1. Review alliteration, compounding, kennings.
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.
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.
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.
2. Show the Beowulf/Old English PowerPoint. The idea behind listening to and seeing the Old English is not to try to understand the language but to hear and see the alliteration, meter, rhythm, and diction of the poem.
3. Assign students the Old English Poetry Elements, have them ready to share kennings by the end of the class period.
Assignments: Kennings, Reading and 5 Q cards due tomorrow
