Beowulf

Beowulf.

Beowulf is an Old English epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative lines. It is the oldest surviving long poem in Old English and is commonly cited as one of the most important works of Old English literature.

 It was written in England some time between the 8th and the early 11th century.

The author was an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, referred to by scholars as the "Beowulf poet".

Summary:

King Hrothgar of Denmark, a descendant of the great king Shield Sheafson, enjoys a prosperous and successful reign. He builds a great mead-hall, called Heorot, where his warriors can gather to drink, receive gifts from their lord, and listen to stories sung by the scops, or bards. But the jubilant noise from Heorot angers Grendel, a horrible demon who lives in the swamplands of Hrothgar’s kingdom. Grendel terrorizes the Danes every night, killing them and defeating their efforts to fight back. The Danes suffer many years of fear, danger, and death at the hands of Grendel. Eventually, however, a young Geatish warrior named Beowulf hears of Hrothgar’s plight. Inspired by the challenge, Beowulf sails to Denmark with a small company of men, determined to defeat Grendel.

Hrothgar, who had once done a great favor for Beowulf’s father Ecgtheow, accepts Beowulf’s offer to fight Grendel and holds a feast in the hero’s honor. During the feast, an envious Dane named Unferth taunts Beowulf and accuses him of being unworthy of his reputation. Beowulf responds with a boastful description of some of his past accomplishments. His confidence cheers the Danish warriors, and the feast lasts merrily into the night. At last, however, Grendel arrives. Beowulf fights him unarmed, proving himself stronger than the demon, who is terrified. As Grendel struggles to escape, Beowulf tears the monster’s arm off. Mortally wounded, Grendel slinks back into the swamp to die. The severed arm is hung high in the mead-hall as a trophy of victory.Overjoyed, Hrothgar showers Beowulf with gifts and treasure at a feast in his honor. Songs are sung in praise of Beowulf, and the celebration lasts late into the night. But another threat is approaching. Grendel’s mother, a swamp-hag who lives in a desolate lake, comes to Heorot seeking revenge for her son’s death. She murders Aeschere, one of Hrothgar’s most trusted advisers, before slinking away. To avenge Aeschere’s death, the company travels to the murky swamp, where Beowulf dives into the water and fights Grendel’s mother in her underwater lair. He kills her with a sword forged for a giant, then, finding Grendel’s corpse, decapitates it and brings the head as a prize to Hrothgar. The Danish countryside is now purged of its treacherous monsters.The Danes are again overjoyed, and Beowulf’s fame spreads across the kingdom. Beowulf departs after a sorrowful goodbye to Hrothgar, who has treated him like a son. He returns to Geatland, where he and his men are reunited with their king and queen, Hygelac and Hygd, to whom Beowulf recounts his adventures in Denmark. Beowulf then hands over most of his treasure to Hygelac, who, in turn, rewards him.In time, Hygelac is killed in a war against the Shylfings, and, after Hygelac’s son dies, Beowulf ascends to the throne of the Geats. He rules wisely for fifty years, bringing prosperity to Geatland. When Beowulf is an old man, however, a thief disturbs a barrow, or mound, where a great dragon lies guarding a horde of treasure. Enraged, the dragon emerges from the barrow and begins unleashing fiery destruction upon the Geats. Sensing his own death approaching, Beowulf goes to fight the dragon. With the aid of Wiglaf, he succeeds in killing the beast, but at a heavy cost. The dragon bites Beowulf in the neck, and its fiery venom kills him moments after their encounter. The Geats fear that their enemies will attack them now that Beowulf is dead. According to Beowulf’s wishes, they burn their departed king’s body on a huge funeral pyre and then bury him with a massive treasure in a barrow overlooking the sea.

10 ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS

10 ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS

Things to say when you're angry ❇There are many reasons for getting angry in Britain these days like car alarms, train strikes and Sunday opening hours. Here are some things that people often say when they've had 10 expressions to Use In Speaking And Writing:

1. I don't believe it!
2. What a pain!
3. It's driving me up the wall.
4. I've had it up to here with...
5. I've had all I can take of...
6. It really gets on my nerves.
7. I'm sick and tired of...
8. I'm fed up with it.
9. I could really do without it.
10. Is it possible?

How To Use These Phrases In Your English: . We say phrases 1 and 2 immdeiately after something has made you angry. . We say phrases 3, 4 and 5 about a situation or a series of repeated actions that make us angry. . We say phrase 6 about something that slowly makes you angry over a long time . We say phrases 7 and 8 about something annoying that has continued for a long time. . We often say phrase 9 when we have several pieces of bad luck and then one more bad thing happens. . We say phrase 10 to show our disbelief that something so bad has happened or that one more bad thing has happened after several others.

Kinds of NOVEL

Kinds of NOVEL

Epistolary
Novel In this type of novel the story is narrated through letters sent by the observer or by those who participating in the events.
Example 18th century’s novel ‘Richardson’s Pamela and Clarissa etc.

Gothic Novel
In this type of novels the cruel passions and supernatural terror is presented.
Example: Monastery or Haunted Castle etc.

Historical Novel
This type of novel set in particular historical period and describes the manner and event of that period. characters may be imaginary or real persons.
Example: Novels on world war one etc.

Psychological Novel
In this type of novel the character’s inner feeling, ideas, spiritual and mental development is concentrated rather than external actions
Example: To the light house by Virginia Woolf etc.

