Minutes of the Meeting 10/2/08

Ok, today in class we handed in our note cards with our Anglo-Saxon name, and then Mr. Lazarow opened the floor to any questions we had, and we basically spent the rest of the period doing that.

The first question had to do with the structure of Anglo-Saxon poetry.

A-S poetry is built by single lines in order to deliver what the audience wants to hear to the audience.  When Seamus Heaney translated Beowulf, he "enjambed" the lines, thus there isn't always one complete thought on a line and that you should keep reading until there is punctuation to do so.  The break in the middle of a line is called a caesura (he really wants us to spell that right) and it acts like a breath mark.  The lines become like a chant when read correctly.  There are 2 things that create unity across a single line.  1.) alliteration - a series of words taht begin with the same sound (not necessarily the same letter)  2.) stress - stressed/unstressed syllables - there are four per line.

Characteristics of an epic poem are that it 1.) is very long 2.) tells the story of an epic heroic journey 3.) is lofty and 4.) begins in the middle of the action.

Lastly, we discussed Grendel's description.  A description is not given in the book, and therefore there is no way to know for sure what Grendel looks like.  It is possible that it is a human because it is said to be a descendant of Cain who was born of Adam and Eve.

That's really all that mattered to me this Thursday, October 2nd.  I'm Patrick Lafferty, and you've just been filled in.

--Patrick Lafferty