B - The one with we gardena in geardagum.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: Why were the Anglo-Saxons so important to literature?

Learners continued to practise their Anglo-Saxon pronunciation before reading out loud the first few lines of Beowulf.

We chatted about Anglo-Saxon ideals:

• allegiance to lord and king,
• love of glory as the ruling motive of every noble life,
• adherence to the inevitability of fate;

and, we discussed the features of Anglo-Saxon poetry:

• four stresses in each line,
• each line was divided by a caesura (break),
• the caesura was resolved with alliteration,
• it contains kennings (a type of metaphor).

We read together the modern English translation of the first part from "The Coming of Grendel." I modelled a close reading of the text and pointed out some examples of Anglo-Saxon ideals.

PRACTISE: Finish reading "The Coming of Grendel" and note the samples of Anglo-Saxon ideals.

NEXT CLASS: more Beowulf!