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radiantfractureWell, your comments and suggestions for Gawain/Beowulf crossover salad fanfic were amazing. Here's Week 2 -- do with it what you will.
Because of the highly condensed structure, I chose to rely heavily on in-class writing and to have the first such assignment at the end of Week 2 (this would be the equivalent of the end of Week 4 in an ordinary semester). This felt early, but the students did well with the task.
Readings
• The Hobbit, Chapters 3-6
• Beowulf, Part 2
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part 2
• Louis Bird, "Wihtigo, or the Consequences of Not Listening"
• Excerpts from The Exeter Riddles
• Richard Van Camp, "Devotion"
Assignments
• In-class Close Reading Assignment (10%)
Journal Entry
Freewrite about something that recently happened to you that was funny or surprising or both. Then write two versions of this story or event, each about a paragraph long.
Version 1: Describe the event as neutrally as possible, without interpretation or commentary. (You can describe the emotion you felt, but try to do so objectively.)
Version 2: Tell the same event as though it were a story with a point, and comment on how the reader should understand or interpret the events.
(This was to get them thinking about narrators, narrative voice, reliability, purposeful storytelling, etc., from the inside.)
Day 1
Theme 3: Heroism (Especially Grandmothers)
This week, we listened to an excerpt from Louis Bird (Omushkego / Swampy Cree) telling his story, "Wihtigo, or the Consequences of Not Listening," and then read a transcript of the story. The Wihtigo, as you may guess, is a Windigo / Wendigo figure.
Bird's story worked magic here. The central problem is parallel to Beowulf – a menacing human/inhuman force threatens death from the borders of an isolated community.
The resolution is entirely different. Instead of a big strong warrior who will tear the enemy to pieces according to the rules of combat, Bird gives us a grandmother, with no special powers, who saves the day through wisdom she's inherited from her foremothers. She’s not fearless – she's terrified, but she has learned to control her fear and act rationally.
Wisdom rather than strength; age rather than youth; self-control rather than fearlessness; love of family rather than love of glory – some beautiful contrasts of values to discuss.
The students had some lovely observations about the grandmother's heroism. They noted that she set fire to her own workbasket to chase out the Wihtigo, a basket she would probably have made herself, and thus a sacrifice of something very personal to her life.
[ETA: In my next post, I'll include the audio link to Bird telling the story.]
"Riddles in the Dark"
The key Hobbit passage of this day was "Riddles in the Dark", of course.
Staging the Scene
First, they got into groups; each group got a section of the key scene and performed it out loud, dividing up the roles. This worked, except that it went on too long.
Most importantly, they could hear out loud the three voices: Bilbo, Gollum, narrator.
• Lecture/discussion: narrators / narration - distinction from author, characters
• Free indirect discourse!
• Authorial asides in Gawain, Beowulf, The Hobbit and "Wihtigo"
• Storytellers and storytelling techniques
Riddles Not in the Dark
I thought a way to make literary analysis seem less daunting (and pointless) might be to make an analogy to solving a riddle. The skills you need for solving a riddle are surprisingly close to those you need for doing a close reading: noticing details, double meanings, devices.
I gave them a selection from The Exeter Riddles -- I don't know if Tolkien was thinking of these in particular, but they fit with the general medievalism.
I told them that scholars weren't necessarily sure of all of the answers, so that they might actually be breaking new literary ground by solving the riddles.
First, we solved one together by pulling out key words:
(Dreamfolk! How would you answer this? Feel free to respond in the comments.)
Then they got into groups and solved several more. Two different riddles were both answered by "sun", so we could compare the two descriptions of the sun.
I encouraged them to write riddles of their own, but I didn't really give that enough time, and we'd already spent quite a lot of time on the side quest.
Back into the Dark
Then we looked directly at Tolkien's riddles., sneakily treating them as poetry.
That sort of thing -- again, not just hunting up devices but looking at how they serve a larger purpose.
• Some more on literary devices
• Esp. in Gawain (bob and wheel etc)
• Ex. discussion of possible effects of bob and wheel structure for reader
What makes a story a story?
I was interested in getting away at least a little bit from the western story-as-conflict model, so we had some discussion of whether conflict has to define a story, or whether we could think of a story as asking a question or posing a challenge (to the reader) instead.
I'd like to develop this further and get the students to generate other possible lenses.
This led into this sort of business:
• A bit on chivalry and courtly love
• What is Gawain’s test? What is valued in the story? (*Previous Dreamwidth discussion proved invaluable here)
Chronologically this is where the discussion of "Wihitigo" mentioned above actually happened.
Freewrite
Which form of heroism do you find most admirable?
• That is, which system of values is most appealing to you?
• Which would be most useful in your own life?
• What values do you find heroic that are not included in these particular stories? (Ex. endurance; generosity)
Obviously I was heavily leaning on the grandmother with this line of questioning, but I got all sorts of answers, so hurray -- they escaped my hegemony.
