Final Exam Beowulf Review

1. Final Exam Beowulf Review By Bobby Hutnik and JohncarloZangrilli Ms. Matthews Period 3 Pre-AP ELA

2. Question # 7 • In many works of literature, a physical journey - the literal movement from one place to another - plays a central role. Select two pieces of literature from the list below in which a physical journey is an important element and discuss how the journey adds to the meaning of the work as a whole. • The movement of Beowulf and his group of thanes from Geatland to Daneland (his journey across the sea). • “He ordered a boat that would ply the waves. He announced his plan: to sail the swan’s road and search out that king, the famous prince who needed defenders” (Heaney 15). • Beowulf’s journey to Grendel’s mother’s lair at the bottom of the mere. • “The forest paths were marked all over with the monster’s tracks, her trail on the ground wherever she had gone across the dark moors, dragging away the body of that than, Hrothgar’s best counselor and overseer of the country. So the noble prince proceeded undismayed up fells and screes, along narrow footpaths and ways where they were forced into sing file, ledges on cliffs above lairs of water-monsters” (Heaney 98-99). • Beowulf’s journey to death (back home, to the dragon, to the funeral pyre). • “The Geat people built a pyre for Beowulf, stacked and decked it until it stood four-square, hung with helmets, heavy war-shields and shining armour, just as he had ordered. Then his warriors laid him in the middle of it, mourning a lord far-famed and beloved. On a height they kindled the hugest of all funeral fires; fumes of woodsmoke billowed darkly up, the blaze roared and drowned out their weeping, wind died down and flames wrought havoc in the hot bone-house, burning it to the core” (Heaney 211).

3. Steps to Success!!!:How to Slay a Dragon • Get a group of LOYAL warriors. • Get a wheelchair, because you surely can’t run into battle in your old age! • Find some kind of shield or something. (I mean, how lame would it be if you died because some kind of fire burnt up your hand, right?) • Keep those knives handy. • Bring that dragon some gold! • Make your will, BEFOREHAND… • Ask to be burned and then buried on top of a cliff so people will feel sorry for you. • Kill the dragon and die in battle. • SUCCESS!!!

4. Question #11 • One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Select two pieces of literature from the list below and write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work. • Beowulf helps Hrothgar in order to spread his fame around the Anglo-Saxon world. • “When he heard about Grendel, Hygelac’s thane was on home ground, over in Geatland. There was no one else like him alive. In his day, he was the mightiest man on earth, high-born and powerful” (Heaney 15). • Beowulf boasts his amazing ability to kill the terrible Grendel. • “My plan was to pounce, pin him down in a tight grip and grapple him to deat- have him panting for life, powerless and clasped in my bare hands, his body in thrall” (Heaney 65). • Beowulf accepts the land and power from Hygelac when he returns to Geatland. • “The battle-famed king, bulwark of his earls, ordered a gold-chased heirloom of Hrethel’s to be brought in; it was the best example of a gem-studded sword in the Geat treasury. This he laid on Beowulf’s lap and then rewarded him with land as well, seven thousand hides, and a hall and a throne” (Heaney 149).

5. Question #12 • The most important themes in literature are sometimes developed in scenes in which a death or deaths take place. Select two pieces of literature from the list below and write a well-organized essay in which you show how a specific death scene in each piece helps to illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole. • 1. Grendel dies at the hands of Beowulf. • "The monster's whole body was in pain, a tremendous wound appeared on his shoulder. Sinews split and the bone-lappings burst. Beowulf was granted the glory of winning; Grendel was driven under the fen-banks, fatally hurt, to his desolate lair. His days were numbered, the end of his life was coming over him, he knew it for certain; and one bloody clash had fulfilled the dearest wishes of the Danes" (Heaney 55). • 2. Grendel’s mother dies at the hands of Beowulf (just like her son). • “A resolute blow that beat deep into her neck-bone and severed it entirely, toppling the doomed house of her flesh; she fell to the floor” (Heaney 109). • 3. Beowulf dies at the claws of the dragon. • "Beowulf discovered deadly poison suppurating inside him, surges of nausea" (Heaney 183) • “So he came to the place, carrying the treasure, and found his lord bleeding profusely, his life at an end" (Heaney 189).

6. HEY CHRISTINA!!!!!!! I DIDN’T FORGET!!!!!!! Other Books that work with Question 7: Great Expectations, Huckleberry Finn Other Books that work with Question 11: Julius Caesar Other Books that work with Question 12: Julius Caesar WHEN IN DOUBT, GO WITH SHAKESPEARE!

7. Ende(The End)