Sandridge,+Sylvia

I hate walking to Mckay

-February 7,2011-

Upon reading Beowulf, both on high school and for this class, I feel that ending is seemingly out of place. Much of the epic is concerned with the fate of Grendel and Beowulf's conflict with him. The fight with th edragon, after 50 years of Beowulf's rule, is both a drastic change in pacing and over time. His death during the dragon fight is quite clearly foreshadowed, by Beowulf himself. The story is no longer an epic type, but practically a lament. It ends with Beowulf dying to a dragon bite, and conceding the treasure to his only true man, Wiglaf. I don;t think it was very clear of Wiglaf leads the Geats after Beowulf's passing. I would hazard a guess that Wiglaf would not, but really have no basis for this.

What I do find interesting is the possibility of these stories having a connection with a historical figure. It was retold orally before being written down, so it's possible that Beowulf was a real person at the time, who died on battle, and at some point someone added the dragon fight to make his death more epic and entertaining.

February 23---**Edited/Finished on 3/2/11**

One of the more notable passages of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight deal with his problems regarding the lady of the House and her attempts to seduce him. He is bound by the knightly code, part of which is chastity,truthfulness, as well as being required to serve those of higher ranking than him. The lady and her husband are testing those parts of the code. The passage of interest starts off by Lady Bertalik catching Sir Gawain sleeping. She tells him, "You are but a careless sleeper, since one can enter thus." and then also states that she will "bind him to the bed" and take him as her prey. This is the start of Gawain's troubles. The lady is obviously flirting with him, and her words fall just short of commanding Gawain to lay with her. He cannot break his vow of chastity, nor can he directly disobey those of higher rank, which the lady of the house most certainly is. Gawain seems accurately aware of his position, and attempts to thwart the Lady by bandying pleasantries with her, while still remaining almost painfully polite. He responds to her advances by being modest, and tries his best to appeal to her honesty. The text alludes to his success, and the Lady eventually takes her leave, but not before outwardly marveling that he has not so much as asked for a kiss. Not wanting to displease her, he takes a kiss on the check. Throughout the passage, Gawain has done his best to hold true to all aspects of his code. He is mostly successful, neither offending the Lady nor breaking his vow of Chasity. The end of the passage alludes to the further trouble the lady will cause him, as well as his later failings.

Feb 28---**Finished on 3/30**

Respond to "Undressing Lady Bertalik"

In the article "Undressing Lady Bertalik", the author discuss Sir Gawain's sudden and seemingly out of place anger with the woman who seduced him in the bedroom. The passage does come almost at random, the author notes that up until then Sir Gawain has done his best to retain civility, being polite and as humble as possible. The author is curious as to what caused this anger, and states that it may be due to the commonly held beliefs at the time, that women were generally out to trick men. On the other hand, Gawain is only human, so an angry outburst, while not fitting with his knightly code, is understandable. While it may not be proper, and his blame may be displaced, it could be the author of Sir Gawain's story showing that even knights have their failings. In Sir Gawain's case, that could be his penchant for blaming women for his troubles.

Mar 21---**Finished on 3/30**

Why is the "Miller's Tale" a fabilaux/farce?

The Miller's tale is very clearly a tall tale, as he introduces it as so. As well, there are many parts of the story that seem to be pure fantasy, and only add to his tale by making it more ridiculous. The lengths as to which the protagonist of the Miler's Tale go to to be alone together being what immediately comes to mind. As well, the characters of his tale all seem blatantly one dimensional. The carpenter,John, is quite dim witted, the student, Nicholas, easily out wits him as well as charming the lady, Alisoun, who of course love him back. The rest of the story is merely an amusing tale of people doing silly things, so others can laugh at them- the clerk being tricked into kissing Alisoun's bum, Nicholas getting a hot poker in the rear, John being laughed at for crazy. It is obvious that the reason for the story is for the listeners to leaugh at the characters, making it a farce.

---April 6

Identify ONE significant difference in the language of the Biblical passages.

April 11--- The Troops of Tilbury is a powerful speech. Queen Elizabeth continually invokes God as her and her kingdom's protector, and makes him sound benevolent, and fierce. As well, she also mentions many time that she, as a ruler, has placed herself to live and die among her people. This move seems like it would of been inspiring to her subjects, and made her seem more accessible to her people, gaining her favor and loyalty. She also appeals to their sense of chivalry, by calling herself a weak and feeble women, but in the same vein states she has the heart and stomach of a king. Her speech shows she was an intelligent and shrewd minded leader, who knew how to manipulate and appeal to her subjects.

---april 25-

The topic I chose for my final paper was "How Religion influenced British Literature." Religion has played a major role in influencing major texts, from Beowulf to modern literature. From a secular standpoint, this influence is fascinating, and leads to much consideration to how this has continued in other forms outside of literate.

---may 2--- On my First son anylyae

, Millers Tale in modern English: http://www.lone-star.net/mall/literature/miller.htm
 * Interesting Links:**

John Wycliffe's Bible, complete download: http://wesley.nnu.edu/fileadmin/imported_site/biblical_studies/wycliffe/

Queen Elizabeth I: Speech to the Troops at Tilbury http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tilbury.htm