Day 2
Day 2 was broken up into two parts: one hour of class, and two hours of writing.
Devotion -- the White Caribou
I found "Devotion" by Richard Van Camp (Dogrib) in the new teaching anthology Read, Listen, Tell. Told via a letter from a bereft partner, it describes a modern-day hunter's encounter with the White Caribou people, who hold him prisoner and insist that he keep talking to them in order to "prove he is human."
I believe that "Devotion" works on several levels – treating animal societies as cultures rather than species, which is common to a number of Indigenous storytelling traditions; asking how we prove we are human; asking who gets to decide who is a person – and quietly, I think, by implication, thinking about government enforcement of identity, about police and military and religious and residential school attacks on Indigenous personhood and culture.
There's also a comparison to be made between the White Caribou people in "Devotion" and Beorn in The Hobbit, especially in considering the beast/being distinction as applied to animals and animal societies.
Who is the host and who is the stranger? Do the White Caribou disrupt the hunters, or do the hunters threaten the caribou?
I lectured too much on this story, rather than opening it up to discussion. This doesn't really serve the story or the students – "Devotion" is written in a mode that I think is meant to be shared and discussed rather than explained.
This was nerves. I was worried about the students misunderstanding the story or missing the point or carrying in colonial assumptions, so I over-controlled the discourse to try to prevent that, but then they never really got the chance to enter the story themselves and walk around inside it. I'd treat it more confidently next time.
The Close Reading Assignment
Finally, just before heading in to do the writing, we reviewed what I was looking for. They were to write a short close reading of a passage, chosen from four options. I gave them a structure to work with: summarize the passage, give the context, choose specific details to close read, and link back to larger themes/ideas/story arcs.
Even given the limited time, I think the students came up with some great stuff.
If you’re interested, here are the passages – feel free to apply your own close reading chops. The students mostly chose the excerpt from The Hobbit, although Gawain was also popular, Beowulf got a look-in, and one student did choose "Devotion."
The Excerpts
Option One: Gawain
"Furthermore," said the master, "Let's make a pact.
Here's a wager: what I win in the woods will be yours,
And what you gain while I'm gone you will give to me.
Young sir, let's swap, and strike a bond,
Let a bargain be a bargain, for worse or for better."
"By God," said Gawain, "I agree to the terms
And I find it pleasing that you favour such fun."
"Let drink be served and we'll seal the deal,"
The lord cried loudly, and everyone laughed.
…
And every lord was led at last towards bed,
To dream.
The houseguest and his host
Repeat their pact again.
The lord knows more than most
Which tricks would entertain!
(Part 2 1105-1113 and 1120-1125)
Option Two: The Hobbit
He was desperate. He must get away, out of this horrible darkness, while he had any strength left. He must fight. He must stab the foul thing, put its eyes out, kill it. It meant to kill him. No, not a fair fight. He was invisible now. Gollum had no sword. Gollum had not actually threatened to kill him, or tried to yet. And he was miserable, alone, lost. A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. He trembled. And then quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped.
No great leap for a man, but a leap in the dark (81-2).
Option Three: Beowulf
Hygelac's kinsman kept thinking about
His name and fame: he never lost heart.
Then, in a fury, he flung his sword away.
The keen, inlaid, worm-loop-patterned steel
Was hurled to the ground: he would have to rely
On the might of his arm. So must a man do
Who intends to gain enduring glory
In a combat. Life doesn't cost him a thought.
Then the prince of War-Geats, warming to this fight
With Grendel’s mother, gripped her shoulder
And laid about him in a battle frenzy:
He pitched his killer opponent to the floor
But she rose quickly and retaliated,
Grappled him tightly in her grim embrace.
(Part 2 1531-1539)
Option Four: "Devotion"
The more I think about that story… I figured it out. I figured you out. You see, that camp he described—there were no dogs. No skidoos. "Men" using ulus. And those hunters. How they treated him. How you treated him.
I think they were the white caribou. I think you are the white caribou. I think you were getting ready to split up and go after the camps and learn the plans of the hunters. I think he surprised you and that you made him earn his freedom as a human.
You know, he used to hold me in his sleep like a vice. Sometimes he'd shiver and yell out, "They're coming for me! They are, Susan. They're coming!"
I believe you came back for him. All of you. I believe you let him and his glorious heart go so he could live a few years and that you’d come for him so you could steal him back (264).
END WEEK 2
{rf}
Because of the highly condensed structure, I chose to rely heavily on in-class writing and to have the first such assignment at the end of Week 2 (this would be the equivalent of the end of Week 4 in an ordinary semester). This felt early, but the students did well with the task.
