Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Narnia #3: The Magician’s Nephew

Reading The Magician’s Nephew with my five- and six-year-old sons was a magical experience in itself. They fell in love with the story and its characters, and I found myself falling in love with them all over again, too. In this post, I am going to share an overview of the story and then go into some of the things we talked about as we read it.

THE STORY

The Magician’s Nephew is the first novel in The Chronicles of Narnia, though it was actually published fifth. It tells the story of how Narnia was created and reveals the special role of two children in its making. Though Polly is the leading lady, the story really belongs to Digory. It is he who seeks healing for his sick mother. With his father away in India, he is forced to live with his Uncle Andrew and Aunt Letty, unmarried siblings. Digory mopes about in a fog of misery until he meets Polly.

They become friends and accidentally sneak into Uncle Andrew’s private study. This is a happy chance for Uncle Andrew. A crazed magician, he tricks Polly into putting on a magical yellow ring that sends her into an unknown world with no way home. Then he offers Digory a chance to save her by giving him another yellow ring to go after her with plus two green rings for each of them to get home. Feeling he has very little choice, Digory accepts the rings and follows Polly.

He finds her sleeping in a quiet woods spotted with pools, called the Wood Between the Worlds. They discover that each of the pools leads to a different world. After carefully marking the pool that leads back home to London, they jump into another and land in the World of Charn. The buildings are in ruins and the Sun is red. They would have done well to leave, but their curiosity gets the better of them. They walk into a large room and find a row of people like wax statues the size of giants sitting in a long line. None of them appear to be alive. As they examine their faces, they see that they get increasingly uglier and scarier as they go down the line.

They also find a bell that strangely beckons them to ring it. Polly doesn’t want to, but Digory does. He fights with her, strikes the bell, and awakens the last in the line of the wax people—a giant woman styled as a queen. She is Empress Jadis, and she immediately sets in motion a plan to leave with the children and take over their world. Charn, as it turns out, is dying. Unable to get away from Jadis, she follows them back to London and meets Uncle Andrew.

He is captivated by Jadis and enters into her service. Jadis abuses him horribly, but Uncle Andrew seems not to mind all that much. He calls her a “dem fine woman,” dresses up in his best suit, sips a few adult beverages, and takes her out gallivanting around town. She ends up stealing jewelry from a shop, believing herself entitled to all of it. The police pursue her and Uncle Andrew as they flee in a horse-drawn cab. Uncle Andrew tries to make a break for it, but Jadis stays and fights off her apprehenders with shocking strength.

Meanwhile, Digory and Polly make a plan to transport Jadis out of London, back to the Woods Between the Worlds, and force her into another pool. They put on their rings and grab her. Because of all the chaos, they end up bringing a chain of connected people and things, including not only Jadis but also Uncle Andrew, the Cabbie (Frank), his horse (Strawberry), and a lamppost. The world they enter is completely black. Jadis gleefully explains it’s a new world and relishes the prospect of ruling it.

No sooner do they realize this, then they hear a beautiful song and the darkness begins to give way to a soft light, and the landscape begins to take shape, complete with mountains and rivers and trees and all manner of plants and flowers. Even the lamppost that Jadis had ripped from the ground in London takes roots in the rich earth. Then a golden Lion appears, and they realize He is the one singing the world into life. Jadis runs away in fear of the Lion. Uncle Andrew hides from the Lion. But the others—Digory, Polly, the Cabbie, and Strawberry—stay and listen. They watch as creatures appear. The Lion makes some of them talking animals, and they gather around Him with great love and reverence. After watching all of this unfold, Digory decides he wants to talk to the Lion and see if He might help his dying mother.

The Lion, whose name is Aslan, tells Digory that he must make amends for bringing Jadis to Narnia. He is to get an apple from a special tree in a far-off Garden and bring it back to plant as protection from her evil. Polly joins Digory on this mission, and they ride on Strawberry, now transformed into a talking, flying horse. When they arrive at the Garden, Digory sets off alone to retrieve the apple. He must pass through a gate in doing so, and he reads a placard which says:

Come in by the gold gates or not at all,
Take of my fruit for others or forbear,
For those who steal or those who climb my wall
Shall find their heart’s desire and find despair.

Just as Digory picks an apple, he sees Jadis perched in the special tree with apple juice dripping down from her mouth. He can tell she has gotten her heart’s desire, and that has made her even more evil. Jadis then tempts him to steal one of the apples for his mother, claiming it would make her better. Digory thinks about it but overcomes his desire and joins the others.

They return to Aslan, plant the apple, and a beautiful apple tree grows instantaneously. Aslan then offers one of the apples to Digory for his mother. He also instructs Digory to bury the rings so no one will ever find them again.

Digory does as Aslan commands, buries the rings, and gives the apple to his mother. She is healed, and his life is restored to happiness.

As for the other characters, the Cabbie gets to bring his wife to Narnia and become their first king and queen. And Uncle Andrew gets back to London with the children. He doesn’t really remember Narnia when he returns, but he is much improved. He’s a lot nicer than he used to be and has only a clouded memory of Jadis, whom he still thinks of as a “dem fine woman.”

REFLECTION

One of my favorite motifs in The Magician’s Nephew is appearance versus reality. Some of the characters, like Uncle Andrew and Empress Jadis, do not see the world at all properly. Even Digory and Polly see it properly in only a limited way at first. Here is how I discussed this motif with my sons.

Uncle Andrew and Jadis

Uncle Andrew’s view of things was hard to peg in the first few chapters of the book. My sons and I were right there with Digory and Polly, wondering if Uncle Andrew was really a madman. He certainly seemed strange, but it wasn’t clear that he wasn’t just misunderstood until Digory and Polly accidentally found themselves in his private study and got sent away by the rings. To Uncle Andrew, Polly and Digory were no more than guinea pigs in a crazy experiment.

Okay, we decided at that point; he’s definitely a madman. As it turns out, he’s also a bad guy.

