Download Beowulf Study Guide
Topics for Further Study
(Epics for Students)
- Research the rinds of the Sutton Hoo Burial excavated in 1939 and compare the burial and the treasures found to the burials and treasures in Beowulf.
- Investigate the recent research done on the development of kingship in the seventh and eighth centuries and compare the findings to the presentation of kingship in Beowulf.
- Read J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, particularly the chapters dealing with the Riders of Rohan. How is Beowulf reflected in the work?
- Investigate the new Beowulf manuscript project and report on the scientific tests which are used to investigate manuscripts, including infra-red photography and chemical analysis.
- Beowulf is a poem almost exclusively concerned with the upper end of society. Investigate the economic basis of migration-age tribes or early medieval kingdoms.
- The society which created Beowulf accepted the importance of the desire to be remembered. Investigate how modern psychology views this need.
- Metal-working was an important Anglo-Saxon craft. Although they could not achieve the high temperatures used in steel-making until the later middle ages, they had developed techniques to make small quantities of usable steel. Investigate these techniques and the physical properties of iron which make them possible.