Beowulf Background

Beowulf is taught all over the nation in many high school and college courses.  It's an important text to our current curricula.  Here's a little background information before we dive into this epic text.

At approximately the year 1000, scribes wrote down a narrative about a Scandinavian hero named Beowulf.  The text is alliterative, unrhymed, four-beat meter of Old English poetry (which isn't always a fun version for students to read, but it's important for them to get a taste of it).  The epic tells the story of Beowulf's encounters with the monster Grendel, Grendel's mother, and his final battle against a dragon.  Once students stop complaining about actually having to read the book, they'll enjoy it.  There's a lot of action that students, especially boys (not to stereotype, but honestly), will love. 

It is generally believed that the text was written by in Anglo-Saxon England using Old English, which was spoken from the early 400s to 1100.  There is much conjecture about who actually wrote the text and the author still remains unknown.  Interestingly enough, the poem was written after England converted to Christianity, but the text has both Christian and pagan themes.  An important fact in literature and the history of the English language is that Beowulf was one of the first vernacular poems in English literature.

Another fun fact, The Lord of the Rings is based off of Beowulf.  Good trivia knowledge right here.  The following link has some other quick facts about the text, ranging from related literary works to original language and date of publication:  Beowulf Facts.

This video is pulled from YouTube that is an introduction to the text.  It would be great to show students before you dove into the text. 

Now you have some good background knowledge (which is important for our students to do, remember?) so we can get started learning about the text!

Cassy