1/16/20 Kayla Ma Period 8

1/16/20 Kayla Ma     Modern Mythology 2020 Period 8

Aim: How are the themes of “loyalty and kinship” developed and contrasted against “jealousy and pride”?

Today in class, we went over yesterday’s lesson on how Grendel is depicted as a “monster” and how it embodies fears of the Nordic people during the Medieval Period. It turns out that there is no specific details that can be used to metaphorically describe Grendel. Ms. Fusaro also clarified the definition of metonymy- a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated- and its relation to the definition of “kenning”. Then, the class started off the discussion of our assigned Beowulf reading (pages 10-16) by addressing the DO NOW question. 

DO NOW: Pair Share- What seems to motivate Beowulf to come to the Dane’s aid?

In Beowulf, a young and prideful hero of the Geats, Beowulf, travelled to Hrothgar to aid the king of Danes of an attack in the mead hall of Heorot by a “monster” named Grendel. 

The class discussed that what seems to motivate Beowulf to come to the Dane’s aid is:

• Blood debt (owes loyalty to Hygelac because Hrothgar helped his father, Ecgtheow)
• Prideful of his strength; Beowulf’s boasting of his capabilities has a resume to back it up 
• Beowulf’s reputation- wiping out giants and defeating things that were considered undefeatable

Unferth's Challenge 

When Beowulf arrives at Heorot Hall to help the Danes, there is a celebration in the warrior's honor, and the men talk of Beowulf's heroic feats. But not everyone is happy to see him. In fact, Unferith is jealous of Beowulf's celebrated reputation and probably a little embarrassed that he can't be defeat Grendel himself. So in order to knock Beowulf down a peg, he begins to tell a story for everyone to hear that revenge is the honor of the future king. According to Unferth's accounts, Beowulf once lost a swimming contest with a man named Brecca. Unferth figure that Beowulf cannot defeat Brecca, then he will never be strong enough to defeat Grendel.

After reading this small paragraph of Unferth’s Challenge, we continued with another discussion question: Why does Beowulf’s author introduce Unfeth?

• As a foil character, opposer, and catalyst for Beowulf’s actions in the story
• Unferth’s jealousy of Beowulf because of Beowuulf’s boasting of his capabilities 
• Unferth was known for killing his brothers
• The story of Cain and Abel- Cain killed Abel because of his pride and his jealousy of God choosing Abel’s sacrifice 
• Grendel as the descendant of Cain 
• Grendel would not be there to assist  Hrothgar if Unferth was able to defeat Grendel himself
• Connection of Grendel representing Satan, Abel as Beowulf, and Cain as Unferth 
• Cain's killing of Abel- cursing of Cain's descendant 

Since our class basically already addressed the question on the following slide, Ms. Fusaro provided us with a more deeper question to discuss. 

Why did the author decide to put kinship and loyalty with jealousy and pride? (Develop it simultaneously)

• Beowulf was written by a Christian monk- the establishment of kinship and loyalty: to draw more people into the religion 
• Jealousy and pride- connection back to Cain killing Abel due to his jealousy and pride 
• Kinship meant “brotherhood”- in medieval times establishing these bonds for the purpose of preventing betrayal and finding people to rely on as well as trust. 
• Idea of God as the father of all Christains, with all followers of Christainity as “brothers” 
• The establishment of kinship for the purpose of dissuading people from betraying each other 

Reflection:

 By addressing the discussion questions associated with our reading, we were able to gain a deeper understanding of our reading of Beowulf. In today's lesson we see the common theme of fratricide being frowned upon and loyalty and honor as essential qualities. The idea of kinship in the story and in Christianity was established for the purpose of dissuading betrayal, disloyalty. For example, Cain's killing of his brother, Abel or Unferth's killing of his own brothers. In both cases jealousy and pride drove these characters to commit actions that may not have been taken and resulted in severe consequences. We also see the connection to other cultures such as Greek Mythology and Norse Mythology, in which the real "monsters" is humanity itself. The stories and characters portrayed in their myths/legends reflects human action and morals that indicates flaws that leads to one's demise or qualities that allow one to thrive.