Western Europe

"Arthur Receives Excalibur" by Daniel Maclise Maclise, Daniel (1806-1870) (J. Thompson engraver).
 (Illustration to "Morte D'Arthur")

Beowulf	Roland	Gawain	Arthurian
California Standards	General	Class Home	ORIAS Home

 

Beowulf

Texts
• The new translation by Seamus Heaney is very popular and deservedly so. An excerpt from the opening can be found at http://www.beowulf2000.com/#excerpt

• The Electronic Beowulf: http://www.uky.edu/%7Ekiernan/eBeowulf/main.htm

• Old English Beowulf with interlinear translation by Gummere. http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/beow_doe.html

 
• The Adventures of Beowulf an Adaptation from the Old English by Dr. David Breeden

Illustrated by Randy Grochoske
http://www.lone-star.net/literature/beowulf/beowulf.html
 
• Poetic translation by Allan Sullivan and Timothy Murphy -- read it aloud for a good sense of the power of alliterative verse http://alliteration.net/beoIndex.htm


Resources and lessons
 

• The British Museum has a marvelous on-line resource for students on the origins of English words in their Changing Language project. It uses Beowulf as the example for the "roots" activity. http://www.bl.uk/services/learning/curriculum/projects/changelang/ks3_roots1_beowulf.htm

• Introduction-Quotation Exchange: Carolyn Rinetti, 7th grade teacher at Pleasanton Middle School, wrote up this lesson plan for Beowulf.  It can be easily adapted to other non-Western epic heroes. http://orias.berkeley.edu/usinghist_april99.html

• Resources for studying Beowulf: http://www.georgetown.edu/irvinemj/english016/beowulf/beowulf.html

• Reading of Grendel's approach to Heorot using Wave or TrueSpeech audio. I haven't been able to make the audio work but the Anglo-Saxon text prints out well.  http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/Beowulf.Readings/Grendel.html

• University of Nevada Reno Library site with a serious collection of links for both Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon background: http://www.library.unr.edu/subjects/guides/beowulf.html

Texts

Electronic text of Song of Roland based on the translation of Charles Scott Moncrief (London, 1919). Berkeley Digital Library. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Roland/

• Internet Medieval Sourcebook  located at the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies. Primary sources, maps, music, .http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

• Bulfinch's Mythology: CHAPTER XVIII THE BATTLE OF RONCESVALLES. http://www.bulfinch.org/legends/legend18.html

 

 
 
 
 
 

Resources and lessons

• Song of Roland study guide from Diane Thompson, Northern Virginia Community College - includes summary and background. http://novaonline.nv.cc.va.us/eli/eng251/rolandstudy.htm

Thompson's students have posted their responses to her study questions in a "Roland Forum."
 
• Study Questions - Song of Roland  from Dr. Carol Harding at Western Oregon University

http://www.wou.edu/liberalartsscience/humanities/english/hardingc/sq_roland.htm

Image: "Charlemagne installs Roland as his representative in Spain and presents him with a gonfanon as a sign of sovereignty. He then takes his leave with a wave of the hand while Roland vainly tries to ram the staff of the banner into the rocky ground." Credit: St. Gallen, Municipal Library (Also where I found the grey background for this page). http://gateway.kwantlen.bc.ca/~donna/sca/flags/f011.html

Texts

Modern translation of first two books and introduction by Paul Deane; Copyright © Paul Deane, 1999 http://alliteration.net

• Middle English text with literal translation http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/sggk.html

• Middle English text of Gawain and the Green Knight

The Greene Knight, edited by Thomas Hahn
Originally Published in Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales
Kalamazoo, Michigan: Western Michigan University for TEAMS, 1995 http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/green.htm
 
• A much more difficult version of the text good for glancing at a more accurate transcription of the ME ms.

Edited by: J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon revised by: Norman Davis, Clarendon PressOxford 1967.
http://etext.virginia.edu/mideng.browse.html
or http://www.hti.umich.edu/bin/me-idx?type=header&idno=Gawain

Resources and lessons

• Articles and essays on GGK. http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/medessay.htm#gawain

 
• Introduction to the Thomas Hann edition listed above: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/greenint.htm

 
• Student paper comparing Arthur, Beowulf and Gawain. http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Hall/1170/medhero.html

• Summary of online resources. http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/gawainre.htm

• Audio file of the "dresssing of the deer" using realaudio. http://athena.english.vt.edu/~baugh/Medieval/sggk1.htm

Using Arthurian romance

• SCORE (San Diego County Office of Education) has a teachers' cyberguide to Arthurian legends at www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/arthur/arthurtg.html

• Labyrinth Arthurian Links - an excellent source for finding web resources for Medieval Studies hosted by Georgetown University. Use the search feature to find Arthurian links suitable for children.. http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/

• This NED lesson plan for Arthurian legends uses the Labyrinth web site (above).  It is suggested for high school level readers. Goals: To examine the historical origins of the Arthurian legend; to investigate how medieval historians and storytellers reflected the concerns of their own times in their treatment of the legend; to gain insight into the use of literature as historical evidence. http://edsitement.neh.gov/lessonplans/Arthurian_legend.html

• Sites for the Wife of Bath's tale. (Similar to the Loathly Lady or Gawain's Marriage)
http://icg.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/canttales/wbt/
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lessonplans/wifeofbath.html
http://www.bulfinch.org/tales/chiv05.html

• THE CAMELOT PROJECT is designed to make available in electronic format a database of Arthurian texts, images, bibliographies, and basic information. The project is sponsored by the University of Rochester and prepared in The Robbins Library, a branch of Rush Rhees Library. http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cphome.stm

California History/Social Science Content Standards http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/

• Medieval Studies for K-12 on the excellent Labyrinth page at Georgetown University

http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/pedagogical/k12/k12.html

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