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Beowulf a la Shmoop

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An Introduction

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And welcome to Beowulf a la Shmoop.

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Here we go.

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"Hwaet! We gardena in geardagum

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peodcyninga prym gefrunon

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hu oa aepelingas ellen fremedon!"

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And that was not Klingon; that was actually

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English in the era of Beowulf.

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And good luck spelling all that.

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So, we're here with Dr. Deb talking about this.

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Beowulf's considered the first great work of literature

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written in the English language.

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And that was the English language, not Klingon.

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But you'll notice pretty quickly,

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this is not the English we use today.

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It's Old English.

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Which is just bizarre stuff.

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But, Deb, so why don't you give us

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context of the era and what we should expect

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from a reading of Beowulf

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and why you need Shmoop so badly

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when you do read Beowulf.

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Sure, well, I mean, the first thing you mentioned is

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it's written in Old English.

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And, just to kind of give a little background on what that means.

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Before the Norman conquest in 1066,

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we were not speaking in English that sounds anything like

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it sounds today.

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The Norman Conquest brought in a lot of, like,

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French-iness into the language.

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So, Old English is very Germanic.

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So it has German, Latin, Norse, Scandinavian sounds in it.

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So, yeah, basically it sounds like someone is sneezing.

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And for those of us who missed school that day,

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the Norman conquest is the Nordic tribes

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coming down, basically taking over what's now England.

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And that was kind -- And then King William emerged from that.

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Yeah, and this all happened in 1066,

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so we'll talk a little bit about how Beowulf

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is really centered right in the middle of that.

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Because Beowulf was told before the Norman conquest,

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but then it was written down after.

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So we'll talk a little bit about that play,

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but the historical conquest is important to keep in mind

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as we read.

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Great. Tell us a little about a day in the life of.

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Because, just living in this era,

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feels like it's an important element

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of the story and the context of things.

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Like, what was a day in the life?

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Yeah, well, what we wanna remember is that

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Beowulf is an epic poem.

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So it really isn't about a day in the life.

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It's about a day in the life of someone incredibly important.

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Epic poems tend to be about

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big, heroic rulers.

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And this is, you know, an epic poem at its best.

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It's about heroism; it's about really showing the cultural values

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of the ruling class.

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It's written in an elevated style; there's supernatural things

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going on...

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And through all this,

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we're able to see what was most important

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to the people who were telling this story.

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So, yeah, when you read Beowulf, you don't really get

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the idea of what a day in the life was for, you know,

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Joe Schmoe in the fifth century.

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Or, you know, the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh century

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when it was written.

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But instead you get a day in the life of, you know,

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a hero who fights monsters.

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So it's a little different.

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What can we expect from a reading of Beowulf?

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What's the historical context of Old English?

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How did the English language change after the Norman conquest?

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Is Beowulf a day in the life story? Why or why not?

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And that was the English language, not Klingon.

Full Transcript