ENGL200A Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Denmark, Narrative Poetry, Antihero
Document Summary
Translation is a manipulation, but allows us to fully appreciate and be a part of what we are reading. Dated late 10-11th c, but likely an oral tradition from the 6th c. We don"t know who told it or where it came from. Poem is english but content concerns germanic forbears (danes and geats) invaded english in 449. A rags to riches story he arrives as a baby with nothing, then prospers in daneland. The father of beowulf the dane (not beowulf the geat), who is said to have been sent from the heavens. In his death he is sent on a boat adorned with treasures he will thrive, even after death. An analogy between being well-equipped and prospering. Men are not able / soothly to tell us, they in halls who reside / heroes under heaven, to what haven he hied. we cannot tell where he is going and what will be after death.
