Ross,Chris

= Hello, my name is Chris and I like this class! = =__BEOWULF/ ANGLO-SAXON CULTURE__= = The Gareth Hinds lectures were very good and informative, I especially liked his use of media in the second section of Beowulf, using the wood paneling to evoke that feeling of ancient quality to his work. I think that kind of inginuity and dedication are hard to come by. I look forward to reading some of his other novels. = = 1/26/11 Today we are sitting in class working on our wikis! It's pretty fun I guess, so far i have read the graphic novel of Beowulf and i'm about halfway through the version in our book!! Right now Writing Assistant Rob is teaching us about how to use the wiki which is really important!! Don't really know what else to write about so i think thats a good tome to stop, see you later!! = =﻿1/31/11 Hello, just thought that I would share that i just finished reading The Once and Future King by T.H. White for the second time! Its a really good book that deals with the rise and fall of King Arthur and all the triumphs and tragedy that defined him. I know that the book wasn't written in the time frame of our class but it does deal with a lot of the issues of the Middle Ages and has a lot of philosophy mixed in. It is a retelling of Thomas Malory's Le Moretd'Arthur which was written durning the end of the Middle Ages. Most of all its a great and fun book to read. = =2/7/11 Beowulf Rumination: The end of Beowulf, which culminates in death of Beowulf and the dragon, was i think a fitting end to the epic story of his life. As we have seen throughout the story, Beowulf excells at physical confrontation, a cultural icon that highlights the culture of the time. Strength through force of arms was the order of the day and Beowulf was above the best in this catagory. He faces trials throughout his life, from his swimming competition to his encounters with Grendal and his mother. His life could only end in a similarly heroic manner, facing an even greater peril; the peril of the dragon. Though he is old he still goes out to fight the dragon because he is king, and, more importantly, he is Beowulf. It is considered a great honor to die in battle, going up against a superior foe and not really expecting to win. I think it speaks of something we might have lost in our culture, a lost sense of honor. = =2/7/11 Last class we talked about some pretty cool things in Anglo-Saxon culture. we learned about Kennings , which are compound, extremly descriptive words(Whaleroad=ocean). we also talked about Flyting , which is a form of psycological warefare meant to test other warriors in a way that does not involve bloodshed. It is the equivlant of a yo' mamma battle by todays standards. Insults are hurled back and forth seeing who can disrespect the other or intimidate them into hesitating, thus showing superiority. It enrages the enemy into making mistakes and invigorates your own men. We saw an example of this in an except from The Thirteenth Warrior , which i watched and thought was pretty good, you should watch it. Also we talked about the role of women  in Anglo-Saxon culture, particularly in the role of the "cup-bearer" and the internal politics of who to serve first so that no one should be offended. = =2/7/11 Terms and other cool things that i haven't put on my wiki yet!! Drictin : meaning lord or God, Hrothgar is Drictin but he is also under the protection of God (due to the christian authorship of the story) Grendal, who is outside of the protection of God, he is exiled, cannot approach the throne because Hrothgar is Drictin. Dark Ages : not a valid term to be used when refering to the Medieval period, because learning and creativity did not stop; do not use when in a discussion with a Medievalist. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Elegeic <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff4500; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">: a lament for one who dies, Beowulf starts out with this. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Scops <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff4500; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">: Norse minstrils, tell stories, they use rhyme, rhythmic repitition and music among others to remember and add to the stories that they tell. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Meadhall : I think that this would be an example of a Kenning but i am not sure. Mead means beer, so in effect a mead hall is a drinking hall. The meadhall is also a meeting place (to be continued) = = English Romances and Courtly Love: = = 2/14/11: On the rules of courtly love. It seems that there is some amount of contradiction in these rules. Prevalant throughout is this notion that love holds all but it also says that a new love can banish the old, this contradicts that love is such a powerful thing. Also jelousy plays a large role in this, saying that the more jelous a lover is, the more he/she loves which i never really thought to much about but a suppose that makes sense. It does seem to me that there is a certain possesiveness to the whole aspect of courtly love that seems to deny the reality of freedom that love requires. Of ourse this is only half correct because there are several rules that do praise the spontinuity of love, thus giving it the freedom