Beuwolf Notes (Prologue-X)

Prologue:
Scyld Scefing - great kind, rules by virtue, respected, no one would challenge him and this maintained peace, he was rewarded tributes of gold >Beowulf was his heir, continued to gift the worthy, earned respect and loyalty. Fame spread through North-lands, prosperity grew as an effect > Beowulf dies, adorned and put on ship, set off for burial at sea

CH. 1:
Beowulf's kingdom left to Healfdene, upheld reputation > has 3 children: Heorogar, Hrothgar, and Halga. >> Hrothgar was generous and great in battle, a hall was made in his honor > Heorot >> Grendel,  a descendant of Cain (giant race) and a creature of the moor-land, heard the joy, music, and essentially the noise
CH. 2:
That night, Grendel took 30 thanes(lords) to his lair. Hrothgar was saddened, his foe was too mighty, for 12 years Grendel refused to agree to peace or to accept tribute, he attacked people relentlessly. Hrothgar could no longer rule, people to afraid to approach hall. The people had no faith and would suffer without hope.

CH. 3:
Hygelac of the Geats heard of the trouble with Grendel, and his mightiest warrior set off to assist>> second day at sea, the seafarers approached the cliffs of the headlands and land> thank God for their safety. Scylding watchman demands to know where they're from and why the have come.

CH. 4:
The leader of the Geat seafarers answers that he is the son of Ecgtheow> comes to deal with Grendel>> watchmen assists them, guards their boat all the way to Heorot> departs when the site is visible

CH. 5:
Wulfgar stops them and questions them>son of Ecgtheow is named Beowulf(?) wishes to speak with Hrothgar.
Hrothgar is on his throne> armed men led by Beowulf of the Geats approaches>> leader appears to be a strong warrior.

CH. 6:
Hrothgar heard of Beowulf's strength of thirty men> welcomes them to Danish land> men allowed to counsel with Hrothgar>> Beowulf wants to battle unarmed and unarmored> If he fails, he requests his armor  be sent back to Hygelac>> armor given to him by Hrethel and made for him by Wayland

CH. 7:
Hrothgar speaks of the war between the Geats and the Wylfings > Geats had come for help when Beowulf's kin killed Heatholaf of the Wylfings> Hrothgar young, Heorogar killed>> feud was settled when he paid with treasure
- Grendel brought hate and humiliation to the hall> warrior's diminished, even when they attempted to ambush him

CH. 8:
Unferth rose to challenge Beowulf >fears for Beowulf against Grendel because of  a contest with  Breca, son of Beanstan for seven days in the stormy winter sea where Breca arrived in the land of Brondings> Beowulf answers  that he had superior strength in the sea in endurance> risked their lives together in the sea, only a sword, swam together for five days, flood tore them apart and the fish began to attack> creature grabbed Beowulf but it was killed with one sword stroke

CH. 9:
 contest with Breca was not war, Grendel has brought suffering and humiliation> Beowulf has no fear of feud from the Danish  he fights, murders, and feasts upon them> in the morning he will know of the might of the *Geats
Hrothgar, happy with Beowulf's commitment >  queen Wealhtheow brings the cup of the hall>  king drinks first, brings it around to everyone> reaches Beowulf, she thanks God for this savior.

CH. 10:
Hrothgar goes to bed with Wealhtheow with a guard posted ordered to keep watch for monsters.
Beowulf removes his armor and assigns a henchman to guard his possessions. Speaking, he issues a challenge to Grendel: without weapons or armor> God will decide the one who is right> wanderer-in-shadow came toward the hall, warriors slept except Beowulf who awaited the upcoming battle.

Textbook Notes (pg. 2-14)

Conquest of Britain
AD 449-1485

• Brythons (Britons) settle on Britain; Gales settle on Ireland > Celts (farmers, hunters)

>Druids to settle disputes.

• Romans rule Britain 300+years (end in 407 AD)
• Anglo-Saxons took over England
• 4th Century > accept Christianity (late 6th Cent. > monasteries in North) > church prompted peace & unity
• Norse of Norway & Danes of Denmark > Vikings (rising pop. caused them to go to sea)
• Norse> Northumbria, Scotland, Wales, Ireland
• Danes> S. England
• Alfred the Great> truce between Danes and Anglo

Magna Carta
- restrict royal power
War of Roses> 1455- 1485> York vs Lancaster >> Tudor kills Richard York, crowns Henry VII & marries Richard's niece, UNITES houses

Feudalism
Black Death (1348- 1349) > plague causes labor shortage, peasants revolt against serfdom (crushed)

