Evans, Jonathan
MWF 3 :00 PM
Park Hall 269
ENGL 4220/6220 Beowulf
The salient purpose served by university English Departments – and one main reason universities exist at all – is so students can find official sanction, and get academic credit, for studying Beowulf. This course serves to demonstrate the validity of the assertions made in the previous sentence. Beowulf is the stand-alone exemplary poetic product of the earliest period of English literature, written in Old English -- the earliest phase in the history of the English language -- and an appropriate starting-point for an understanding of everything else that follows in English literary history and culture.
This will be a quadripartite hybrid course. It will be comprised of (1) in-class lecture, discussion, and translation; (2) out-of-class individual research; and (3) online reading of secondary scholarly commentary via ELC; (4) tutorial sessions in groups of 2, 3, or 4 students to discuss progress in their understanding of the poem and their research.
Most students in the class will be expected to have completed the prerequisite language course, ENGL 4060/6060 Old English, which prepares them for translating Beowulf from the original language. However, for any enrolees who haven’t studied Old English but who, perhaps unwittingly following the lead of J.R.R. Tolkien, have an interest in the poem as a poem, and not as a linguistic artifact, will be granted accommodations to help them complete the course satisfactorily. Students who want an override of the prerequisite should consult with the instructor at: jdmevans@uga.edu. The emphasis of classroom work will be the linguistic, lexical, and other dimensions of the language touching on the literary merits of the poem in its original form. Ancillary activity will be devoted to a literary appreciation of the poem and the historical, archaeological, folkloric, legendary, mythic, and religious issues related to it.
Texts
R.D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles, eds. Klaeber’s Beowulf. 4th ed. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 2008. ISBN 9780802095671. (Required, for those with the Old English prerequisite)
Seamus Heaney. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. New York: Norton, 2000. ISB0393320979. (Required, for those without the Old English prerequisite)
Additional scholarly materials will be posted by the instructor and supplemented from students’ research in PDF format on the ELC web platform associated with this course.
Written work; Grades.
I will ask each student to choose a specific passage of some 50 lines or so to serve as the focal-point for their enrollment and participation in the course. Each student will be required to memorize their passage, do scholarly research towards a final term paper on a subject related to their passage, and prepare to write a final exam essay on the passage. Students who know OE will be asked to translate their passage “cold” (i.e., without dictionary, glossary, or notes), adding informal commentary on salient features of the passage and turn in their final research paper before the end of finals week. Students who don’t have OE skills will be asked to write an essay commenting on the passage based on their research and turn in their final research paper before the end of finals week.
Rough schedule
The schedule of assignments, which is tentative and subject to revision is:
January
Introductory; episodes 1-2: Genealogy; Construction of Heorot
Episode 3: Grendel’s attack
Episodes 4-5: Beowulf’s voyage
February
Episodes 6-8: Coast Guardian, Wulfgar, approach to Heorot
Episodes 9-12: Hrothgar’s welcome, Feast in Heorot, Unferth’s taunt
Episodes 13-16: Wealhtheow comes forth, Fight with Grendel
Episodes 17-20: Grendel’s Mere, Sigemund digression, Ceremonial Speeches
March
Episodes 21-24: Finnsburg digression, Hildeburh, Wealhtheow’s Speeches
Episodes 25-29 Grendel’s mother
Episodes 30-33: Hrothgar’s sermon, leave-taking, sea-voyage home
Episodes 34-38: Beowulf’s recap; Heathobard digression, Dragon’s hoard breached; Last survivor
April
Episodes 39-44: Dragon-fight, first engagement
Episodes 45-51: Wiglaf’s rescue, Beowulf’s last words, Beowulf’s death
Episodes 52-55: Excoriation of the cowards; prophesies of Geatish destruction
Episode 56: Epilogue: Beowulf’s funeral
May
Conclusion, wrap-up. Final Exam.