World Masterpieces 271

Beowulf

DUE: Midnight Sunday, February 11, 2007

VALUE: 10 points possible

DIRECTIONS: After reading Beowulf, please answer the following questions, each in a healthy, well-written paragraph:

1. Do you find the hero Beowulf more or less attractive than Homer’s Achilles or Odysseus?

Please defend your preference by referring to specific acts, speeches, and events in the poems.

2. The poem has been described as a portrait of the ideal ruler, “a mirror for princes of the age.”

In other words, what characteristics of rule would a prospective ruler be able to derive from the poem? What advice does the poem give?

EPlease send this completed assignment to me by pasting it into the text box of an e-mail no later than midnight Sunday, February 11.

Please put Lit 271 Beowulf in the subject line.