Literature:

Anglo-Saxon> spoken verse, incantations
Poetry> heroic and elegia (lament deaths) < Beowulf & The Wanderer>
Prose> Latin

English Middle Ages > dramas emerged ~ Geoffrey Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales, modern writer, keen observer
Medieval Drama> church sponsored plays> early dramas= religious
15th Century> morality plays (ordinary people, moral lessons)

Printing press> started 1454, improved 1476

Romances, Lyrics, & Ballads:
1. describe adventures of knights (King Arthur most popular)
2. English>> secular (love, nature) & religious (hymns, supplications)
3. folk song that told a story

ENGLISH: Angles, Saxons, Jules > spoke German which became old English> gains sophisticated words from other languages (Latin, Greek)
>Middle: conquest of England by Norman French caused an infusion of French words into English

Respect.

What part of someone's day do you want to be?

 

MY OPINION ISN'T (A) RIGHT

 

To be completely honest, it took me awhile to comprehend the entire concept. I couldn't wrap my mind around NOT having the right to my opinion, especially since I constantly heard it throughout my life. However, after the Socratic seminar I understood that making it a right encompassed so much more than just saying you have a "right" to your opinion. We as people are allowed to HAVE an opinion, as long as we back it up with relevant ideas and examples. Even if you don't support it, you are still allowed to have your incorrect opinion. But we don't so much have a RIGHT to an opinion.

Vocabulary #1

adumbrate: (verb) report or represent in outline; indicate faintly
EX: The professor requested we adumbrate our entire essay before we began with the final copy.
apotheosis:  (noun) the highest point in the development of something; culmination, climax; elevation of someone to divine status
EX: The apotheosis in the novel occurred when the detective found the last clue to the murder mystery.
ascetic: (adj.) characterized by or suggesting the practice of severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons; 
EX: The ascetic teenage girl wouldn't allow herself to attend a single party for the fear of doing something wrong.
bauble: (noun) a small, showy trinket or decoration
EX: The golden bauble was displayed proudly in the glass case.
beguile: (verb) charm or enchant (someone), sometimes in a deceptive way
EX: The witch managed to beguile the prince and forced him to marry her daughter.
burgeon: (verb) begin to grow or increase rapidly, flourish
EX: With spring arriving, the plants in the garden burgeon.
complement: (noun, verb) a thing that completes or brings to perfection; add to something in a way that enhances or improves it, make perfect
EX: The blazer complements that stylish yet professional look.
contumacious: (adj.) stubbornly or willfully disobedient to authority
EX: The ex-con was contumacious with his public demonstrations.
curmudgeon: (noun) a bad tempered or surly person
EX: The curmudgeon created an immense scandal because the pickles were missing on his double cheeseburger.
didactic: (adj.) intended to teach, particularly having moral instruction as an ulterior motive; teacher- treat someone in a patronizing way
EX: The didactic exercise taught the pre-school children to be kind and respectful to one another.
disingenuous: (adj.) not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does
EX: The young homeless man was disingenuous and wished to get by without having to work a day in his life
exculpate: (verb) show or declare that (someone) is not guilty of wrongdoing
EX: The court did not exculpate the young lawyer of tax fraud.
faux pas: (noun) an embarrassing or tactless act or remark in a social situation
EX: Unfortunately, the young man made a faux pas when he first met Stephanie.
fulminate: (verb) express vehement protest
EX: I fulminate at the idea of animal cruelty.
fustian: (noun) pompous or pretentious speech or writing
EX: "A smoke screen of fustian and fantasy."
hauteur: (noun) haughtiness of manner; disdainful pride
EX: Most teenagers today have hauteur attitudes.
inhibit: (verb) hinder, restrain, prevent (action or process); make (someone) self-conscious and unable to react in a relaxed and natural way
EX: The police officer was able to inhibit a fight from occurring between the two drunk men.
jeremiad: (noun) a long, mournful complain or lamentation; a list of woes 
EX: The older generations jeremiad today's teens for their laziness and utter disrespect to anyone and anything.
opportunist: (noun) a person who exploits circumstances to get immediate advantage rather than
being guided by consistent principles or plans
EX: The opportunist snuck into the home when he knew the family would be gone on a week trip.
unconscionable: (adj.) not right or reasonable;  unreasonably excessive
EX: The decision was unconscionable and made the governor look unreasonable.

