Beowulf the Anglo-Saxon Epic
Anglo-Saxon poetry characteristics
Elements
Beowulf's Battle with Grendel's Mother
Beowulf's Battle with the Dragon
100
These are banquet halls named ater the alcohol drunk there.
Mead halls
100

A comparison using like or as is called...

simile

100

What is different about Grendel's Mother's attack compared to Grendel's attack on Herot.

She kills only one person, Hrothgar's best friend.

100
How does Grendel's mother avenge her son's death?
She kills Hrothgar's closes friend and takes her son's arm
100
How does Beowulf become king of the Geats?
Higlac and Higlac's son dies and Beowulf is the next in line to inherit the throne.
200
Beowulf was written down sometime within this time period.
700AD to 1000AD
200

What are the storytellers called?

Scops 

200

What does Grendel's Mother take with her after the attack on Herot?

Grendel's arm.

200
What happens to the giant's sword?
The blade melts when Beowulf cuts off Grendel's head with it. Beowulf keeps the handle (hilt).
200

Why does Beowulf fight the dragon with his sword and armor?

He's gotten old.

300

We believe this person first wrote the poem down after hearing it.

 monk

300
This is a pause within a line of Anglo-Saxon poetry.
caesura
300
At the end of the battle between Grendel and Beowulf, the poet attributes Grendel's defeat to whom?
God's power
300
What does Beowulf take with him to the surface of the lake?
Grendel's head and the hilt of the giant's sword
300
"Almighty's candle" is what type of Anglo-Saxon poetry characteristic? What does it mean?
kenning, the sun
400

Non Christians are known as this...

Pagan

400
This is the repetition of initial consonant sounds usually used to bind the two halves of a line.
alliteration
400
"lap of their shining ship" is an example of what figure of speech?
personification
400

"Then he saw The mighty water witch, and swung his sword, His ring-marked blade, straight at her head; The iron sang its fierce song, Sang Beowulf's strength. What literary device do we see here?

Kenning, personficiation, alliteration

400
List at 2 ways the Geats memorialize Beowulf.
1.Burn his body in a funeral fire 2.Old woman sings a song of misery 3.Geats build a tower and seal his ashes in the walls 4.Geats bury the dragon's treasure in the ground near Beowulf's memorial tower 5.Geats ride around the Beowulf's tower telling honorable stories about Beowulf.
500
Beowulf was first written in this language.
Old English
500
These are compound metaphor or metaphorical phrases used instead of a name or a thing. Example-"Shepherd of Evil"
kennings
500

What two things are compared in this simile "ship foamed through the sea like a bird?

ship and bird

500

How is Beowulf's method of killing Grendel's mother ironic?

She is killed by a giant's sword

500

What two words tell us that God wins in the struggle between God, man and fate?

They use the words, "On high".

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