Literary Terms
A metaphorical phrase made of compound words, such as "whale-road" to describe the sea.
Kenning
This is who has been terrorizing King Hrothgar's kingdom
Grendel
This refers to the process of searching for information or knowledge about a specific subject or topic.
Inquiry
This is the crime the knight commits
Rape
This is a long narrative poem that celebrates heroic deeds and often involves legendary or grand events.
Epic Poem
Grendel is descended from this person, a Biblical figure cursed by God for killing his brother Abel.
Cain
This is a strong preference or tendency that can affect the objectivity and accuracy of the information presented.
Bias
The King relinquishes punishment of the knight over to this person
The Queen
This is a reference to a well-known historical or mythological figure or text, used to enhance meaning.
Allusion
Grendel’s hatred for Hrothgar’s hall stems from these
Joyous Sounds
This technique involves changing the original wording of a source while keeping the original meaning intact in your writing.
Paraphrasing
This is the question the knight must find the answer to
What do women most desire?
This is the repetition of initial consonant sounds at the used to create rhythm or emphasis.
Alliteration
Beowulf fights Grendel in this way to make the fight fairer and to test his own strength.
Bare-Handed
Citing sources is important to avoid this and to give proper credit to the original author for their ideas or words.
Plagiarism
The knight has this long to complete his task
One year and a day
This has characteristics of courage and honor and undertakes a dangerous task to help others
Epic Hero
Beowulf finally defeats Grendel by doing this, causing the monster to flee and eventually die from his wounds.
Ripping off his Arm
This means combining ideas from different sources to create a new and coherent understanding of the topic.
Synthesizing
The knight discovers that women most want this
Sovereignty, freedom, and control in marriage