that it deserves. Overall I thought this to be a very confusing set of rules. = = 2/16/11: Just took a quiz on the beginning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I really liked the first part of the story, in which Christmas is being celebrated in Camelot and all the knights are having a good time feasting and drinking until the Green Knight shows up. The Green Knight as you can guess is entirely emerald green. The knight puts forth the challenge for the medieval equivlant of punch for punch, with battle axes. None of the knights wants to accept the challange until Arther stands up and accepts. At this point Sir Gawain stands up and asks Arther if he can take his place, saying, in great humility, that he will be least missed becasue he is the worst knight. Arther accepts and Gawain takes the axe and chops the Green Knight's head off. Instead of dying (because that would be much too silly and gruesome of an ending) the Green Knight scoops his head up off the ground and informs Gawain that in a year and a day he is to come to the Green Chaple and recieve his blow. The Green Knight then rides out of the hall. = = 2/28/11: The assigned article on Blackboard looks into the depths or Sir Gawain's character, what he is thinking and how his actions display his values. One of the aspects most discussed was Gawain's dialogue when he steps in for the king. Everything he does after this point is a sign of respect to others, to Arthur, to the Green Knight and to everyone he encounters. This speaks of a control that De Roo points out, a control that is only just in control as we see with Lady Bertilak. = =<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3/2/11: We had a Quiz today on the four crises of the 14th century, those included the Great Famine, the Black Death, the Hundred Years War, and the Uprising of 1381. I chose to talk about the Black Death, which swept across Europe in the middle of the century killing men, women and children, even livestock. It instilled in the populace a fear for the end of the world, that Armaggedon was upon them. False relics were sold with abandon, the con artist lining their pockets with the golden misfortune of others. = =__<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">The 14th Century/ Chaucer: __= =<span style="color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">﻿3/7/11: My favorite pilgrim would have to be the Plowman. Though his story does not appear in our text, i did read it in my tenth grade British Lit class. In that class I was assigned the Plowman to do a prioject on. The project had to do with writing a story about our character and their attributes. The story had to be in the style of Chaucer and we recieved extra points if we did it in rhyming couplets,(Which i did, i'll take a look through my old stuff to see if i can find it!). I really liked the plowman because he was the best among them to the standards of the time. He was charitable and kind, putting God above all else and giving generously to the church. Moreover he displayed none of the hypocracy that some of thr other pilgrims shared, like the Pardener, nor did he display such vulgarity like the Miller. He is just a simple man content with the happiness of his life and i really admire that. = =<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3/21/11:Why is the Millers tale considered a Fablaux/farce? The Millers tale is a farce because of its many love triangles. You have Alison and Nicholas who trick the old man John, then later they trick the young man Absolon as well, who is the other man who tries to with Alison over. The Millers tale is also a parody of the Knights tales and a parody of courlty romance stories as well as making fun of some of the other characters in the pilgramage. The Millers tale is called, in some circles, to be the longest dirty joke in the English language because of its innuendo and its ribald humor. = =<span style="color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3/28/11: the charater of Mak is a very intersting one. He is a trickster and a deciever, staying witha a family of shepherds in order to steal their flock. The shephaerds are on to him however and as soon as he is gone they check their sheep and sure enough they are missing!! They go to Mak's house where he and his wife, Gill, disguise the sheep as a baby. the shepherds look everywhere for the sheep even in the cradle itself. This whole play gave off a very biblical smell especially concerning the birth of Christ. This play also shows us the changing world that the poeple of that time period were in. Since plays were considered sinful, especially those classical plays that exualted sin and suffering, the Christians had to create their own kind of morally rightous plays, and this play is a result of that. = =<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">__**Early Modern Period**__ = =<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4/4/11: The key thing to remember about the Renaissance is that it didn't happen overnight. Much like the term Dark Ages, the Renaissance is a term disliked by scholars because it dismisses all achievement that comes before it, therefore i will be using the more academacally accepted term: the Early Modern Period. Generally considered to have begun in the late 15th