Again, you may write about anything that you find interesting, but here are some thoughts about our readings for next week, September 5th:
–Compare and contrast Smaug and Fafnir
–Both of our Eddic readings this time involve exchanges of wisdom. Observations?
–Eddic poetry tends toward obscurity; what sorts of poetic effects does this tendency create? Specific examples?
Tomorrow I will post more information on writing and presentation assignments. Meanwhile, our readings for the following weeks:
September 12th: Beowulf; Tolkien: “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics”
September 19th: From The Fellowship of the Ring: Forward, Prologue, and chapters 1-3 of Book 1; we will continue our discussion of Beowulf
September 26th: From The Fellowship of the Ring: chapters 4-12 of Book 1; we will continue our discussion of Beowulf
Our reading for Thursday (the 31st) will be The General Prologue through line 269 (the end of the portrait of the Friar) and a selection from Boccaccio’s Decameron (pages 312-26).
Again, you may write a response paper about whatever aspect of the reading that you choose, but here are some possibilities:
–Compare and contrast Chaucer’s and Boccaccio’s respective introductions to their “frame narratives.”
–Compare and contrast the two writers’ descriptions of their pilgrims.
–Write a short analysis of a single pilgrim’s portrait from The General Prologue.
More vocabulary will follow in the next couple of days. Also, I have updated the readings through September 14th on the EH 311 page.
Our readings for next week are unaffected by the book fiasco and will remain unchanged. For the following week (September 5th), please read the following:
–The remainder of The Hobbit
–Vafthrudnir’s Sayings and The Lay of Fafnir (both from The Poetic Edda, pages 39-49 and 157-165)
I will post response prompts for the September 5th readings next week as well as detailed information about the first presentations and critical papers. In case you would like to read ahead, in the following weeks we will read Beowulf, Tolkien’s essay “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” and The Fellowship of the Ring.
Dear Chaucerians:
I mentioned the Harvard Chaucer Page in class. Unfortunately, it does not have much on The Book of the Duchess, but it will be of some help when we get to the Tales. A number of other interesting sites are on my links page, to the left.
Discussion questions/prompts for next Tuesday, August 29th:
–The narrator takes a long time to figure out that the Man in Black has lost his beloved. Discuss.
–Discuss some aspect of the Man in Black’s lengthy description of his beloved.
–Where might one find consolation in this poem? How so?
Again, you may write about whatever you find interesting or stimulating; I have simply provided some ideas.
Vocabulary:
clepe
fers
halwes
kynde
paraunter
route
smerte
swinken
wight
wit
wood
Well, it turns out that the book-ordering problem was my fault after all. I gave the bookstore the wrong ISBN. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Watch this space in the next couple of days as I contemplate a solution. You may rest assured that the solution will not involve your having to buy another book. We will probably just read a bit more Eddic poetry than I had planned.
Remember, as I said in class, you will have to go to the Library’s webpage in order to download and print the readings for next time. Please print out both The Book of the Duchess and the shorter poems, and bring them to class.
For our second meeting (29th of August), please read:
–The Hobbit, through page 127 (that’s the end of chapter 7, for those using another edition.)
–The Seeress’s Prophecy and Sayings of the High One (Poetic Edda, pages 3-38)
A bit of advice for reading The Seeress’s Prophecy: try reading it once through without turning to the back for all the explanatory notes. This will allow you to wallow in the poem’s strangeness and to feel the power of lines like these:
drops of poison fall in through the roof-vents,
the hall is woven of serpents’ spines.
How cool is that? You may write on any topic that you like for a response paper this week, but here are some ideas:
–Comment on the list of dwarf names in The Seeress’s Prophecy and consider Tolkien’s reasons for using some of these in The Hobbit. (‘Staff-elf,’ by the way, is a translation of Gandalf.)
–What sort of persona is Odin in these two Eddic poems?
–Comment on the relationship between style and subject in the early chapters of The Hobbit. What sorts of effects is Tolkien looking to create?
I will often post Middle English vocabulary words for Chaucer students. You should look these up in your Chaucer Glossary and keep a running list. Learning some of these words will make your reading much easier.
Here are some words for our readings for the first week of class (Book of the Duchess, lines 1-486; General Prologue, lines 1-18; and “To Rosemounde”):
alderbest
certes
corage
daliaunce
eek
fele
ferne
mowe
prike
reed
rowthe
trowe
soothe
steven
sweven
yeve
ymagynacioun
I have posted the beginnings of a syllabus on the EH 490/590 page. I have not yet posted a schedule. For those who would like to get a head-start, our first texts will be:
–The Seeress’s Prophecy and Sayings of the High One (both from The Poetic Edda)
–The Hobbit
I have posted the Chaucer Syllabus on the EH 311 page. I will add a complete course schedule as soon as I have it ready.
