1/28/20 Cornelia Murja PD7

Cornelia Murja          Pd.7         Modern Mythology 2020         1/28/2020

Aim: How does Beowulf fail to illuminate the humanism of Grendel’s Mother?

Do Now; Pair share. Describe Hrunting- the history, the symbolism. 

Hrunting: the sword that Beowulf was given by Unferth to fight against Grendel’s Mother. 

Allen started the discussion stating that Unferth is known as Beowulf’s foil and he would not want him to win the fight against Grendel. This meant that Unferth gave Beowulf a faulty sword so he could fail. This idea was important because Beowulf wouldn’t have been able to slay another monster with Unferth’s tainted and evil sword. 

As the discussion continued, the class realized that the sword was an extension of self- it was part of someone’s identity. Mrs.Fusaro made the comparison that the sword is like our cell phones and through this analogy the class understood the importance of the sword. Dominick also added that swords were passed down as a tradition, showing the value this object had.

 

Hrunting was in fact a pagan sword. This meant that the sword existed before the christianization of the anglo-saxons. This fist sword proved to be ineffective but the paradox is that the second sword Beowulf used to defeat Grendel’s Mother was too a pagan sword. The important idea comes right after this moment where a light is seen. The light that appears it seems to be a christian belief cause god appears as a light to them. The author of Beowulf is a Christian monk so throughout the story we see both the pagan and the christian ideas but we mainly see the author trying to portray christianity as the main influence.

History

At this point we try to gain a deeper understanding of the history of Hrunting. We discussed the history of the great flood we learned a couple of weeks ago. Andrew stated that the great flood happened because of the cleaning of sins. The devourers(connection to jotunheim means to devour) are cleansed but after the ark is left behind a fresh start and those that are left are the people blessed by god. Therefore one possibility that monk implies is that the sword, Hrunting, is left behind from the flood, thus making it a holy sword.

Food for Thought: What truly is the failure of Hrunting?

The 3 main ideas of today’s class were 1) warring  2)crusades+starvation 3)redemption

        Before vs After conversion

The warring of anglo saxons becoming christians was not an easy process. The heart of christianity is in rome, center of Italy. Christianization went upwards so by the time it reached the scandinavians, a lot of time had past. If you tell people that everything they know is wrong and that they are praying to false gods etc etc…., people most likely don’t want to convert.

The scandinavians responded with violence, so  the Vaticans needed to respond violently, which is how the crusades happened. Because anglo saxons were taking boats to develop agriculture elsewhere, the vaticans closed off the waters by putting military so boats were destroyed, hence food supply was cut short = starvation.

Lastly, if there are starving people, they will do whatever is necessary to survive hence converting to Christianity for redemption.

Group Work

Billy-It wasn’t evil revenge but motherly love. She wanted to avenge her child. it’s more human. It’s ironic as humans can relate to the monster because humans would do the same thing for their children too. Any mother who is carrying this “hunk of meat” is ripping apart your son, you would avenge. 

Steven- Not morally just. He wouldn’t kill them but burn their crops. He wouldn’t directly kill him but would like to people to suffer.

Mrs.Fusaro- I would burn the entire place down if people had my son’s arm as a trophy on display.

Reflection:

What did I learn?                                             There was a lot of information learned today. We spent a lot of time truly understanding the history and symbolism of hrunting and how the author of the book has a major influence in the way the events were written. Although it is a legend, it is important to know that some parts are potentially real. We also learned how humans are not entirely different from the monsters in this piece of literature as we can relate to their actions. The big three ideas however were the warring, crusades+starvation, and redemption between anglo saxons and their conversion to christianity, which are explained more in detail in the section right above. 

Why did I learn it?                                            This piece of literature is difficult to understand if one does not analyze all the ideas hidden behind the words. At first sight one might ignore that it was written by a Christian monk, but once you realize it, certain sections become clearer. The reader can see how the author wants christianity to be the main influence of these victories but if you dig even deeper one can see the warring of the anglo saxons and how throughout history the 2 different cultures and religions of paganism and chrsitianity lived to merge into 1 and become a dominant force under christian beliefs. In addition, this piece of work will allow us to get a better understating of further parts of the stories and other books as well. When we read the great flood, we never knew it would come up again in class. Now it gave us a deeper insight into the history of Hrunting which was a focal discussion point for Beowulf and his fight to defeat Grendel’s Mother. 

How will I use what I learned?                                    Today’s discussion will allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the future parts of Beowulf that is yet to come. In real life, I think we can also grasp the concept of how 2 different religions live until one is included to the other and ultimately fully converting. The conversion from paganism to christianity happened in real life. By learning how that change took place it allows to become better informed citizens of the planet we live in. The idea of a mother seeking revenge for a child might hit closer to home once I become a mother myself. Now, although I can understand why a mother would go to great lengths for her child, it still seems a foreign concept to making someone else suffer. I might change my mind once I become a mother myself but I would like to see what type of decision I would come upon if a person would hurt my child to the level that Grendel was hurt.