Readings
• The Hobbit, Chapters 3-6
• Beowulf, Part 2
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part 2
• Louis Bird, "Wihtigo, or the Consequences of Not Listening"
• Excerpts from The Exeter Riddles
• Richard Van Camp, "Devotion"
Assignments
• In-class Close Reading Assignment (10%)
Journal Entry
Freewrite about something that recently happened to you that was funny or surprising or both. Then write two versions of this story or event, each about a paragraph long.
Version 1: Describe the event as neutrally as possible, without interpretation or commentary. (You can describe the emotion you felt, but try to do so objectively.)
Version 2: Tell the same event as though it were a story with a point, and comment on how the reader should understand or interpret the events.
(This was to get them thinking about narrators, narrative voice, reliability, purposeful storytelling, etc., from the inside.)
Day 1
Theme 3: Heroism (Especially Grandmothers)
This week, we listened to an excerpt from Louis Bird (Omushkego / Swampy Cree) telling his story, "Wihtigo, or the Consequences of Not Listening," and then read a transcript of the story. The Wihtigo, as you may guess, is a Windigo / Wendigo figure.
Bird's story worked magic here. The central problem is parallel to Beowulf – a menacing human/inhuman force threatens death from the borders of an isolated community.
The resolution is entirely different. Instead of a big strong warrior who will tear the enemy to pieces according to the rules of combat, Bird gives us a grandmother, with no special powers, who saves the day through wisdom she's inherited from her foremothers. She’s not fearless – she's terrified, but she has learned to control her fear and act rationally.
Wisdom rather than strength; age rather than youth; self-control rather than fearlessness; love of family rather than love of glory – some beautiful contrasts of values to discuss.
The students had some lovely observations about the grandmother's heroism. They noted that she set fire to her own workbasket to chase out the Wihtigo, a basket she would probably have made herself, and thus a sacrifice of something very personal to her life.
[ETA: In my next post, I'll include the audio link to Bird telling the story.]
"Riddles in the Dark"
The key Hobbit passage of this day was "Riddles in the Dark", of course.
Staging the Scene
First, they got into groups; each group got a section of the key scene and performed it out loud, dividing up the roles. This worked, except that it went on too long.
Most importantly, they could hear out loud the three voices: Bilbo, Gollum, narrator.
• Lecture/discussion: narrators / narration - distinction from author, characters
• Free indirect discourse!
• Authorial asides in Gawain, Beowulf, The Hobbit and "Wihtigo"
• Storytellers and storytelling techniques
Riddles Not in the Dark
I thought a way to make literary analysis seem less daunting (and pointless) might be to make an analogy to solving a riddle. The skills you need for solving a riddle are surprisingly close to those you need for doing a close reading: noticing details, double meanings, devices.
I gave them a selection from The Exeter Riddles -- I don't know if Tolkien was thinking of these in particular, but they fit with the general medievalism.
I told them that scholars weren't necessarily sure of all of the answers, so that they might actually be breaking new literary ground by solving the riddles.
First, we solved one together by pulling out key words:
Who among you is so learned and so quick-witted
That you can guess who goads me on my journey
When I get up, angry, at times awesome;
When I roar loudly and rampage over the land,
Sometimes causing havoc; … There is a din on earth
And men die violently when I shake the forest…
I with my roof of water, driven far and wide…
I carry on my back what once covered
Every man, body and soul submerged
Together in the water. Say …
what I, who bear this burden, am called.
(Dreamfolk! How would you answer this? Feel free to respond in the comments.)
Then they got into groups and solved several more. Two different riddles were both answered by "sun", so we could compare the two descriptions of the sun.
I encouraged them to write riddles of their own, but I didn't really give that enough time, and we'd already spent quite a lot of time on the side quest.
Back into the Dark
Then we looked directly at Tolkien's riddles., sneakily treating them as poetry.
Voiceless it cries,
Wingless flutters,
Toothless bites,
Mouthless mutters.
What literary device does this riddle use to signal its meaning?
That sort of thing -- again, not just hunting up devices but looking at how they serve a larger purpose.
• Some more on literary devices
• Esp. in Gawain (bob and wheel etc)
• Ex. discussion of possible effects of bob and wheel structure for reader
What makes a story a story?
I was interested in getting away at least a little bit from the western story-as-conflict model, so we had some discussion of whether conflict has to define a story, or whether we could think of a story as asking a question or posing a challenge (to the reader) instead.
I'd like to develop this further and get the students to generate other possible lenses.
This led into this sort of business:
The way the protagonists prove themselves demonstrates what is valued in the world of the story. What do these stories value?
• A bit on chivalry and courtly love
• What is Gawain’s test? What is valued in the story? (*Previous Dreamwidth discussion proved invaluable here)
Chronologically this is where the discussion of "Wihitigo" mentioned above actually happened.
Freewrite
Which form of heroism do you find most admirable?
• That is, which system of values is most appealing to you?
• Which would be most useful in your own life?
