Read the excerpt from Gilgamesh: A New English Version.At four hundred miles they stopped to eat,at a thousand miles they pitched their camp.They had traveled for just three days and nights,a six weeks' journey for ordinary men.When the sun was setting, they dug a well,they filled their waterskins with fresh water,Gilgamesh climbed to the mountaintop
Consider these themes from Gilgamesh: A New English Version.Good leaders motivate through compelling speech.Soldiers must persevere through challenging trials.
Which statement is a theme?
Which detail from Gilgamesh: A New English Version best illustrates a challenging journey?
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Read the excerpt from Grendel.I was safe in my tree, and the men who fought were nothing to me, except of course that they talked in something akin to my language, which meant that we were, incredibly, related. I was sickened, if only at the waste of it: all they killed—cows, horses, men—they left to rot or burn. I sacked all I could and tried to store it, but my mother would growl and make faces because of the stink.
Read Anja’s inference about Hrothgar.Despite Grendel’s success in killing Hrothgar’s men, Hrothgar’s faith in God remained unshaken.
Read the excerpt from Grendel.Then they would fight. Spears flying, swords whonking, arrows raining from the windows and doors of the meadhall and the edge of the woods. Horses reared and fell over screaming, ravens flew, crazy as bats in a fire, men staggered, gesturing wildly, making speeches, dying or sometimes pretending to be dying, sneaking off. Sometimes the attackers would be driven back, sometimes they’d win and burn the meadhall down, sometimes they’d capture the king of the meadhall and make his people give weapons and gold rings and cows.It was confusing and frightening, not in a way I could untangle. I was safe in my tree, and the men who fought were nothing to me, except of course that they talked in something akin to my language, which meant that we were, incredibly, related. I was sickened, if only at the waste of it: all they killed—cows, horses, men—they left to rot or burn.
Read the passage from "A Shield."A lonely warrior,I am wounded with iron,Scarred with sword-points,sated with battle-play,Weary of weapons.I have witnessed much fighting,Much stubborn strife.
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Read the excerpt from Grendel.I clamped my palms to my ears and stretched up my lips and shrieked again: a stab at truth, a snatch at apocalyptic glee. Then I ran on all fours, chest pounding, to the smoky mere.
Read the passage from "A Shield."A lonely warrior,I am wounded with iron,Scarred with sword-points,sated with battle-play,Weary of weapons.I have witnessed much fighting,Much stubborn strife.
Read the excerpt from Gilgamesh: A New English Version.They could hear Humbaba's terrifying roar.Gilgamesh stopped. He was trembling. Tearsflowed down his cheeks. "O Shamash," he cried,"protect me on this dangerous journey.Remember me, help me, hear my prayer."They stood and listened. A moment passed.Then, from heaven, the voice of the godcalled to Gilgamesh: "Hurry, attack,attack Humbaba while the time is right,before he enters the depths of the forest"
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.
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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