What’s more, we decided his madness had to do with the state of his heart. He can’t see people as they are because he only sees them for what they can give him. For example, he believes Jadis is a “dem fine woman,” but she’s really an evil giant of a witch. He also thinks she might fall in love with him and make him an equal in her royal court. The only problem is that she keeps calling him “slave” and “dog” and threatening to hurt him. His delusions about Jadis defy logic.

Uncle Andrew is also unable to understand the Talking Animals in Narnia. To him, they sound like beasts, and he is utterly terrified of being eaten by them. His entire time in Narnia is spent worried that he is going to be eaten. His greatest fear, not surprisingly, is of “the Lion.” Although Uncle Andrew’s time there is really quite sad, it is also full of humor. We had our fair share of laughs about the ridiculous things Uncle Andrew does in Narnia, especially when he is planted like a tree, but we also found ourselves cheering for him to be reformed.  

We never cheered for Jadis, though. Like Uncle Andrew, she is utterly disconnected from the world around her. We saw this most obviously when she is in London, and it’s not just because she is an outsider, dressed in funny clothes, who happens to be the size of a giant. She also treats everyone there like her lowly subjects and can’t appreciate why they don’t respond to her power.

The characters of Uncle Andrew and Jadis are great examples of how selfishness distorts our true nature. It takes us into a false reality, almost like another world itself, in which we cannot see things for what they are. Though Uncle Andrew is not as evil as Jadis and ends up becoming a better person by the end of the book, he nonetheless never manages to let go entirely of his false ideas of grandeur in the service of Jadis.

At least, as my sons pointed out, he turned out better than he started.

Digory and Polly

When we first met Digory, he was feeling very bad for himself, and we were all wondering how he would manage his difficulties. As we know from the summary above, he had a lot to deal with, especially being so young.  

But behind Digory’s miserable exterior is a hope against hope. Just maybe, his mom will get better. Just maybe, there is more to life than what he sees around him. My sons and I certainly felt Digory’s great yearning right along with him.

Digory gets his first glimpse of a bigger world over his garden wall. There he finds Polly, a little girl about his own age. Interestingly, they both notice the dirt on the other’s face but not on their own. (My sons thought that was hysterical.) Despite any grievances about the other’s hygiene, they become good friends. Their games offer Digory a measure of relief from his miseries, and he begins to look forward to their imaginative adventures. But reality hits imagination in the face when they wind up in Uncle Andrew’s study.  

Two things happen simultaneously for Digory when he accepts Uncle Andrew’s magic rings. First, he realizes there are countless other worlds waiting to be explored. Second, he learns that some hardships are worth pursuing for the sake of others. Thus begins the transformation of his worldview.

Upon finding Polly in the Wood Between the Worlds, the two children become even better friends. More than just playmates, they become one another’s companions in a life-threatening adventure. They look out for each other and steer each other accordingly. For example, when they first meet Jadis, Digory doesn’t realize at first that she is bad. Polly, on the other hand, picks up on it right away because Jadis keeps looking past her and treating her like she’s not even there. Polly is not simply offended by this, but it puts her on alert. She rightly senses that Jadis is only paying attention to Digory because he can get them out of Charn and into another world worth ruling. Funny enough, Jadis eventually looks past Digory, too, and he realizes just how correct Polly was.

When it comes to Aslan, Digory and Polly know He is good. Despite the fact that He is a Lion, and in their world lions would be very scary, they approach Him without fear of being eaten. That’s not to say they’re not scared. They are, but for a different reason. They are scared because they know Aslan will not look past them. Rather, He will look at them so deeply as to see them as they really are, dirty faces and all. In turn, they will be forced to see themselves through His eyes. Happily, what they see are not merely two good little children but a Son of Adam and a Daughter of Eve.

As such, they receive their birthright in the form of an apple from Narnia’s version of the Garden of Eden. But the apple is not just any apple; it’s a magical apple. And it’s not just magical in the cheap way Uncle Andrew uses magic. Nor is it magical in the selfish way of Jadis. It’s magical according to the nature of Aslan: it is life-giving. Digory feeds it to his mother, and she is miraculously healed. Better still, Digory knows now that an earthly death cannot kill his mother. She, too, is a Daughter of Eve and shall have eternal life.

With this realization, Digory’s worldview is fully transformed into that of a Narnian, which is to say that of a Christian. The hope that he held in his heart of hearts is realized. There is more to the world than what he first knew at the beginning of the book, and there is most certainly more to it than what he knows at the end of the book. He has learned that reality is more than what he can see.

FINAL THOUGHTS

My sons begged me to start The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe the same night we finished The Magician’s Nephew. It was late, so I made them wait. They carried the book down the next morning and got the first chapter out of me before breakfast. They were hungry for more just like Digory.

That’s one of my favorite aspects of The Chronicles of Narnia. They are every bit the page turner that makes a good book, and yet they offer so much more than an exciting plot. They are also full of deep mystery that stirs the soul and makes it yearn for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

(Here is another of my six-year-old son’s sentence diagrams, which I instructed him through during our reading of The Chronicles of Narnia. For more on a classical approach to learning grammar, visit my series here.)

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Narnia #1: Beloved Reading for a New Generation

There is something extra special about reading the classics with my children. When I found my old collection of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis during a much-needed basement purge, I couldn’t resist bringing them up to bedtime. I read a lot of “bigger books” like these with my five- and six-year-old sons, so I knew they would be able to pay attention long enough to understand the story.

But I didn’t know they would become obsessed with it. 

A few pages into The Magician’s Nephew and they were hooked. Bedtime or not, they constantly asked me to read it. And when I wasn’t reading it, they were talking about it nonstop. At one point when they were sharing some Narnia knowledge with their father, he very seriously told them they needed to play more sports and promptly started up a wiffle ball game of baseball. Point taken.

I guess I’d gotten a little obsessed myself. The Chronicles of Narnia are just so magical and teachable. Now that we’ve finished the series and gotten back a more balanced approach to family time, I want to share some of the lessons I took away as a parent reading these books with my children.

