BEOWULF SEMINARS—500 PTS.

This is a 5-page, 12-font, typed, double-spaced formal paper. There are no cover sheets, nor appendices, nor nothin’: just 5 pages of amazing analysis with a works cited page stapled to it at the back, for a total of 6 pages. No variation is acceptable. Any time from now on, this is to be how you write formal papers, though I may specify differing lengths. Your paper should loosely follow the structure of an AP Lit essay in that it contains unifying introductions and conclusions, packing in lots of specific textual references and analyses thereof. Your writing should address the prompt clearly and logically. Choose one of the ideas below and write to it. If your writing is interesting and sophisticated (read: varied syntactically) enough and your arguments logical and proven through text, then you’ll get an ‘A’. For weaker ideas and sloppier writing, we have B-F’s available as well.
Éadig béo þu!

1. Explain the Beowulf poet’s use of sound in sculpting the themes of the epic poem.

2.Since Beowulf is a hero’s quest story composed by Anglo-Saxons, its main character represents their notions of desirable personality traits. Explain what Beowulf the hero reveals about those who wrote his tale.

3.If all Modern Fantasy writing owes a great debt to J.R.R. Tolkien, and Tolkien taught Beowulf extensively, writing the most validating criticism of it, what elements of Beowulf did her preserve in The Hobbit and/or Lord of the Rings?