541 Summer Reading Book: Beowulf (Burton Raffel translation), ISBN: 978-0451530967 Summer Reading Assignment and College Application Essay Expectations 1. Submit your new draft of your college application essay on the first day of class to your seminar teacher. Combine your revised essay as the first page of a document that includes the draft that has your junior teacher’s comments on it as the second page. Submissions lose half credit if they do not include the draft that has your junior teacher’s comments on it. Submit your assignment electronically as per your seminar teacher’s instructions. 2. While reading Beowulf, answer the following questions. Make sure to incorporate passages from the text in your answers, citing the lines you quote. You will submit your summer reading electronically on the first day of classes. When quoting and citing passage from Beowulf, apply the following format: Up to three lines of verse (the lines of poetry as they appear in the text), offset the quoted passage from your prose with quotation marks, indicate the ends of lines with backslashes, and cite the line numbers. Example: After landing in Denmark, Beowulf reveals his heritage to the watchman: “…my father was a famous man,/ a noble warrior-lord named Ecgtheow” (262-263) 1869-73. For more than three lines of verse, reduplicate the entire passage as it appears in the text (including lineation and capitalization), setting off the passage from your prose by tabbing the entire passage in 1 inch; do not use quotation marks, unless they are the author’s. Cite as above. Example: After landing in Denmark, Beowulf reveals his heritage and allegiances, in his conversation with the watchman: We belong by birth to the Geat people and owe allegiance to Hygelac. In his day, my father was a famous man, a noble warrior-lord named Ecgtheow. (260-263) 1. As a legendary figure, what is Beowulf’s personal motivation for leaving his homeland? What cultural values do his interactions with the Danes manifest? How does he manifest his superhuman nature? 2. How does the Beowulf poet describe the character Grendel? How does his ancestry impact his characterization, and how does it create conflict in the narrative? 3. The relationship between a king and his people is an important relationship in the cultures represented in Beowulf. How do the events in Hrothgar’s kingdom reflect the strength of this relationship? Is Hrothgar a worthy king? 4. How does the battle Beowulf fights with Grendel differ from the battle he fights with Grendel’s mother? What symbolic significance is evident in Beowulf’s strategy and choice of weaponry? 5. How does Beowulf prepare for his battle with the dragon (fire-drake)? How does this episode differ from those that detail Beowulf’s prior battles? 6. What values does the contrast between Beowulf’s actions during the fight with the dragon and the behavior of Beowulf’s Geatish followers during this fight emphasize? Who does remain with Beowulf? 7. How do Beowulf’s dying words of thanks reflect the influence of the Christian monks who preserved this early work of English Literature? ***A word of warning!!*** Please do NOT include the question in your response. This creates a false positive when you upload in TurnItIn.com (which means the English Department must investigate if you have in fact plagiarized). Failure to comply will cost you points on your summer reading. .