Unlike my other book-related blog posts that break down storylines and characters and motifs with the classroom in mind, I have designed this one more like a family journal. I only have one entry for each of the seven novels in the series, plus an additional entry that offers an approach to reading the stories. There is much more to say about each of the books, but I tried to limit myself to the ideas that resonated most with my own children.

This post will serve as the table of contents for the series. Just click on the titles below, and it will lead you to the entries as I post them.

An Exercise in Supposition and Imagination

The Magician’s Nephew

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The Horse and His Boy

Prince Caspian

The Voyage of the “Dawn Treader”

The Silver Chair

The Last Battle

With all the other information out there about The Chronicles of Narnia, I hope what I have to share will be of some added value. If nothing else, I hope it encourages you to dig them out of your basement.

(We also used the stories to practice classifying and diagramming sentences. In the first picture, SN stands for “subject noun,” and V stands for “verb.” For more on a classical approach to learning grammar, visit my series here.)
Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Beowulf #6: Motifs

There are a number of motifs in Beowulf that I cover with my students. In this post, we will look at three of the most prominent. These serve as major discussion topics during and after our reading. They also make for fascinating essays.

TREASURE

The treasure motif is one of my favorites. Full of imagery, symbolism, and historic significance, it is very rich with meaning.

Let’s start with Hrothgar’s treasure. As a great king, he has won considerable treasure to match his status. He does not keep it all to himself, however. Instead, he readily shares it with his men according to their acts of valor. The greatest warrior, aka Beowulf, gets the greatest share. But even the least of the warriors gets a generous share. Gift-giving, then, is as much an act of recompense as a show of favor and loyalty. It is also a sign of Hrothgar’s righteousness as king. If he were not to share it, he would not be worthy of kingship.

The Fire Dragon also has a great treasure. Rather than sharing it, however, he hoards it as an evil temptation. We might be inclined to think, “Why should he share it?” Indeed, sharing sometimes gets overplayed in today’s world, but we need to look at the Fire Dragon in the context of the story and, specifically, in contrast to Hrothgar. The former is as selfish and evil as the latter is generous and good. Thus, the Fire Dragon is utterly unworthy of followers. The only ones who seek his treasure are thieves like himself.

In addition to the literal treasures, there are also many figurative treasures. The most obvious one is Beowulf’s life. As explained in the analysis of Beowulf’s fight with the Fire Dragon, Beowulf’s life is the “price” paid for the Fire Dragon’s treasure. He “shares” it over and over again, from saving the Danes from Grendel and Grendel’s Mother to saving the Greats from the Fire Dragon. All the gold rings and jeweled goblets in the world could not equal the wealth of his life.

GLORY

When we first meet Beowulf, we are struck by his tough talk. He seems to brag about himself nonstop. Sure, he can back up his words with his actions, but does he really need to be so boastful all the time? He is so different from, say, King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table who perform all their virtuous acts with Christian humility.

Beowulf might not have fit in during the High Middle Ages, but he was a man of his time and place. Such “tough talk” was to be expected from a barbarian. In fact, his boasting was no less a tool for garnering respect than his physical fighting. Put differently, a great warrior needed to have a reputation as such and was expected to advance it with words. The further it spread, the stronger he was deemed.

Beowulf backs up his boasts in two ways. First, he is able to defeat the worst monsters one could imagine. If he “brags” about this, he is really just being honest about what he has done. Second, Beowulf is a glorious warrior because his fighting is done out of sacrificial love for neighbors. He is like Christ, glorifying the Father through his works. His works just so happen to be cutting off monsters’ heads.

REST

This is another major motif, especially in the fights with Grendel and Grendel’s Mother. The Danes find themselves sleep-deprived for twelve years because of Grendel’s nightly attacks. If they ever had a chance of defeating Grendel, it would have been long before they accumulated such a large sleep debt. It’s not hard to imagine them walking around in a constant fog, complaining about how tired they are. When Beowulf defeats Grendel and Grendel’s Mother, he changes all that. The Danes are once again able to recharge at night and have the energy needed for the regular trials of the day.

So what does it symbolize?

“The Mound of Beowulf” by Rockwell Kent embodies all three of our motifs.

As my students readily point out, sleep can be a symbol for peace. When Grendel and Grendel’s Mother keep everyone up at night in terror, Heorot’s peace is stolen. When Beowulf gets rid of them and everyone can sleep soundly again, Heorot’s peace is restored. Simple.

I may be inserting something into the epic, but I think there is still more going on. From a Christian standpoint, sleep, or more specifically rest, is also a metaphor for prayer. Spending time with God is the true source of energy for the difficult tasks of the day. For example in Mark 6:31, Jesus says to His disciples, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” He was not just telling them to get a little shut-eye, but to pray, which is the ultimate rest. Likewise, St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You, O Lord.” The only way we can rest in God during our lifetime is by praying to Him, whether that be on our knees at bedtime or when receiving the sacraments.

If we apply that logic to the story, we see that Beowulf is not merely restoring the peace in Heorot but also the prayer-life, which is the path to true peace. He is reuniting the Danes with God the Father.  

Despite all his great deeds, Beowulf remains restless himself until he finds eternal rest in God through the sacrifice of his life. His death, after defeating the Fire Dragon, is the ultimate example of sleep. His tasks are complete. He has served his people. Now he will be at peace with God in a never-ending prayer.

CONCLUSION

Long after my students forget the details and even the storyline of Beowulf, they will still remember these motifs. They may not be able to place them exactly. Their ideas about them may have changed somewhat. But the seeds will have been planted for further analysis of similar motifs in other stories…and for personal reflection.

What treasures do I have to share? How should I talk about my worth and accomplishments? What monsters do I have to battle? When do I need prayer the most?

These questions will recur throughout their lives, just as they do for everyone. Hopefully, our Catholic classical study of Beowulf will help guide them to the answers.

