Anglo-Saxon's and Beowulf

This week we are going to start learning about the Anglo-Saxon era, and begin reading Beowulf. You can all thank J.R.R Tolkien for pushing through the importance of Beowulf in our literary history. One of the oldest known British stories that has survived history, it is believed that it may have been created between 650-800 AD. The oldest known manuscript is from 1000 AD, and the story still holds up strong today. There have been many movie adaptations of the book. Neil Gamain wrote the script for the movie that came out in 2007. He took the story, used actual passages from the text, and added his own twists. His twist being that the monsters in the story were a great example of the sins of the father are visited on the son. There was also a great adaptation in 2005 with Gerard Butler called Beowulf and Grendel. This version held more toward a semi-authentic view of the era it was written in. I can't wait to see what you all think of this poem as we read and discuss it in class.