Reflections On Week #1

1. The only factor that might affect my participation and experience in this class, as of now, is myself. I am the only thing that will hold me back, I am utterly afraid of sharing my opinions, essays, and any form of work and honestly don't know how I have been accomplishing it up to this point. The only other thing that may hold me back and affect how I interact with the class would be transportation. Since I am one of the few students in AP English who live in Guadalupe it does get a bit complicated to be able to get together after school with a group, or meet up during the week or weekend. Another factor that may potentially affect my experience is the loss of my smart phone. Once my current contract is up my brother said he is no longer willing to pay my bill, and this may create an issue.
2. The best learning experience I have ever had took place my sophomore year with Mrs. Byrne. Mrs. Byrne is an excellent teacher who was constantly challenging me and my classmates. Her class required hard work and dedication and that was probably my favorite part about it. Another thing I really enjoyed was that I always got feed back, whether it was on an essay, the Inferno project, or a poem we had to write about ourselves, Mrs. Byrne always provided some honest commentary. I also really enjoyed being in a room with highly motivated teenagers, everyone was always constantly trying to out do each other, and the competition required us to work even harder. The atmosphere in her room is also very pleasant, she provides a safe and open environment, where students actually wanted to share their ideas and argue their points.
3. I am excited and eager to become a more open person, to become willing to share my ideas/point of view. I know Dr. Preston is providing me and my classmates with an open environment and this will influence the manner in which I act when faced with the opportunity to share what I think. I look forward to learning and discussing literature, reading is one of my passions, even when it is for schoolwork. I will never take the easy way out when it comes to books, unless it is to clarify an idea I didn't understand, and use spark notes or any such website. This class will probably influence the way I think and process ideas, already my opinion has been changed with some of the arguments presented in our first Socratic seminar. Another thing I am eager to do is keep learning how to use the Blog, to keep posting my thoughts, and learn from my classmates.

Montaigne/Austen Essay

Interconnections

 

What goes on inside the human mind is so complicated and interconnected that it becomes nearly impossible to determine even one thought at any given moment. This is the basis of David Foster Wallace's story, "Good Old Neon," were he writes that words can "barely sketch the outlines" of the complexities of the human mind. Yet, Michel de Montaigne is able to express his every thought on paper, and is still able to provide some structure and interconnectedness. On the other hand, authors such as Jane Austen, are too meticulous and structured and no longer provide a sense of the bursts of thought or the complexities of the human mind, but are still able to have connectedness within a story line. Jane Austen and Michel de Montaigne are two very distinct authors, with very different writing styles, they both, however, still provide a sense of interconnectedness and an intense thinking process.

Essayist Michel de Montaigne writes about a vast amount of subjects, from thumbs, to books, to Caesar, he is able to write about any thought that comes into his mind. However, within his writing their is a visible interconnectedness that runs through his "Complete Essays." Because when he is talking about Caesar, he focuses on Caesar, and within the following chapters he will either continue speaking about Caesar, or about other powerful leaders. At times, there is a visible pattern, or a line of similar topics. Montaigne is an author that proves what Wallace said incorrect. Montaigne is able to find the correct words to describe or explain, or simply just evoke a certain idea or feeling onto paper. Montaigne uses stream-of-consciousness to not only outline, but to write complete essays about one single thought "at any given moment." While Montaigne's ease to express himself and his techniques do not coincide with Wallace's ideas, his multitude of subjects does, as well as the manner in which he connects his "Complete Essays."

Structure is an element that the human mind and thought process lack, but authors such as Jane Austen are able to create it within their literary works. Jane Austen's popular romance novel Pride and Prejudice is a clear example of how structured the author is. The entire plot line is obviously well thought out beforehand, unlike anything essayist Montaigne would create. From the beginning the story is interconnected, to jump around to different ideas and such would make no sense. Take for example, Miss Jane and Mr. Bingley, or Miss Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, the couples lives and stories are interconnected from the very start. If Bingley hadn't fallen for Jane, Darcy would never had the opportunity to show interest in Elizabeth. If Bingley had kept residence in Hertfordshire, Jane would have never been with her uncle/aunt, the Gardiners, when she was depressed and Elizabeth would have never been invited to go on the nature tour, and she would never have gone to Pemberly to be reunited with Darcy and find her true feelings. Austen was very meticulous from the start, the storyline isn't something she could've simply "made up" on the way, it was structured yet it shows how interconnected her ideas and characters are.

Both authors merely contradict, to their own extent, David Foster Wallace, yet both authors also create a sense of interconnectedness within their literary works. Michel de Montaigne is unstructured and reflects the more literal sense of random thoughts, while Austen composes a very thought out and planned story. These two authors have very distinct and contrasting styles of writing, yet they are both able to create a line of correlative ideas in their own manner.