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Beowulf #5: Fighting the Fire Dragon

The story of Beowulf’s fights with Grendel and Grendel’s Mother would make a complete epic on their own. Having saved the Danes from Grendel and Grendel’s Mother, our hero’s work seems complete. Nevertheless, his life’s purpose is not accomplished until he fights the Fire Dragon.

Let’s take a look at that fight and then consider some of the bigger lessons at play.

PLOT SUMMARY
Exposition – The Background

Many years have passed since Beowulf defeated Grendel and Grendel’s Mother. After the death of his father, he becomes King of Sweden and rules for fifty peaceful years. 

Inciting Incident – The Problem

All of that changes when one of his people breaks into the chamber of a sleeping dragon, aka the Fire Dragon, and steals a goblet from his vast treasures. The Fire Dragon awakens, prowls over the land, scorching the earth with his fiery breath, and seeks revenge.

Rising Action – The Buildup

Beowulf cannot let the Fire Dragon decimate his kingdom. Though he is an old man, he suits himself for battle all the while recalling the glory of his youth. His memory is like a mirror into the past and the future. He knows he is not as strong as he once was, but he also knows he must fight, come what may. He has a duty to protect his people. 

And so he sets forth with his army. As he nears the Fire Dragon, Beowulf tells them all to stand back. This fight is his alone. Soon, however, he is nearly consumed by the flames. Too scared to step in and help, all but a warrior named Wiglaf, a kinsman of the king, abandon Beowulf in his hour of need.

Wiglaf cries out for them to return, yet his cries are met with silence. The Fire Dragon smolders on, and Wiglaf turns his attention to Beowulf, encouraging him to get back up and fight.

Climax – The Breaking Point

He does, just in time, too. The dragon breathes hot fire at Wiglaf, but Beowulf houses him under his iron shield. Rousing his strength, Beowulf strikes the Fire Dragon. His sword shivers to pieces from the force of his efforts. It turns out Beowulf is still the warrior of his youth.

But reeling in rage, the Fire Dragon rushes upon a defenseless Beowulf and sinks his teeth into his neck. Wiglaf, full of love for his king, drives his sword into the Fire Dragon. Beowulf does the same with a knife he had tucked away, and the Fire Dragon falls down dead.

Falling Action – The Unraveling

Sadly, Beowulf has been mortally wounded. He makes Wiglaf his heir and commands him to bring the Fire Dragon’s treasure—one last trophy—so he can look at it before he dies. Upon seeing it Beowulf thanks God for granting it to his people.

And so saying, Beowulf dies a hero.

Resolution – Long Live Beowulf!

Wiglaf laments Beowulf’s death and cries out in anguish, again rebuking the Geats for abandoning their king. He buries Beowulf with great ceremony in a mound on top of the Fire Dragon’s treasure, denying it to the other warriors because of their disloyalty. It turns out Beowulf’s life is the real treasure, so that is what they get. Or rather, that is what they squandered.

Though Beowulf has died, as all men must, his fame will live on through the minstrel’s song. Mightiest of warriors and most virtuous of Christians, his glory has at last become eternal.    

PLOT ANALYSIS

This final fight in Beowulf feels worlds away from the earlier two, not least because the storylines are separated by more than fifty years and take place in different kingdoms across the sea from one another. That alone is enough to make Beowulf’s fight against the Fire Dragon feel oddly disjointed from the rest of the epic. What’s more, its tone feels as foreboding and bitter as the others’ feel exciting and uplifting.

In a sentence, Beowulf dies.

After I read his death scene with my students, I always pause to scan their faces. Whether they are wide-eyed with disbelief, downcast in disappointment, or busy re-reading to make sure they understood what really happened, they all seem to ask, “Why? Why did he have to die?”

I find myself asking the same question. It seems unfair that the mighty Beowulf dies for his people, especially after they abandon him. Their selfishness and disloyalty are so obviously wrong. They have not just broken some ancient Germanic code of loyalty, they have betrayed the code of righteousness imprinted on the human heart. In doing so, they have betrayed their human nature.

Remind you of anyone, or should I say any monster?

Therein lies the choice for Beowulf’s warriors. They can follow the path of Beowulf and glorify not only humanity but its Creator, or they can follow the path of Grendel, a descendent of Cain, who so distorted human nature that he became one of the world’s most infamous monsters.

Now I’m not saying the warriors are going to suddenly grow hairy arms and start eating people, but they have taken a dangerous first step in that direction. Luckily, they have Wiglaf to call them back and help them repent just as the apostles repented after abandoning Jesus during His passion and death.

But wait! Isn’t this part of the story about the Fire Dragon, not Grendel?

Let’s go back and review the Fire Dragon’s character description. We said he represents an even older evil dating back to the fall of the angels. He is a trickster, not merely taking pardonable vengeance on a thief but actually tempting the man to become a thief in the first place. The Fire Dragon wants an excuse to scorch the earth. He wants an excuse to kill Beowulf. And he wants an excuse to scatter Beowulf’s men and make more Grendels out of them. All the while, he also wants to trick people into thinking he was just fighting back.

No, he started the fight, but Beowulf finishes it. The rest is up to his men—and us.

Image from Siegfried, the Hero of the North, and Beowulf, the Hero of the Anglo-Saxons (1900)

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Beowulf #4: Fighting Grendel’s Mother

Beowulf’s fight with Grendel’s Mother picks up right where his fight with Grendel left off. Read on to see how Beowulf continues to prove himself a hero among barbarians and Christians.

PLOT SUMMARY
Exposition – The Background

Having celebrated Beowulf’s defeat of Grendel, Hrothgar ushers him off to a splendid bedroom for a much deserved night’s sleep.

Inciting Incident – The Problem

Little do they know, however, their troubles are not really over. Another monster, Grendel’s Mother, breaks into Heorot, snatches up one of the men named Aeschere, and carries him off.

