Old English

Bruce A. McMenomy, Ph.D. for Scholars Online
2007-08: Tuesdays, 9:30 a.m.- 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time

Overview     Required Materials

2007

September

4  11  18  25 

October

2  9  16  23  30 

November

6  13  20  27 

December

4  11  18 

2008

January

8  15  22  29 

February

5  12  19  26 

March

4  11  25 

April

1  8  15  22  29 

May

6  13  20 

Week 14: Restrospective overview of verbs in theory and practice

Please read and study: §§131-134; vocabulary groups 78-84 (Word-Hoard).

Please prepare: Riddles, (a); “The Battle of Maldon”, lines 1-62.

This is one of the great fragmentary heroic pieces of English poetry. It recounts an historical encounter between a party of Anglo-Saxon defenders and some Viking raiders, and contains one of the most eloquent defenses of the heroic ethic in the history of this or any other language. Tolkien fans may also recognize that this is the source for his play, “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son”. (I have a special fondness for it inasmuch as I actually took part in a production of it at the very first convention of the Mythopoeic Society back in 1970. My role taxed my meager acting talents near to their limit. I played a corpse.)

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