English 12 Honors [2021-2022]: Section 1 .Assignments rill Quarter One Reading Guide for Part Five of “Beowulf”
Reading Guide for Lines 2180-2424
Beowulf has returned to the land of the Geats and presented his lord, Hygelac, with an account of his adventures and a share of the treasure he earned.
1. What traits of a good hero does Beowulf demonstrate upon returning to Geatland?
2. How does Hygelac reward Beowulf for his victory against Grendel?
3. What catastrophe threatens Beowulf’s fifty year reign as king? What has caused this event?
4. Considering what we know about the cornitatus and good Anglo-Saxon kings, why would a dragon be a suitable (symbolically appropriate) enemy for Beowulf’s final battle?
5. How does the story of the barrow’s origins (lines 2231-2270) mirror the tale of the narrator from the poem “The Wanderer”?
6. How does Beowulf respond to the dragon’s attack on his home? What might this reaction foreshadow for Beowulf’s future?
7. Why doesn’t Beowulf put together an army to fight the dragon?
8. What is the narrative purpose of recounting Beowulf’s past exploits in lines 2355-2396?
Posted Thu Sep 30, 2021 at 7:36 am