Rising Action – The Build-up

When Beowulf learns of this the next morning, he immediately organizes an expedition to seek out Grendel’s Mother. No longer the fearful men they were during Grendel’s feasting days, the Danes join the Geats. Together they track Grendel’s Mother all the way to an eerie lake where they find Aeschere’s head staked on a post.

Though the surrounding terrain is frosted with ice, the lake itself is ablaze with fire and full of evil monsters. Hrothgar marks one with his bow and shoots it dead, proving that he has regained his battle prowess and still worthy to be king in his own right.

Climax – The Breaking Point

But this fight, like the last one, is really for Beowulf. He alone is brave enough to dive into the strange waters and continue the hunt for Grendel’s Mother. As he plunges deeper and deeper, he suddenly feels himself held fast by a tremendous creature with a hairy chest. It is none other than Grendel’s Mother.

She pulls him into her lair, which consists of a dry area at the greatest depth of the lake. She seems to have the advantage, being on her home turf and so full of an evil desire for revenge. But then Beowulf spots an ancient sword forged by giants with magic from the Sun and manages to kill her with it.

Falling Action – The Unraveling

As he looks around the lair, his eyes chance upon Grendel’s body. (The monster had gone home to the lair to die after his arm was ripped off). Desiring another trophy, Beowulf chops off Grendel’s head, which gushes blood all the way up to the surface.

Hrothgar sees it, assumes Beowulf was killed, and departs for Heorot. Still hopeful, the Geats remain longer and see Beowulf emerge victorious with Grendel’s grisly head.

Resolution – Problem Solved

The Danes host another feast for the Geats, showering upon them even more treasures. The monsters are dead; peace and honor have been restored once and for all. Hrothgar and Beowulf bid one another a sad farewell, now sharing a bond of loyalty and love akin to a father and a son. 

PLOT ANALYSIS

Structurally, Beowulf’s fight with Grendel’s Mother mirrors his fight with Grendel. Just swap out one monster for another, one battleground for another, and you have pretty much the same story. So why have Beowulf do everything all over again? Is it just a cheap way to stretch out the storyline and have more thrills?

Not exactly. As my students realize during our class discussions, the second fight is all about character growth. Let’s start with Hrothgar. After Grendel’s defeat, he had regained his legitimate status as king and was once again able to provide for his people in the great hall of Heorot. But it is not until the fight with Grendel’s Mother that Hrothgar proves himself strong in battle, worthy of respect and even fear. His transformation is now complete. We know that he will live out his days as a fit king of the Danes.

Let’s turn to Beowulf now. As always, he’s really the character to focus on.

Fighting Grendel is nothing to sneeze at, but it pales in comparison to fighting Grendel’s Mother at the bottom of her eerie lake. That’s because the lake symbolizes Hell, the source of all the problems in Denmark. Beowulf dives into its very depth, kills Grendel’s Mother at great peril to his own life, and thereby cleanses the lake of all its monsters. There is nothing left to terrorize Heorot, so the Danes can sleep easy once and for all.

Figuratively, Beowulf’s role as a messianic character comes full circle when he faces Grendel’s Mother. Having previously left his father in Sweden to serve a foreign people, we now see him offer his life to save them from not one monster but all of them. When the story closes, Beowulf gets to return to his father, knowing his mission is fully accomplished. Better still, he did it all out of kindness, taking only the glory of his great deeds as a prize. Beowulf truly is a Christian-barbarian hero.  

Illustration from Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race (1910)

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Beowulf #3: Fighting Grendel

From the character sketches in the last post, we already know Beowulf fights three monsters: Grendel, Grendel’s Mother, and the Fire Dragon. Though each fight is part of a larger narrative, they have three distinct plots, defined as a series of causally-related events that revolve around a central problem, rise to a climax, and ultimately come to a resolution.

Here is the first plot, which revolves around Beowulf’s fight with Grendel.

PLOT SUMMARY
Exposition – The Background

At the outset of the story, we learn of a powerful barbarian king of Denmark named Hrothgar who has built a large hall called Heorot. Symbolic of his strength as well as his generosity, his people gather and feast there nightly, enjoying the security of armed peace.    

Inciting Incident – The Problem

The inciting incident is the problem that sets the plot in motion. Put differently, it is an event of such great proportions that it fundamentally alters the world of the story and must be played out to its fullest extent. 

That’s where Grendel comes in. One night, seemingly out of nowhere, a horrific monster named Grendel breaks up one of the feasts in Heorot and eats a bunch of Hrothgar’s men.

Rising Action – The Build-up

Grendel makes feasting on the Danes his nightly ritual. Unable to defeat such a powerful foe, Heorot is cast low, and Hrothgar finds himself king of a wasted kingdom. Though the Danes had been a brave clan, they are shamed with fear (not to mention sleep deprived) for twelve years. Even Hrothgar turns into a shadow of his former self.  

Their ill fortune finally reaches Sweden. Prince Beowulf, known far and wide as a great warrior, decides to come to their aid.

He sails to Denmark and finds Hrothgar eager to receive him. Only Unferth, a jealous Dane, resents Beowulf’s offer. He contends that Beowulf isn’t really that great, calling him both a coward and a liar. Beowulf tells a story that proves otherwise and gains Hrothgar’s blessing to fight Grendel.

The Geats and the Danes enjoy a feast in Heorot, fully knowing that Grendel will eventually show up. In anticipation, the Danes gradually slip away to their hiding places, but not before giving Beowulf and his men soft blankets and pillows. The irony of their hospitality is never lost on my students!

Climax – The Breaking Point

Scared as they are, all the Geats nonetheless fall asleep—except for Beowulf. Grendel arrives, rips off the door, snatches up a man, and eats him. He reaches for his next victim and chances upon Beowulf.

Vigilant as ever, Beowulf meets Grendel’s grip with his own. The two get locked in a type of arm-wrestling match that ends up with Beowulf ripping off Grendel’s arm, mortally wounding him. Though Grendel manages to flee, he does not live. Meanwhile, Beowulf “wildly waves in the air his blood-soaked trophy,” aka Grendel’s arm.

