ENGL 3120 - Beowulf

(crosslisted) MEDVL 3120
(HB) (LA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Co-meets with ENGL 6120/MEDVL 6120. May be used as one of the three pre-1800 courses required of English majors.

S. Zacher.

In recent years, Beowulf has received renewed attention in popular culture, thanks to the production of two recent Beowulf movies and riveting new translations (eg. Seamus Heaney). The poem’s appeal lies in the complex depictions of its monsters, accounts of heroic bravery, and lavish portrayals of life in the Meadhall. Through close readings we will also explore the “dark side” of the poem: its punishing depictions of loss and exile, despairing meditations on unstable kingship and dynastic failure, and harrowing depictions of heroic defeat and the vanities of existence on the Middle-Earth. Attention to the poem’s literary heritage (in Latin and Norse) and its layered pagan and Christian perspectives reveals an amalgamated Christian heroic ethos. [Readings in Old or Modern English]