Beowulf 9

Study Guide Questions for Lines 2846-3182

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Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Shame, Light vs. Darkness, Despair

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What did the cowardly Thanes find Wiglaf doing when they returned?

2. What did Wiglaf say “anyone ready to admit the truth will surely realize?”

3. According to Wiglaf, to what would the Geats have to say “goodbye” once foreign princes heard about how the Thanes had “turned and fled” in disgrace?

4. According to the messenger, sent by Wiglaf to report what had happened in the fight, which nations would most likely attack the Geats very soon?

5. Who killed the Swedish king Ongentheow and how?

6. What did they burn on the funeral pyre along with Beowulf’s body?

7. How big was the dragon that had been slain?

8. According to the text, why had no one been able to enter into the place where the gold had been stored underground for a “thousand winters?”

9. What did Wiglaf pick seven men to do?

10. What was done with the body of the dragon?

11. How many warriors rode around Beowulf’s tomb and how did they mourn him?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. What did the poet mean when he wrote, “Many a spear dawn-cold to the touch will be taken down and waved on high; the swept harp won’t waken warriors, but the raven winging darkly over the doomed will have news, tidings for the eagle of how he hoked and ate, how the wolf and he made short work of the dead?”

2. Why would the ancient people have put a “spell” on their buried gold?

3. Did the curse affect Beowulf or not? Use the text to explain and defend your answer.

4. What is meant by the statement, “They let the ground keep that ancestral treasure, gold under gravel, gone to earth, as useless to men now as it ever was?”

5. Compare and contrast Beowulf and the Dragon (including the way they are treated after death). What is similar and what is different?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. Consider Beowulf’s final command concerning his burial place and preparations. How much say do you think people should have concerning what happens to their body and possessions after they die? Are we obligated to keep our promises to those who are no longer living? Why or why not?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Genesis 3 and Revelation 12. Who is the great dragon/serpent of Scripture? How should this understanding affect our thinking as we read the story of Beowulf?