Beowulf Musing and Using a Scop to help teach Beowulf and Old English

Today I wanted to share some thoughts on Beowulf. 

I love teaching Beowulf even though the poem often tells more than shows, our text translations are not always the best, even when translated into modern English it can be a tough read, and, well, it is really, really, like seriously REALLY old. In fact, it is Old English old. 

I think it is worth teaching; even though, I disagree with the reason many teachers, including one of my greatest teachers Mr. Clark, use when teaching the poem. 

The common justification for teaching seniors across our great nation every year is that Beowulf is the first story we have written in English: "Hey kids today we are going to read something important because it WAS THE FIRST ENGLISH STORY EVER WRITTEN." That does not seem like a ringing endorsement to me. Further, I don't like having to "sell" my students on what we are studying. I like it when the story sells itself. The problem of course is that Beowulf does not exactly sell itself to a broad audience. Because of its age and impact, this epic has been copied, updated, inspired, etc. so many times that it comes across as cliche despite being the piece that helped create the cliches.

So why do I enjoy teaching it, and, more importantly, why do I think it is worth teaching?

1. Storytelling is at the root of humanity. It is also at the root of quality English instruction. It is a solid story.
2. Scops once told this story. Exploring how we tell, create, and share stories is an important part of understanding storytelling.
3. It IS the first known English story written which I admit is cool. More importantly, as the first, it provides genuine insight into our society today. Language is more than communication. It is thought and culture. I would argue that language is big part of what humans humans (story telling again). In Beowulf, we see ideas that are still discussed today: 
1. Masculinity as defined through bravery, strength, killing, dying, providing, and protecting. 
2. Femininity as defined as taming masculinity, hearth building, and supporting masculinity, well in Wealhtheow's case. 
3. Grendel's Mother is of course a different feminity that must be killed, underground without watchers as it is shameful for men to even be tried by women, and she must remain unnamed. Ah, the influencer gender wars of today can be spotted in Old English.
4. Leadership through providing for one's people: ring-giving. 
5. Wyrd and questions of fate, free will, etc
6. Western Civilization's obsession with the linked themes of the Fall and of Doom. 
4. The Anglo-Saxon Heroic Ideal says a lot about the Anglo-Saxons and a lot about us.
5. The Heroic Ideal across storytelling (stories!). 
6. The many questions raised by the elevating of people into herodom and creating fictional heroes: why do we have them, who gets to make them, what do they say about us, are heroes healthy for a society, etc. 
7. The corollary questions of monsters and villains. 
8. The impact of Anglo-Saxon roots and words on our language and therefore our selves. Old English is the foundation of English and some sense of it ought to be taught.
9. The poem illustrates the rise of Christianity through the monk who recorded the story and inclusions of God and Jesus whenever possible. 
10. Many scholars point out how Beowulf is something of a stand-in for Jesus: he is betrayed by his followers, he dies for their failings, his death though was inevitably linked to his very being and purpose, and through his death his people are saved (it must be noted only for a generation or two).
11. The story predates Christianity so while its influence is clear throughout the poem something older lies there as well. The poem is filled with distinctly non-Christian elements and ideas: glorifying violence, seeking fame, the drive for wealth, indulging the body in excessive feasts, materialism, and refusing to turn the other cheek.

At this point, if you are still reading my blog turned mini nerd rant, you may be asking, okay but like how do you teach it?

The truth is I do have to sell the story a bit. I act out, sometimes using students, sometimes former projects, Grendel's attack on the Danes and later Grendel and Beowulf's fight. This generally sets the interest in the story. Along the way, I bring a clip from the 2006 Beowulf film showing Unferth's challenge of Beowulf and Beowulf's response (while still imperfect, this is the most text-accurate part of the film). It further helps to visualize the story. Robert Zemeckis the movie's director also directed Polar Express, a similarly uncanny animated film, and Back to the Future. These little tidbits help to modernize the film.2006 Unferth and Beowulf verbally spar (please ignore or skip the mermaid part though). Beowulf the word smith is an important part of his heroism. Beowulf is a master of combat and of words.

Speaking of video clips, I also use King Theodin's speech before the Ride of Rohirrim as depicted by Peter Jackson in his 2003 film version of The Return of the King. This speech and their charge into what is believed to be a doomed battle is the very definition of wyrd: Wyrd - Jackson's Ride of the Rohorrim. Fun fact, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the Rohirrim as Anlgo-Saxons on horse instead of boats. 

Tolkien was the scholar who brought Beowulf to modern relevance and into the accepted curriculum. He was not the only 20th-century author to be influenced by the epic. Michael Crichton's 1976 novel Deaders of the Dead attempts to update Beowulf. While the novel is weak and arguably more bland than the epic he sought to surpass, Crichton is not Tolkien either as a writer or a scholar, it did spawn an amazing, although anachronistic in terms of era accuracy, movie: 1999's The Thirteenth Warrior. Its final scene also offers a glimpse of wyrd Antonio Banderas doing a very Beowulfian prayer while playing Ahmad ibn Fadlen.

If we return to the Lord of the Rings movies, we can find a great piece of Anglo-Saxon literature brought to the screen. Peter Jackson's 2002 film version of The Two Towers includes a scene from the original text where King Theodin essentially recites the grimest part of The Wanderer. King Theodin "Where is the Horse and the Rider?" This captures well the Beowulf theme of the Fall, or perhaps of Doom. All things must die and eventually be forgotten. Beowulf himself is motivated by achieving fame to achieve quasi-immortality. His story will be told long after his death.

I mentioned Old English earlier and my blog title promises a scop so allow me to introduce Benjamin Bagby. Benjamin Bagby, scop, performs Beowulf. Benjamin Bagby is a well-known scholar and performer of medieval music. His reading/singing of Old English is well-regarded and considered accurate by the sorts of folk who purport to know these things. I use various performances of his to review/reread parts of the poem. He is also our authentic link to Old English in my classroom.

I tend to focus primarily on the themes of wyrd, weregild, and ring-giving. We explore the questions of heroes and create modern ideals for heroes before reading the poem. Monsters and all the questions they raise are also discussed. We then return to these ideals while noting the ideals Beowulf represents. We attempt to understand the Anglo-Saxon then through the ideals of Beowulf and the themes in the poem. We explore which of these ideals still rings true today. This is done through collaborative writing, discussion, and journals. 

There are of course quizzes along the way. It often ends in a project. The project helps the students claim ownership of the poem and my classroom.