fate will do as it pleases and decide the outcome.
   
6. Wergild: This is shown when Grendel's mother comes and kills Aeschere. She is a woman, so she's not supposed to exact wergild for her son's death. However, Grendel has no male relatives. It is also the only thing that Grendel's mother knows how to do in her period of grief and suffering. Grendel's mother is attacked as a sort of wergild for the death of Aeschere, and this is why she dies.
   
7. Symbols: Peace brides, such as Modthryth, represent hospitality as they are supposed to be welcoming and pour the mead.
   
8. Foreshadowing: In the digression that describes Heremod, it is foreshadowed that Beowulf will become like him and end up causing the downfall of his nation.
   
9. Alliteration: Line 1335. "wrestled and racked him in ruinous combat.
   

Beowulf Part One

Characters:

• Grendel: The monster that terrorizes Heorot. He is marked by God as a descendent of Cain, and thus can't join in human activities. This breeds bitterness and hatred within him and causes him to be a menace in Denmark. He is also Beowulf's first fight, the first monster in the poem.
• Beowulf: The Epic Hero of the poem. He had a pretty average childhood but grew up to be the greatest warrior of all time. However, he wasn't a very good king. He fought three major battles in his lifetime: Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon. He gained more notoriety with each of these battles, but he died while fighting the dragon.
  
• Hrothogar: King of the Danes. Grendel was terrorizing his kingdom, so he accepted help from Beowulf. He gives Beowulf treasure and things, as he's supposed to. Beowulf's father was indebted to Hrothgar, because Hrothgar paid Egctheow's reparations. Hrothgar was a good king as he did whatever it took to protect his people.
  
• Fitela: Sigmund's nephew.
  
• Sigmund:He is a character who slays a dragon in one of the digressions. He is a hero and a great warrior. His story is told to parallel and foreshadow the death of Beowulf during the dragon's fight.
  
• Wulfgar: a herald, renowned for his wisdom. He is the one who originally let Beowulf and the Geats into Heorot.
  
• Heremod: A legendary Danish king who was banished by his people. He fled to the Jutes where he was betrayed, leading to his death. This serves as a sort of warning to Beowulf that he should be a good king or else something like this would happen to him.
  
• Finn: a Frisian lord who married Hildeburh, a Danish princess, as a peace-bride. A scop tells of his war with the Danes, where he eventually dies in his own hall.
  
• Hnaef: He is a Danish warrior, brother of Hildeburh the peace-bride. He is the one who first observes the torches coming from Finn's hall. He fights well in battle but ultimately dies due to kin-killing.
  
• Hengest: He is a Danish lord, and he attacked Finn to avenge Hnaef.
  
• Wealtheow: Queen of the Danes, married to Hrothgar as a peace-bride. She plays a good hostess. She makes a speech about Beowulf's deeds and gives him much treasure. She also makes predictions and warnings about what will happen in the future.
  
• Unferth: thane of Hrothgar. He is a drunken kin-killer who tries to insult Beowulf but just makes himself look stupid instead. He loans Beowulf the sword, Hrunting.
  
• Shield: He is the warrior king who helped to found the Shieldings. He was abandoned as a child, and the poem opens with his funeral. He had a glorious reign and was also the great-grandfather of Hrothgar.
  
• Halfdane: He is Hrothgar's father. He wasn't a bad king, but he wasn't amazing either. He is the son of Beow.
  
• Beow: Beow was the son of Shield and the grandfather of Hrothgar.
  

Literary Terms and Examples of Literary Terms:

• Kenning (3 examples): compound metaphor. Lines 607, 277, 258.
  
• Litotes (2 examples): ironic understatement. Lines 826-827, 764-765.
  
• Flytes (1 example): type of epic insult. Lines 583-606.
  
• Apositive (1 example): building up of phrases. Lines 180-183.
  
• Alliteration (1 example): occurence of same letter or sound. Line 200.
  
• Caesura (definition): break between words, or a pause, within a metrical foot.
• Symbol (2 examples): something that represents something else. The Golden Torque that Wealtheow gives Beowulf is a symbol of the bond between the two peoples. She's doing her job by being a good peace-bride and trying to ensure good relations, so it also refers to the role of women. The banquet after Grendel's death symbolizes the rebirth of peace and harmony for the Danes.
  
• Allusion (3 examples): making references to the past. Lines 99-114, 1260-1268, 1062-1158.
  
• Epic Boast (1 example): to speak with exaggeration or excessive pride about oneself and one's deeds. Lines 408-455.
  
• Epic Hero (definition and how Beowulf fits it): a main character in an epic whose actions are are central to his culture or society. Beowulf is the ultimate epic hero. He is favored by God (or fate, depending on your beliefs about the poem), and is famous and revered. He is seemingly invincible. He uses his extraordinary strength, courage, and abilities to better his own reputation as well as that of his people. He encounters evidently insurmountable odds, yet overcomes them and never fears the imminent threat of death. He also has incredible leadership skills.

Motifs and Themes:

• Exile: Exile is very prevalent in Beowulf. Shield was exiled as a child, but he handled it well. He was adopted and ended up becoming one of the best kings of his time. He used his exile to create a positive future for himself. Grendel, on the other hand, has been exiled by God. He can't take part in human activities. Rather than trying to turn this into a positive thing he goes the opposite way and takes it out on the very people he's exiled from.
  
• Kin Killing: Kin killing was considered the worst sin you could commit in this society. It is impossible to pay reparation for it, because you'd be paying your own family. Therefore, it is impossible to rid yourself of the shame of this crime. The only way to deal with it is to exile the person who did it.
  
