The purpose behind introducing students to the original language and style will foreground for them that they are reading a translation, which at its best can only give us “an inkling” of the original work.
1. Welcome the class, pass out new disclosure documents as needed, go over class rules.
2. Introduce Old English Poetry Elements:
3. Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of stressed sounds, particularly consonants from the beginning of words or syllables. Poetically, alliteration can have a similar function as rhyme. An example of alliteration is the tongue twister "She sells seashells by the sea shore." Show students some alliteration from Seuss books. Have them practice saying some tongue twisters.
4. Compounding: Old English poetry makes extensive use of compounding, the combining of two words to make a new word. An example is feorhseoc, literally "life-sick" (feorh = life, seoc = sick), which can be translated as mortally wounded. A more common example can be found in the first line of Beowulf: Gar-Dena, literally "Spear-Danes" (gar = spear, Dena = Danes). Compounding may be done to meet the needs of the alliterative meter, as part of a formula, or to make a new word.
5. Kennings: Kennings are a special form of compounding that are metaphoric in meaning. For example, the kenning banhus (ban + hus), literally "bone-house," refers to the human body; hronrad (hron + rad), literally "whale's road," refers to the sea; and rodores candel, literally "sky's candle," refers to the sun.
6. Versification: Beowulf, like all Old English poetry, is written in alliterative verse, a verse form that uses alliteration as one of the major organizing principles of a poetic line. While Shakespeare's poetry, often written in iambic pentameter, uses a syllabic meter (we count the number of syllables), Old English alliterative verse uses an accentual meter of four stressed beats and an undetermined number of unstressed beats per line. A typical Old English alliterative line consists of two half-lines separated by a strong pause known as a caesura. The third stress of a line always alliterates with either the first and/or the second stress, and the fourth stress never alliterates. In Old English alliterative verse, any vowel can alliterate with any other vowel. (Rhyme is so rare in Old English poetry that the one poem that does rhyme is known as "The Riming Poem.")
7. Share kenning riddles. Give examples from last year’s kennings. Have students work together in pairs to create Anglo Saxon type riddles and kenning lists. Have Students share their kennings with the class. Last year I had them write them on index cards and read them to see if anyone could guess whom they were.
Homework Collected: Kenning Riddles and Kenning Cards
Homework Given: Kenning Riddles due on Thursday, January 7th.
Handouts given out: Late Passes, Disclosure Documents, Anglo-Saxon Riddle Assignment
To Read: None