Falling Action – The Unraveling

Naturally, everyone decides it’s a good idea to nail Grendel’s arm to the wall and have a party like in the days of old.

Resolution – Problem Solved

At long last, Hrothgar’s honor is restored, and his men can sleep easy again. Beowulf has saved the day. In thanks, Hrothgar bestows treasures on Beowulf and his men.

PLOT ANALYSIS

When I study Beowulf’s fight with Grendel with my students, we always come up with a number of different “problems” that could serve as the inciting incident and soon realize they are all related. The most obvious, at least most literal, problem is Grendel eating the Danes. We can go a little deeper, though, and also define the problem in figurative terms with a focus on Hrothgar.

All of Hrothgar’s power, the very essence of his manhood, has been stolen. To put it bluntly, Hrothgar has turned into a weakling, unfit to rule over his people. Lucky for him, no one else is willing to kill Grendel, so none can overthrow him. We are left to wonder if Hrothgar’s rule had somehow invited Grendel in, perhaps by letting his guard down or falling into a sinful pride. Either way, Hrothgar needs to be redeemed so his kingdom can thrive.

As we know, Beowulf does that for him. Sure, Beowulf likes the sport of fighting Grendel and the glory that comes with it, but that is not his real motive. He is fundamentally looking out for Hrothgar and his kingdom by saving their lives and their honor.

Here we see the kind of Christian-barbarian blending that makes Beowulf so important historically. Whoever immortalized this epic for us had great respect for the mindset of the Germanic and Scandinavian people it represents. He knew honor was most understood and respected on the battlefield, but he also knew that Christians needed to serve a higher purpose. For them, honor was gained through service and sacrifice. Hence, Beowulf was a hero among barbarians and Christians.

Illustration from Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race (1910)

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Beowulf #2: Characters

In order to understand any story, you have to spend time getting to know its characters. From their personal background and physical characteristics to their words and actions, every detail has meaning.

Beowulf is no different. Though the characters may at first seem like a motley cast of barbarians and monsters, each is highly complex, rich in symbolism, and teaches much about the mindset of the early Scandinavian and Germanic peoples they reflect.

Beowulf – “Mightiest yet Mildest of Men”

Let’s begin with our title hero. Most people have heard of Beowulf even if they skipped British Literature 101, not least because he’s fought his way across the big screen so many times. Stylized as a valiant barbarian from the lands of the Geats (aka Sweden), he is somewhat of a contradiction.

Ian Serraillier, my favorite Beowulf author, calls him the “mightiest yet mildest of men.” His “might” comes from his great strength and superior battle skills. Such would have been a prerequisite for a barbarian leader. (If you can’t win an arm-wrestling match against the whole clan, not to mention a giant, flesh-eating monster, take a hike!)

But Beowulf’s character is not just about flexing his muscles; he’s also “mild.” Serrailier uses this word to describe the barbarian hero’s spirituality, which blends the traditions of Germanic paganism with Christianity. Beowulf is both true to the Germanic code of loyalty, called comitatus, and the ideals of Christian virtue. He ultimately gives his life for his people in a very Christ-like way, but he does so at the point of a sword, fighting like a warrior should. We can think of him as a Christianized barbarian who still knows how to win a fight.  

Hrothgar – “Giver of Treasure”

King of the Danes, Hrothgar is also a Christian barbarian warrior. He is so glorious in battle and cares so much for his people that he gives them an abundance of gifts and builds them a great hall, called Heorot. He provides them with all the comforts of armed peace he can—that is until Grendel shows up and starts eating his men. Even Hrothgar, who had been so fearless in the past, finds himself unable to face Grendel. Instead, he slinks away in defeat every night before the monster’s feasting hour.

Poor Hrothgar! His hair turns gray, and his eyes lose their luster during the twelve years of Grendel’s attacks. It is only after Beowulf arrives at Heorot that Hrothgar gets his step back. Hrothgar is a good king to his people, always trying to give them his best. It’s just that his best is no match for Grendel and certainly nothing compared to what Beowulf has to offer.

Unferth – “A Grovelling Jealous Man”

In the character of Unferth, we learn that not all barbarians are good. He is Beowulf’s foil, or opposite, being as weak and selfish as Beowulf is strong and selfless. Nonetheless, he has an inflated opinion of himself and challenges Beowulf—but only in words! At the conclusion of his “fight” with Beowulf, Hrothgar dismisses him as a wimp. Actually in Serraillier’s version, he calls him “an envious, wayward man, unworthy of note,” which is much worse.

If not for the role he plays in attacking Beowulf’s reputation, he would have no part in the story. Still, his character is a good reminder of how important fame was to the barbarian people he represents. Beowulf is famous; Unferth is not. It is that which makes him most jealous. He does not seem to really care about being tougher than Beowulf. If he did, he would have faced Grendel. What he desires is unearned glory.

Grendel – “The Grim Monster”

At last we come to Grendel. To simply call him a monster is to misunderstand him. He is a descendant of Cain, as in the Cain who slew his brother Abel from the Bible. As punishment, God marked Cain with a sign of his sin and cast him out of his “clan.” Like Cain, Grendel is marked with sin. His “arms of hairy gorilla” and “red ferocious eyes” and “ravening jaws,” among other things, are signs of his evilness.  

No longer looking like a man, his oldest ancestor, Cain, was nonetheless created as one. That means their family line has gone against its human nature. It is that which makes him different from say, a lion, who might also attack and eat people. A lion would not be sinning to eat a person, but Grendel is. What’s more, he loves eating humans, and it’s not just because they taste good! He eats them out of vengeance. Like the sin he represents, he has an insatiable appetite. Put differently, he is beyond redemption and must be killed.

