Week 3 Notes

Students wrote Anglo-Saxon inspired riddles, stumped each other, and entertained the school as they celebrated objects from their everyday lives through this poetic form. A ring, wood, a mirror, music, diamonds, an apple, a cake pan, and a guitar were some of the objects students chose to feature in their assignments.


To finish out our unit on the Anglo-Saxon era, we began our work on "Beowulf." We discussed some of the poetic conventions of oral storytelling and epic poetry, and anticipated some of the themes we will find being treated in the story: loyalty, generosity, heroism. We have been watching the 2007 animated film to solidify our understanding of the plot and get a visual idea of Norse, Germanic, and Anglo-Saxon aesthetics so that as we read the Seamus Heaney translation of the poem, we will be better able to bring this poetry to life!