Beowulf
Wace and Layamon
Directions: After reading the lecture, answer one of the two questions below. This answer is due no later than Thursday, Feb. 14.
Your responses to other students' answers are due by midnight on Saturday, Feb. 16. Remember: in order to get the full 20 points, you MUST respond thoughtfully to at least 3 or 4 other people's postings.
This set of discussion questions is worth a possible 20 points. Late answers receive 0 points, so post early :)
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Just answer one of the following questions.
1. Does the poet who wrote Beowulf intend us to think of Grendel and his mother as evil? Explain why you think he does or does not, using evidence from the story. Do you think of Grendel and his mother as evil?
2. The legends of Arthur recorded by Wace and Layamon were written at least 200 years after Beowulf, after the Christian conversion of England. Do any of the themes from Beowulf--the sacredness of vows, courage, fame, the Heroic Ideal, for example--appear in these stories? If so, have the concepts changed at all?
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