Grendel’s Mother – “The Tyrant Queen”

It turns out even Grendel has a mother who loves him—in her own distorted way, of course. Flesh and blood bind them together, so we can pretty much picture a female version of her son, complete with his massive, hairy size and strength. She, too, hates mankind, but her vendetta is more personal. By the time we meet her in the story, she wants payback for her son’s death, and she really wants to kill Beowulf.

When put in the context of motherhood, Grendel’s Mother is somewhat sympathetic, but that doesn’t change the fact that she is evil. She and Grendel lived together in an eerie lake, symbolic of Hell, over which she reigns supreme. Though her son may have been the one who killed so many humans at Heorot, she most certainly was an accomplice if not the instigator.

The Fire Dragon – “Twilight Foe”

Last but certainly not least of the monsters comes a fearsome, fire-breathing dragon that lives in Beowulf’s own kingdom of Sweden. If the idea of Grendel and Grendel’s mother harkens back to the fall of mankind, the Fire Dragon takes us back even farther to the fall of the angels. With his long coiled body, he looks like a serpent but with wings and legs, drawing an obvious connection to the devil.

And the similarities don’t stop there. His is the kind of evil that sleeps in the shadows, always hoping for a chance to trap an unsuspecting human into doing something foolish, aka sinning. He lures them with an ancient treasure tucked beneath a burial ground, reminding us that he is an instrument of death. The treasure proves too great a temptation for one of the Geats. He breaks in, wakens the sleeping dragon, and thus ignites a fiery rampage. Though Beowulf kills the Fire Dragon, he needs help doing so and dies in the end. This final monster is the strongest and most evil of all.

Wiglaf – “Close Kinsman of the King”

Enter Wiglaf. He alone stands by Beowulf to fight and defeat the Fire Dragon. They share many of the same qualities, perhaps partially because they are related. He, too, is a powerful warrior, though presumably not equals in their prime. More importantly, Wiglaf knows the value of loyalty and was prepared to give his life for Beowulf just as Beowulf was prepared to give his life for his people.

It is Wiglaf who shames the other warriors for abandoning Beowulf. It is he who obeys Beowulf’s dying wishes and builds his burial mound on the Fire Dragon’s treasure, refusing to take any of the spoils even for himself. Fittingly, he becomes the next king of Sweden.

Conclusion

That’s about all we can say about the characters without getting into the whole story. Although you can piece it together here, you will want to look at each of the subsequent plot analyses to get a fuller picture.

Please note the taglines for each character and quotations are derived from Beowulf the Warrior retold by Ian Serraillier.

Image Credit: Rockwell Kent, Beowulf, 1931, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

Beowulf #1: Introduction

Beowulf is hard, Shakespeare hard. Both take a lot of time and attention to understand what is really being said. But when it comes to Shakespeare, that effort is rewarded with something akin to gold. With Beowulf, however, it feels a little more like unearthing a fossil. You know you found something valuable, even priceless, but it’s hard to know exactly what.

As the oldest surviving epic poem in the English language, Old English really, and with an oral tradition dating back to the fifth or sixth century, it feels worlds away from today. In fact, we knew nothing of this story until 1731 when it was found amidst the wreckage of a fire. Tucked away on some back shelf of Ashburnham House in London, who knows how long it would have remained hidden if not for that fire.

Beowulf Mask by Student

Since then, scholars have translated and transliterated Beowulf dozens of times. For an eager student, going through the stylistic differences and tonal shifts of each would be fascinating, if not fun. But for many, just reading one of these translations would feel tiresome.

Now, I’m not judging one way or the other. I like this stuff. As a seventh grade teacher, I also like giving my students a work that will immediately pull them in. That’s why I was so excited when I found Ian Serraillier’s version, Beowulf the Warrior. It’s a faithful text, written as much for a child as an adult, complete with blank verse, and full of literary elements. To return to our previous fossil analogy, it reads more like the dragon than the dragon’s bones.

Better still, it sounds like the dragon!

True to the oral tradition from which it came, Serraillier’s retelling makes a hauntingly beautiful read-aloud. Its primordial pulse paints my students’ faces with fascination and suspense when we read something like:

“Tricked of his treasure, angrily he prowled

Over the headland, sniffing the ground, devouring

The track of his enemy—but none could he find. At nightfall,

When the daystar was darkened, the candle of the world snuffed out,

Revengeful, riotous with rage, he went forth in flame,

Breathing out ruin, snorting hurricane.”

And just like that, the whole class begins to wonder if dragons really did exist!

Beowulf is more than fantasy, however. It is also a window into the past, showcasing what people of the early Middle Ages valued, believed, and loved. This includes not only the Scandinavian and Germanic peoples of Europe who were the focus of the tale, but also the Anglo-Saxons who eventually claimed the story as part of their cultural heritage.

Whatever your interest in Beowulf—anthropological, literary, or just plain old fun—this blog series has something for you. You’ll meet our title character, his three beastly foes, and a few other important figures. We’ll also analyze the plot and a number of significant motifs. Here is the line-up:

I. Characters

II. The Fight with Grendel

III. The Fight with Grendel’s Mother

IV. The Fight with the Fire Dragon

V. Motifs

Whether you read Serraillier’s retelling or one of the originals, I hope this series helps transport you to the world of Beowulf and unlock its mysterious beauty.

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

The Language of Grammar: Simple Sentences

To close out this blog series, we are going to focus on the various sentence types. Different from sentence patterns that reflect core parts (e.g., SN + V), sentence types reflect the organization of thoughts in sentences.

As every writer knows, it can be hard to organize one’s ideas into a sentence that makes sense. Grammatically, we call this a complete thought or a simple sentence, meaning it has a clear subject, or who or what the subject is about, and a clear predicate, or what is being said about the subject.

Let’s put this in context with a few examples of simple sentences.

SAMPLE LESSON

Alas, it’s time to say goodbye to Queen Elizabeth and move onto another area of the Renaissance. For this lesson, we’ll consider some of the greatest artists of the time period.

