Beowulf
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A few Questions for Those Who Read Beowulf
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Is this tonight's homework? Lol.
Does sound suspiciously like homework! This beautiful translation by is SO VERY worth reading to find out the answers to those questions. You will be transported (while earning your A!).
Lady Jane wrote: "Is this tonight's homework? Lol."Well, if it is, maybe we should have a little fun with it.
1. 75,003 (75K men & 3 tall girls)
2. Finn gave away Daschall at Beowulf's mother's neighbor's daughter's wedding.
3. Welthow was Beowulf's barber from the preface.
4. Grendel also terrorizes Detroit.
5. The U.S. Marines helped Beowulf defeat Grendel's mom. Then they ate her, all roasted with cinnamon.
6. Hrothgar ruled the Danes for six to ten centuries, whichever came first.
Hope that helps!
Trekscribbler wrote: "Lady Jane wrote: "Is this tonight's homework? Lol."Well, if it is, maybe we should have a little fun with it.
1. 75,003 (75K men & 3 tall girls)
2. Finn gave away Daschall at Beowulf's mother's n..."
Ha ha ha! Oh, you shouldn't have given away the answers! ;) (Hee hee hee)
I pity the students who are being quizzed on incidentals rather than meaning and implication. Trekscribbler: love your answers.
Carol wrote: "I pity the students who are being quizzed on incidentals rather than meaning and implication. Trekscribbler: love your answers."
Who cares about the superficial details? I agree, Carol. These students are missing out on an experience.
Who cares about the superficial details? I agree, Carol. These students are missing out on an experience.
Carol wrote: "I pity the students who are being quizzed on incidentals rather than meaning and implication. Trekscribbler: love your answers."In general I agree with you. A great work, a great translation, and it is certainly worthy of greater study than a run down of the errata or trivial details as it were. However, the devil is in the details and since the questions are so obviously someone's homework assignment, it may be a tool used by some teachers to ensure that students are actually reading the assigned work and not just buffaloing (sp?) their way through based on what they heard during lecture.
Trekscribbler wrote: "Lady Jane wrote: "Is this tonight's homework? Lol."Well, if it is, maybe we should have a little fun with it.
1. 75,003 (75K men & 3 tall girls)
2. Finn gave away Daschall at Beowulf's mother's n..."
Read this over six months ago... at first I thought you were serious! By the second one I figured you out. :) Silly me!
As a high school English teacher, I can explain why a homework assignment/quiz asks for details. 1.) as a quiz, it checks for students who read the actual work versus sparknotes that does not have that level of detail. 2.) as a homework assignment, students would at least have to skim read to find the answers, again giving them a better experience than sparknotes. I save the deep thinking questions/inquiry for in-class essays :)
Trekscribbler wrote: "Lady Jane wrote: "Is this tonight's homework? Lol."Well, if it is, maybe we should have a little fun with it.
1. 75,003 (75K men & 3 tall girls)
2. Finn gave away Daschall at Beowulf's mother's n..."
:D you definatley got an A for those!
Carol wrote: "I pity the students who are being quizzed on incidentals rather than meaning and implication. Trekscribbler: love your answers."I agree with a previous commenter that these may just have been designed to see if the students read the piece, with a discussion of its merits to follow in class.
Also, I have a friend who is a public school teacher and she has been repeatedly asked to stop sending students home with so-called "thought exercises" on the reading assignments because parents were complaining that they were unfair!
Pardon my ignorance, but what are 'thought exercises?' Is that the student being asked to use their brains?
L.S. wrote: "Pardon my ignorance, but what are 'thought exercises?' Is that the student being asked to use their brains?"Yes, strangely enough, many teachers still require students to think, sometimes even do work.
Jess wrote: "L.S. wrote: "Pardon my ignorance, but what are 'thought exercises?' Is that the student being asked to use their brains?"Yes, strangely enough, many teachers still require students to think, sometimes even do work."
Never work. They only simulate to think.
Devero wrote: "Jess wrote: "L.S. wrote: "Pardon my ignorance, but what are 'thought exercises?' Is that the student being asked to use their brains?"Yes, strangely enough, many teachers still require students t..."
But to answer the questions, the book must be read (or questions must be asked on Goodreads) which most would consider work.
I totally enjoyed reading this collective conversation. It's been over 30 years since I've read Beowulf. So I would be no help at all. However, I do remember enjoying this book and a few others with the same type of dialog. It enriches you as a person by expanding your literary world.
Oh my! The Heaney translation is extremely accessible and even brings the poem to a nice, easily readable length.Interesting that most or almost all the questions deal only with the first half of the poem.
Hmmmm . . .
R.a. wrote: "Oh my! The Heaney translation is extremely accessible and even brings the poem to a nice, easily readable length.Interesting that most or almost all the questions deal only with the first half of..."
The classic tale most known to people is the first half of the poem. That' something that surprised me when I finally read it for myself. The story is not structured in a typical western story line sense. It predates that idea.
I believe I am in the latter phases of Alzheimer's...lol (It's been over 30 years.). Thanks Lee, for the trip down. memory lane.
I love this thread. I also agree that it's a real shame that Beowulf has been reduced to silly questions like this.
I remember taking history classes with a prof who took time to discuss the "why" and "so what" of history instead of dates and raw facts binging and purging. It was fantastic. Oddly, studying it that way, the dates, names, places all seemed to fall into place as well. And as for Beowulf, we often forget it is actually a poem and should be studied (and enjoyed) as one.
Lee wrote: "R.a. wrote: "Oh my! The Heaney translation is extremely accessible and even brings the poem to a nice, easily readable length.Interesting that most or almost all the questions deal only with the ..."
Hi Lee,
I am sorry that I am so late in replying. I visit GoodReads less and less, it seems.
I agree with your observation. The only comment I can make, though, is that the end of the poem puts "into relief" the first part of the poem so that ye ole "fortitude-sapienza" dynamic stands out which does, I think, provide added depth and meaning to it.
¡Muchas gracías for the conversation! This, too, seems to happen less and less.
For me, it feels like the change in dynamic between the second and the first part serves as a metaphor to the change in age. The first part is action packed, Beowulf feels so powerful and strong that he tries to constantly find challenge and prove himself. On the contrary, the second is much more slowly-paced, where we encounter frequent Beowulf's flashbacks and ruminations. We might see him as an ideal of his culture and time, but in this perspective, Beowulf is simply a generalization of human's life, in which one constantly struggles and hopes to live right.
It may not always be possible to digest Beowulf, or Sir Gawain, and put it in perspective - the lesson then is to establish some concept of what was going on (and some might even disbelieve that anything like this could go on). So, maybe the best thing is to find a film where us ordinary humans have to do battle with these extreme forces of nature to try to understand the human condition. No harm there, and you walk away from the book with a better understanding.
I read this in college, and it took 40 years to get back to it. Netflix has helped some in viewing movies that would help with the understanding.Next is to tackle Chaucer. I saw a film of the pilgrims' walk that knocked my eyes out. Gonna have to find out if all that sinnin' was every disclosed to the Priest.
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2. Was Finn a good man? I can't remember.
3. Who is Welthow?
4. I know Grendel terrorizes Herot, but what else does? Is it his mom? Does she?
5. Does Beowulf have someone who helped him defeat Grendel's mom? I didn't think he did, but maybe?
6. When the mom of Grendel was defeated, how long had Hrothgar ruled the Danes?
Please help. Thank you so much! It would really help to know.