century after the Wars of the Roses where the houses of Lancaster and York battled for supremacy. After this, in the early 16th century Henry VIII came into power, a man who loved power, women and lavish parties. His habits drained the country. He eventually had six wives who can be named as anulled, beheaded, died, anulled, beheaded, lived. He was searching for a wife who would give him a male heir, which is a little ironic because he was succeeded by two woman. considwering that marriages of the time were made for internal alliances Henry made the mistake of anulling his first marriage which had tied him to spain. He asked the church for an anullment, but, because the church was allied with the strongly Catholic Spain, the pope refused. Henry thought he was above the law and thus created the official Church of England, or the Anglican Church. At the center of all this political/religious termoil the common people saw corruption in religion and this exploded in the protestant reformation, which began when Martin Luthor nailed his thesis to a church door in 1517. At this point people start to translate the bible out of Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Henry sees this and takes advantage of it putting himself in the center of the conflict to play off of both sides. at this point Mary I takes over. She is a rabid catholic and she kicks all of the protestants out. (also she was thought to be mildly insane). After this Elizebeth takes over. She is tolorant of both sides and tries to heal the rifts between the two religions. She picks her succesor to be king James who creates the King James Bible. the printing press was also invented at this time, printing the first book, the Bible. = =<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4/6/11: one significant difference between the languague of the bible passeges would be the flow of the writing. The Tyndale bible, along with the king james version, are much more concisely written than the geneva bible or the D-R bible. they alsotend to be less flowery and more to the point than the other two, which make them easier to read and to understand for the common people. the Tyndale bible also is the one closer to modern english, which makes it essier for us to understand. = =<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4/13/11: Edmund Spencers The Fairie Queene is an excellent of of allagorical fiction that tries to adress the many issues that England was going through. Spencer's poetry was very well recieved by Queen Elizebeth, so that every time you see a female character it is more thatn likely a different part of the Queen. Similarly Redcrosse is a knight that represents both the church and England so that when other allogorical characters it is Englad and the will of God that is interacting with them. Also Redcrosse also shows us that the purity of God goes with England and that is the very tip of the allagorical layer that is the poem. = =<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5/2/11: Sir Walter Ralegh, a leading figure of the Elizebthan era wrote the poem, //The Lie//. I really liked the poem and i think it showed a popular theme among the period, that being the poor quality of royalty at the time and the way that they should be treated. I think it holds a deeper meaning however as is evident in the last stanza of the poem. It shows us that for all the lies that have been told there are still things out there that pocess the purity to not be subjected to there will and i think that Ralegh was trying to express in this poem. = =<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5/2/11: Today we also were assigned group poet projects. My group got assigned John Donne who was an unconventional poet who pushed the standards of poetry. He was an ambigous writer who perffered to do things his own way in terms of style and form. he liked writing love poems and sonnets which never conformed to the rules that governed them. For our Poem we decided to do //The Bait// which detailed the goings on of a very attractive woman who was baiting all of the men around her, including the narrator of the poem. = =<span style="color: #000080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5/4/11: Another group poetry Project!! This time we are doing Andrew Marvell Who T. S. Eliot dubed one of the finest metaphysical poets of all time. Marvell enjoyed writing satirical poems that confused the poeple of his day as well as the people doing a project on him. He also enjoyed writing seductive poems that blur the line between erotica and love. For the poem analysis we di the Dialogue between the Body and the Soul which chronnicles the conversation between the body and the soul who are both arguing about the influences they exert over one another. = =<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5/11/11: Last day of class! Today we quickly went over Paradise Lost by John Milton. Which is disappointing because it is one of my favorite poems of ALL TIME!!! we went over the first two parts of the poem which deals with Satans fall from grace. We also dealt with the contraversy of the poem due to the fact that Satan is the "hero" of the poem and displays all of the things that all epic heros possess. this caused a great stir in the religiously tense scene of the time. = = =