This sentence is a complete thought. It has a subject (Leonardo) and a predicate (liked painting). When we put them together, they make sense. If we separate them, they no longer make sense because they turn into incomplete thoughts or fragments.

Happily, most seventh graders have mastered this concept long before they get to my classroom. Nevertheless, I still walk through this organizational structure because it serves as the foundation for all the other sentence types.

A variation of the simple sentence is a simple sentence with a compound subject (SCS).

This time, our complete thought consists of two subject nouns and one verb. If we wanted, we could combine many more subject nouns.

Another form of the simple sentence is a simple sentence with a compound verb (SCV).

Instead of combining multiple subject nouns, we have combined multiple verbs. Following the same logic above, it’s still just one complete thought. We could add even more verbs, and that would still be true.

Diagrams provide a helpful way to visualize how simple sentences consist of only one complete thought.

Recall from any of our previous lessons that diagrams are formed by crossing a long horizontal line with a short vertical line. That vertical line separates the complete subject from the complete predicate. If you have only one of those vertical lines, then you have only one complete thought no matter how many compound subjects and compound verbs there may be.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

Now it’s time to practice what we’ve learned. Here are several simple sentences about Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).

To review pattern two sentences, click here.
This one is another pattern two sentence.
Here is another pattern two sentence, this time with a compound verb-transitive.
Here is another pattern two sentence.
Here is another pattern two sentence.
To review pattern seven, click here.
Here’s one last pattern four sentence.
Note that “Renaissance” could just as logically be placed in the same space as “Man” since it’s a title. Here, I diagrammed it as an adjective.

It’s no wonder his legacy extends far beyond the Renaissance. The diversity of his interests and the steadfast commitment to excellence he applied therein reminds us that we are all endowed with multiple talents waiting to be developed. His achievements, impressive as they are, were not the product of superhuman abilities.

Rather, they came from constant and deliberate practice, which is infinitely more commendable than raw talent. I view Leonardo as a model of the boundless potential of humanity and a wonderful example for my students.

Posted on by Stephanie McGann

The Language of Grammar: Gerunds

The last of the three verbals, gerunds usually end up being a snap for my students. Like infinitives and participles, they are also made from verbs. These ones, however, always end in –ing and perform noun jobs in sentences.  

Let’s put this in context with a few examples. Be sure to download the grammar memorization questions as a cross-reference. And don’t hesitate to jump through the other lessons for review. They are all linked in the introduction to this series through the table of contents.

SAMPLE LESSON

Here are a few examples of the various noun jobs gerunds can use in sentences.

Hopefully, you immediately recognized this sentence as a pattern five (SN LV PrN). Just in case, let’s review the script we would follow if we were classifying the sentence.

What was sinking ships?—pastime (SN)

What is being said about pastime?—pastime was (LV)

Was what?—sinking ships

Does sinking ships mean the same thing as pastime?—yes (PrN)

Since we have a predicate noun phrase that begins with a noun made from a verb that ends in –ing, we can label the whole phrase gerund predicate noun—(GPrN)

Our next sentence is simply the reverse of our first one.

Now, “sinking ships” is the gerund subject noun phrase, and “pastime” is the predicate noun.

Gerunds can also be used for objects of the preposition, first introduced in this lesson.

The prepositional phrase is “for sinking ships.”

Here is the script for that phrase.

For?—preposition (P)

For what?—sinking ships (OP)

Once again, we would go back and add gerund (G) in front of object of the preposition (OP) because “sinking ships” begins with a noun made from a verb that ends in –ing. So the full label would be GOP.

Gerunds can also be used as direct objects.

The script for a pattern two sentence (SN V-t DO) should also be familiar.

Who liked sinking ships?—Elizabeth (SN)

What is being said about Elizabeth?—Elizabeth liked (V-t)

Liked what?—sinking ships (DO)

Since we have a direct object phrase, “sinking ships,” that begins with a noun made from a verb that ends in –ing, we can label the whole phrase gerund direct object–(GDO)

Another common use for gerunds is as object complement nouns found in pattern six sentence (SN V-t DO OCN).

The script for the core parts looks like this.

Who considered Elizabeth’s hobby unfair fighting?—Spain (SN)

What is being said about Spain?—Spain considered (V-t)

Considered what?—hobby (DO)

Considered hobby what?—fighting 

Does fighting mean the same thing as hobby?—yes (OCN)

Since we have an object complement noun phrase, “unfair fighting,” that begins with a noun made from a verb that ends in –ing, we can label the whole phrase gerund object complement noun–(GOCN)

Now for the diagrams.

As you can see, the gerund is placed on a series of lines that looks like a stairwell. I like to think of the gerund as “running” up and down the steps with one floor being for nouns and the other for verbs. Since gerunds are neither, they are kind of stuck in between.

Lastly, the pedestal is somewhat optional. I tend to use it when the gerund has modifiers since it spreads out the words and affords plenty of space. Otherwise, the diagram can look squished and messy.

PRACTICE SENTENCES

Ever since Queen Elizabeth turned down King Philip II of Spain’s marriage proposal, their relationship soured along with that of their respective states. Spain, the more dominant power, sought to advance itself ever further at the expense of England.

Elizabeth, knowing her country’s disadvantage but unwilling to cower, came up with a clever plan to wage secret naval warfare on Spain. She enlisted the help of William Drake, a “sea dog” or pirate of sorts, to attack and sink Spain’s ships in nearby English waters. The strained relationship between the two countries eventually came to a head, with Spain attempting to invade England in 1588.

We’ll use the story of that invasion for our practice sentences on gerunds. As always, we’ll mix in a variety of sentence patterns and other verbals.

Indeed, it cemented England as the rising power in Europe. Her preemptive strikes on Spain and her resolve to stand with her men at Tilbury were critical to the victory, which ultimately changed the course of Europe’s balance of power.

England had arrived, so to speak, and it was led by a woman. Like her or not, Elizabeth was a champion for her country and dramatically changed the world.