• Ambush: Ambush is the only way that Beowulf wins these battles. Grendel thinks he's ambushing Beowulf, but Beowulf knows he's coming. He's faking sleep. Because the element of surprise was removed, Beowulf was able to defeat Grendel. In the second battle, Beowulf defeats Grendel's mother because he ambushes her in her lair.
  
• Wergild and Wyrd: Fate is an ongoing theme in Beowulf. It is showed multiple times. It's more than just a fact, it's the idea that the warriors believe in it which makes it so prevalent in the society. The idea was that fate would take whatever warrior she wanted regardless of the particular fight, so they might as well fight as hard as they could. It was better to die with honor than live with shame. Along those lines is wergild, or blood money. If somebody killed your kin, you expected them to pay you a proper amount. If they didn't, you or any of your family members had the right to kill them without consequences. It helped to preserve the family's honor.
  
• The Role of Kings: The king has an obligation to behave with honor and generosity. He is supposed to seek protection for his people and make sure that they will be okay when he dies. He must provide them with the sanctuary of a mead-hall. He is supposed to do whatever it takes to keep his country and people safe and to promote good warriors.
  
• The Role of Women: Women in Beowulf's society are supposed to keep the peace. They are either brides (i.e. Wealtheow) or monsters (i.e. Grendel's mother). Peace-brides keep up relations between countries, play hostess in the mead hall, and bear sons for their kings. In Beowulf, we see examples of a good woman (Wealtheow) as well as bad ones such as Hildeburh. When a country falls, it can usually be related back to something the bride did wrong. Women who don't succeed in this are considered evil.
  
• The Role of Warriors: This is one of the major themes in Beowulf. A good warrior displayes more than physical strength (though he has that too). He's about courage and doing what's right, defending his king and country to the death and avenging those who transgress against him. He must always be loyal to his king. It is better to die with honor than to live with shame. In Beowulf, good warriors such as the protagonist are constantly contrasted with bad ones, such as Unferth.
  
• Paganism vs. Christianity: There are many mentions of both God and Fate in Beowulf. All of the characters mention them both. When Beowulf is preparing for the battle with Grendel, he says that God will decide who dies (lines 440-441), but also says that it's up to fate (455). They are both so intermingled, it's hard to tell apart the original story from what was added afterward. The author of Beowulf was a monk, so while he loved the society he was writing about, it's most probably that he added all the Christian references.
  

Vocabulary Sentences

As the scop told of the epic battle, the whole audience was captivated.
He swung the sword and the sinews in his arms and chest stood out.
The enemy converged upon us like the spawn of the Devil.
Bill Clinton's infamous scandal should serve as a warning to other presidents.
The boat had turned hoary, but it still sailed and that's all that matters.
The water was murky, but Beowulf knew he had to dive in anyway.
The king banished 15 men in order to purge his kingdom of kin-killers.
He had to pay the widow a large reparation to make up for killing her husband dishonorably.
All the country gathered to lament the loss of their king.
The Monk said he died because he was a heathen, but really it was because he was a coward.
He sat cowering in the corner instead of fighting courageously in battle.

Manawydan Son of Llyr

Manawydan, Rhiannon, Pryderi, and Cigfa are reigning over Dyfed. Suddenly, all the humans and pets in their kingdom vanish, and the four of them survive off of the land for a year. They travel to Hereford where they become saddle makers and they are so good that the other workers get jealous and want to kill the four of them. Pryderi suggests that they fight back, but Manawydan thinks they should just leave quietly and peacefully. They travel to another city where they become shield makers, but the same thing happens again. They encounter the same issues yet again in the third city, where they become shoe makers. They decide to return to the wilderness. While they are hunting, Manawydan and Pryderi see a white boar and Pryderi decides to follow it into a caer. Inside, Pryderi finds a fountain and a golden bowl hanging from the ceiling. When he touches the bowl, he gets stuck in his pose and loses the ability to speak. Manawydan waits for a while, then goes home and tells Rhiannon (Pryderi's mother) where Pryderi is. She goes to see for herself and also touches the bowl. Then the caer disappears in a storm. Cigfa and Manawydan travel to Lloegyr where Manawydan becomes a shoe maker, but the same situation occurs so they go back to Dyfed. Manawydan begins to hunt and farm. When the harvest comes and Manawydan checks in the morning to make sure his crops are perfect, he finds them all gone. This happens two night in a row. On the third, he kept watch. At about midnight, thousands of mice appear and steal the ears of wheat. Manawydan catches one of the mice (who is pregnant) and decides to hang it, which Cigfa thinks is stupid. As he is preparing to do it, a clerk comes and tells him not to, but Manawydan doesn't listen. A priest comes, with the same result. A bishop is next, but the bishop says he'll give Manawydan anything in return for the mouse. Manawydan wants the curse of Dyfed lifted, Rhiannon and Pryderi back, and to know who the mouse is. The mouse turns out to be the bishop's wife because the bishop is the one who turned warriors into mice to destroy Manawydan's crops. Manawydan sets the mouse free and Dyfed is returned to the way it was 7 years ago.

Vocab. Words

Scop: n. a bard or poet
Sinews: n. a tendon, symbolic of strength
Spawn: n. offspring, often numerous
Infamous: adj. having an extremely prolific reputation, usually bad
Hoary: adj. grey or white with age
Murky: adj. dark, gloomy, thick with haze
Purge: v. to rid of whatever is impure or undesirable
Reparation: the making of amends for a wrong or injury done
Lament: v. to feel or express sorrow and/or regret
Heathen: n. an irreligious, uncultured, or uncivilized person
Cowering: adv. crouching, as in fear or shame