Beowulf

BARRON'S BOOK NOTES (tm) on CD-ROM Windows (tm) Ver. 2.0

Beowulf (Germany) Historical Document

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650 AD

BEOWULF

by Lewis Warsh

SERIES EDITOR

Michael Spring, Editor

Literary Cavalcade, Scholastic Inc.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to acknowledge the many painstaking hours of work

Holly Hughes and Thomas F. Hirsch have devoted to making the

Book Notes series a success.

(C) Copyright 1984 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc.

Electronically Enhanced Text (C) Copyright 1993, World Library, Inc.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

SECTION.......................... SEARCH ON

THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES................. BEOWAUTH

THE POEM

The Plot................................. BEOWPLOT

The Characters........................... BEOWCHAR

Other Elements

Themes.............................. BEOWTHEM

Style............................... BEOWSTYL

Language............................ BEOWLANG

Point of View....................... BEOWVIEW

Structure........................... BEOWSTRU

Sources............................. BEOWSOUR

THE STORY................................ BEOWSTOR

A STEP BEYOND

Tests and Answers........................ BEOWTEST

Term Paper Ideas......................... BEOWTERM

Glossary of Names........................ BEOWGLOS

The Critics.............................. BEOWCRIT

Advisory Board........................... BEOWADVB

Bibliography............................. BEOWBIBL

AUTHOR_AND_HIS_TIMES

THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES (BEOWAUTH)

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Who wrote Beowulf- the oldest known epic poem written in English- is

a question that has mystified readers for centuries. It's generally

thought that the poem was performed orally by the poet before a "live"

audience, and that in this way it eventually passed down to readers

and listeners. Another theory is that the poem was recited by memory

by a "scop," a traveling entertainer who went from court to court,

singing songs and telling stories, until it was finally