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    Old English Period & Beowulf - Group 12

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    Đào Khánh Nguyên
    Old English, the earliest form of the English language, was spoken from 450-1150 CE in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Only around 3 million words of Old English texts survive from this period, but it is enough to understand the language's evolution into Middle English. Beowulf is considered the greatest work of Old English literature. It tells the story of a Geatish hero named Beowulf who battles Grendel, Grendel's mother, and later a dragon. Through these battles, Beowulf proves himself as a warrior and leader for both the Danes and Geats. [/SUMMARY]

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    Old English Period & Beowulf - Group 12

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    Đào Khánh Nguyên
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    Old English, the earliest form of the English language, was spoken from 450-1150 CE in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Only around 3 million words of Old English texts survive from this period, but it is enough to understand the language's evolution into Middle English. Beowulf is considered the greatest work of Old English literature. It tells the story of a Geatish hero named Beowulf who battles Grendel, Grendel's mother, and later a dragon. Through these battles, Beowulf proves himself as a warrior and leader for both the Danes and Geats. [/SUMMARY]

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    Old English, the earliest form of the English language, was spoken from 450-1150 CE in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Only around 3 million words of Old English texts survive from this period, but it is enough to understand the language's evolution into Middle English. Beowulf is considered the greatest work of Old English literature. It tells the story of a Geatish hero named Beowulf who battles Grendel, Grendel's mother, and later a dragon. Through these battles, Beowulf proves himself as a warrior and leader for both the Danes and Geats. [/SUMMARY]

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    14 views4 pages

    Old English Period & Beowulf - Group 12

    Uploaded by

    Đào Khánh Nguyên
    Old English, the earliest form of the English language, was spoken from 450-1150 CE in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Only around 3 million words of Old English texts survive from this period, but it is enough to understand the language's evolution into Middle English. Beowulf is considered the greatest work of Old English literature. It tells the story of a Geatish hero named Beowulf who battles Grendel, Grendel's mother, and later a dragon. Through these battles, Beowulf proves himself as a warrior and leader for both the Danes and Geats. [/SUMMARY]

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    OLD ENGLISH PERIOD

    Old English – the earliest form of the English language – was


    spoken and written in Anglo-Saxon Britain from c. 450 CE until c. 1150
    (thus it continued to be used for some decades after the Norman Conquest
    of 1066). According to Toronto University's Dictionary of Old English
    Corpus, the entire surviving body of Old English material from 600 to
    1150 consists of only 3,037 texts (excluding manuscripts with minor
    variants), amounting to a mere three million words. A single prolific
    modern author easily exceeds this total: Charles Dickens’s fiction, for
    example, amounts to over four million words. While three million words is
    not a great deal of data for a period in linguistic history extending over
    five centuries, it is enough to allow us to make a confident description of
    the linguistic character of Old English and to plot its evolution into Middle
    English. The development is most evident in vocabulary and grammar.

    BEOWULF
    1/ Author & works:
    The author of Beowulf is unknown. It is possible that the poem was
    composed by and transmitted between several different poets before it was
    preserved in a single manuscript that dates to about 1000.

    2/ Story summary:
    Beowulf , Heroic poem considered the highest achievement of Old
    English literature and the earliest European vernacular epic. It deals with
    events of the early 6th century and was probably composed c. 700–750. It
    tells the story of the Scandinavian hero Beowulf, who gains fame as a
    young man by vanquishing the monster Grendel and Grendel’s mother;
    later, as an aging king, he kills a dragon but dies soon after, honoured and
    lamented. Beowulf belongs metrically, stylistically, and thematically to the
    Germanic heroic tradition but shows a distinct Christian influence.

    3/ Story analysis:
    3.1. Setting
    Beowulf is set in Scandinavia, sometime around the year 500 A.D,
    in the territories of two tribal groups, the Geats and the Scyldings, who
    really existed and really lived in those areas during the period of the poem.

    3.2. Plot
    a) Exposition:
    King of the Danes, Hrothgar. He builds a great mead-hall, called
    Heorot. Because the large feast makes Grendel, the demon angry and then
    it attacked and terrorized the Danes by killing and kidnapping woman and
    children. And the news came to Beowulf, a young Geatish warrior. The
    king holds a feast to greet the hero.
    b) Complication:
    However, Grendel arrived, and Beowulf fights him unarmed, ripping
    the monster’s arm off. Grendel retreat to his swamps and dead. And then
    they hung the monster arm in the mead-hall as a trophy. When the
    celebration was held, Grendel’s mother, was hiding in a desolate lake,
    come to Heorot to revenge for her son death. Then she kills Hrothgar’s
    most trusted advisers before escaping. Beowulf came to her swamp and
    kill her with a magical sword hanging on her wall. And then Beowulf take
    Grendel head as a prize to Hrothgar.
    c) Climax:
    When the celebration was held, Grendel’s mother, was hiding in a
    desolate lake, come to Heorot to revenge for her son death. Then she kills
    Hrothgar’s most trusted advisers before escaping. Beowulf came to her
    swamp and kill her with a magical sword hanging on her wall. And then
    Beowulf take Grendel head as a prize to Hrothgar.
    d) Falling action:
    Beowulf ascend the throne of the Geats and rules for 50 years.
    However, a thief was stealing things from the dragon treasure. And the
    dragon being furious and breathing fire to destroy the Geats. Beowulf
    fights with it despite having ages, with the aid of Wiglaf, he kills the beast,
    and he was being killed by the fiery venom of the dragon in Beowulf neck.
    e) Resolution:
    Honor Beowulf wishes, the Geats burn their king’s body and bury him on
    a huge hill overlooking the sea.

    3.3. Characters
    - Beowulf -> Protagonist
    - King Hrothgar -> Flat characters
    - Grendel, Grendel mother, the dragon -> Antagonist

    3.4. Themes
    - Good versus Evil
    - Heroic Code
    - Loyalty
    - Death and Defeat
    - Hospitality

    3.5. Point of view


    Third person narrator – Omniscient point of view: the narrator tells
    the story only by descriptions of the action and offers insight into the
    character’s feelings or thoughts.

    4. Figure of Speech
    - Metonymy:
    o The Danes
    o The Geats
    - Synecdoche:
    o Company of men
    - Simile:
    o The servered arm is hung hign in the mead-hall as a trophy of
    victory.
    o He kills her with a sword and brings the head as a prize to Hrothgar.
    - Metaphor:
    o He rules wisely for fifty years, bringing prosperity to Geatland.
    o Horde of treasure
    - Personification:
    o To fulfil Beowulf’s wishes, the Geats burn their king’s body and bury
    him on a huge hill overlooking the sea.
    5. Literary devices
    - Alliteration:
    o Overjeyed, the king showers Beowulf with gifts and golds at a
    feast to honor his victory.
    - Assonance
    6. Task division
    Lê Trần Phúc Anh – 21DH710144:

    - Old Enlisgh Period summary


    - 1/ Author & works
    - 2/ Story summary
    - 3.1. Setting

    Nguyễn Khánh Đăng – 21DH710981

    - Presenter
    - 3.2. Plot
    - 3.3. Characters
    - 3.4. Theme

    Đào Khánh Nguyên – 21DH718389

    - Visual aid designer (powerpoint)


    - 3.5. point of view
    - 4/ Figures of speech
    - 5/ Literary devices

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