Read the excerpt from Lena's paper on "A Shield."Based on the phrases "I am wounded with iron" and "I have witnessed much fighting," the shield in the poem must be an old shield carried by a seasoned warrior.
archetypescharacteristicsthemestopics
Read the passage from Beowulf.At last for the Danemen,When the slaughter was over, their wish was accomplished.The comer-from-far-land had cleansed then of evil,Wise and valiant, the war-hall of Hrothgar,Saved it from violence. He joyed in the night-work,In repute for prowess; the prince of the GeatmenFor the East-Danish people his boast had accomplished,Bettered their burdensome bale-sorrows fully . . .
Read the passage about Grendel from Beowulf.For no cause whatever would the earlmen’s defenderLeave in life-joys the loathsome newcomer,He deemed his existence utterly uselessTo men under heaven.Now, read the passage about Hrothgar from Grendel.Meanwhile, those who paid tribute to him were forced to strike at more distant halls to gather the gold they paid to Hrothgar—and a little on the side for themselves. His power overran the world, from the foot of my cliff to the northern sea to the impenetrable forests south and east. They hacked down trees in widening rings around their central halls and blistered the land with peasant huts and pigpen fences till the forest looked like an old dog dying of mange.
Read the passage from Beowulf.He joyed in the night-work,In repute for prowess; the prince of the GeatmenFor the East-Danish people his boast had accomplished,Bettered their burdensome bale-sorrows fully,The craft-begot evil they erstwhile had sufferedAnd were forced to endure from crushing oppression,Their manifold misery.
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