Picaresque Novel
This type of novel consist of series of adventures happen to the hero. It is usually episodic and with a simple plot.

Sentimental Novel
This type of novel is designed to describe and evoke tender feelings and sensitivity. The other name of this type novel is Mawkish.

Alexandrianism

Alexandrianism

The works and styles of the Alexandrian school of
Greek poets in the age (323 BCE-31 BCE), which included
Callimachus, Apollonius Rhodius, and Theocritus. The Alexandrian style
was marked by elaborate artificiality, obscure mythological
and eroticism. It influenced Catullus and other Roman poets.

Anthology

Anthology

An anthology is a collection of poems, songs,
short stories or prose extracts, often by different authors and published in one volume. Collections
of poetry and short stories are a most important resource in the Primary English lesson. Some
poetry anthologies are tried and tested over time and still enjoyed.

Anaphoric

Anaphoric

We use `anaphoric reference' when we look back to an earlier word or words in a sentence to discover the meaning of a word or phrase. So in
the sentence ­ `Although the children were tired after the morning's work they could still enjoy the afternoon story' ­ the second part of the
sentence makes sense in the light of the first.

Aestheticism

Aestheticism, or the Aesthetic Movement,
was a European phenomenon
during the latter nineteenth century that had its chief headquarters in France.
In opposition to the dominance of scientific thinking, and in defiance of the
widespread indifference or hostility of the middle-class society of their time to any art that was not useful or did not teach moral values, French writers developed the view that a work of art is the supreme value among human products precisely because it is self-sufficient and has no use or moral aim outside
its own being. The end of a work of art is simply to exist in its formal
perfection; that is, to be beautiful and to be contemplated as an end in itself.
A rallying cry of Aestheticism became the phrase "l'art pour l'art"--art for
art's sake.
The historical roots of Aestheticism are in the views proposed by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant in his Critique of Judgment (1790) that the "pure" aesthetic experience consists of a "disinterested" contemplation of an object that "pleases for its own sake," without reference to reality or to the "external" ends of utility or morality. As a self-conscious movement, however, French Aestheticism is often said to date from Théophile Gautier's witty defense of his assertion that art is useless (preface to Mademoiselle de Maupin,1835). Aestheticism was developed by Baudelaire, who was greatly influenced
by Edgar Allan Poe's claim (in "The Poetic Principle," 1850) that the supreme work is a "poem per se," a "poem written solely for the poem's sake"; it was later taken up by Flaubert, Mallarmé, and many other writers. In its extreme form, the aesthetic doctrine of art for art's sake veered into the moral and
quasi-religious doctrine of life for art's sake, with the artist represented as a priest who renounces the practical concerns of ordinary existence in the service of what Flaubert and others called "the religion of beauty."
The views of French Aestheticism were introduced into Victorian England by Walter Pater, with his emphasis on high artifice and stylistic subtlety,
his recommendation to crowd one's life with exquisite sensations, and his advocacy of the supreme value of beauty and of "the love of art for its own sake." (See his Conclusion to The Renaissance, 1873.) The artistic and moral
views of Aestheticism were also expressed by Algernon Charles Swinburne
and by English writers of the 1890s such as Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, and
Lionel Johnson, as well as by the artists J. M. Whistler and Aubrey Beardsley. The influence of ideas stressed in Aestheticism--especially the view of the
"autonomy" (self-sufficiency) of a work of art, the emphasis on craft and artistry, and the concept of a poem or novel as an end in itself and as invested with "intrinsic" values--has been important in the writings of prominent twentieth-century authors such as W. B. Yeats, T. E. Hulme, and T. S. Eliot, as
well as in the literary theory of the New Crìtics.For related developments, see decadence and ivory tower. Refer to: William
Gaunt, The Aesthetic Adventure (1945, reprinted 1975); Frank Kermode, Ro-
mantic Image (1957); Enid Starkie, From Gautier to Eliot (I960); R. V. Johnson,
Aestheticism (1969). For the intellectual and social conditions during the eighteenth century that fostered the theory that a work of art is an end in itself.

Affix and Anecdotes

Affix

An affix is a morpheme attached to a word which
may be a prefix (disappear, uninspiring) or a
suffix (reading, likeness).

Anecdotes

These are short accounts usually of an event or
something that happened to the teller or writer or
someone known to them. From the earliest stage
young children enjoy telling others about significant
events: what they did yesterday; what
happened when their pet or favourite toy was
lost; what the squirrels were doing in the park last
Saturday. Often what they relate is chronologically
ordered and this helps them develop a sense
of the narrative form (Mallett, 1997). Reading
and listening to literature is a strong context for
the sharing of pertinent anecdotes. We value all
the connections children make in their talk and
writing between what they read and events and
situations in their lives. The teacher’s skill lies in
his or her constructive and imaginative response
to children’s anecdotes. A number of children in
a Year 6 class were responding to the teacher’s
reading of Anthony Browne’s picture book The
Tunnel (Puffin, 1989) by sharing anecdotes about
sibling relationships. The teacher focused the
discussion by asking the children how their experiences
were similar to and different from those
of the children in the book. This nudged the
anecdotes into a higher gear and, as often
happens, the anecdotes were developed into a
satisfying written piece.
When children write journals or diaries in or
out of school they draw on anecdotes. These
‘vignettes’ from real life are more interesting
when writers include their own attitudes, opinions
and response. Here we can hardly have a
better model than the writing in Anne Frank’s
Diary (Puffin, 1997).