• What values do you find heroic that are not included in these particular stories? (Ex. endurance; generosity)
Obviously I was heavily leaning on the grandmother with this line of questioning, but I got all sorts of answers, so hurray -- they escaped my hegemony.
Day 2
Day 2 was broken up into two parts: one hour of class, and two hours of writing.
Devotion -- the White Caribou
I found "Devotion" by Richard Van Camp (Dogrib) in the new teaching anthology Read, Listen, Tell. Told via a letter from a bereft partner, it describes a modern-day hunter's encounter with the White Caribou people, who hold him prisoner and insist that he keep talking to them in order to "prove he is human."
I believe that "Devotion" works on several levels – treating animal societies as cultures rather than species, which is common to a number of Indigenous storytelling traditions; asking how we prove we are human; asking who gets to decide who is a person – and quietly, I think, by implication, thinking about government enforcement of identity, about police and military and religious and residential school attacks on Indigenous personhood and culture.
There's also a comparison to be made between the White Caribou people in "Devotion" and Beorn in The Hobbit, especially in considering the beast/being distinction as applied to animals and animal societies.
Who is the host and who is the stranger? Do the White Caribou disrupt the hunters, or do the hunters threaten the caribou?
I lectured too much on this story, rather than opening it up to discussion. This doesn't really serve the story or the students – "Devotion" is written in a mode that I think is meant to be shared and discussed rather than explained.
This was nerves. I was worried about the students misunderstanding the story or missing the point or carrying in colonial assumptions, so I over-controlled the discourse to try to prevent that, but then they never really got the chance to enter the story themselves and walk around inside it. I'd treat it more confidently next time.
The Close Reading Assignment
Finally, just before heading in to do the writing, we reviewed what I was looking for. They were to write a short close reading of a passage, chosen from four options. I gave them a structure to work with: summarize the passage, give the context, choose specific details to close read, and link back to larger themes/ideas/story arcs.
Even given the limited time, I think the students came up with some great stuff.
If you’re interested, here are the passages – feel free to apply your own close reading chops. The students mostly chose the excerpt from The Hobbit, although Gawain was also popular, Beowulf got a look-in, and one student did choose "Devotion."
The Excerpts
Option One: Gawain
"Furthermore," said the master, "Let's make a pact.
Here's a wager: what I win in the woods will be yours,
And what you gain while I'm gone you will give to me.
Young sir, let's swap, and strike a bond,
Let a bargain be a bargain, for worse or for better."
"By God," said Gawain, "I agree to the terms
And I find it pleasing that you favour such fun."
"Let drink be served and we'll seal the deal,"
The lord cried loudly, and everyone laughed.
…
And every lord was led at last towards bed,
To dream.
The houseguest and his host
Repeat their pact again.
The lord knows more than most
Which tricks would entertain!
(Part 2 1105-1113 and 1120-1125)
Option Two: The Hobbit
He was desperate. He must get away, out of this horrible darkness, while he had any strength left. He must fight. He must stab the foul thing, put its eyes out, kill it. It meant to kill him. No, not a fair fight. He was invisible now. Gollum had no sword. Gollum had not actually threatened to kill him, or tried to yet. And he was miserable, alone, lost. A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. He trembled. And then quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped.
No great leap for a man, but a leap in the dark (81-2).
Option Three: Beowulf
Hygelac's kinsman kept thinking about
His name and fame: he never lost heart.
Then, in a fury, he flung his sword away.
The keen, inlaid, worm-loop-patterned steel
Was hurled to the ground: he would have to rely
On the might of his arm. So must a man do
Who intends to gain enduring glory
In a combat. Life doesn't cost him a thought.
Then the prince of War-Geats, warming to this fight
With Grendel’s mother, gripped her shoulder
And laid about him in a battle frenzy:
He pitched his killer opponent to the floor
But she rose quickly and retaliated,
Grappled him tightly in her grim embrace.
(Part 2 1531-1539)
Option Four: "Devotion"
The more I think about that story… I figured it out. I figured you out. You see, that camp he described—there were no dogs. No skidoos. "Men" using ulus. And those hunters. How they treated him. How you treated him.
I think they were the white caribou. I think you are the white caribou. I think you were getting ready to split up and go after the camps and learn the plans of the hunters. I think he surprised you and that you made him earn his freedom as a human.
You know, he used to hold me in his sleep like a vice. Sometimes he'd shiver and yell out, "They're coming for me! They are, Susan. They're coming!"
I believe you came back for him. All of you. I believe you let him and his glorious heart go so he could live a few years and that you’d come for him so you could steal him back (264).
{rf}
A note on heroism
Date: 2018-07-08 04:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 05:09 am (UTC)This is a wonderful line. I wish I could say it describes my mornings, but I think I am more angry than awesome most of the time.
(Dreamfolk! How would you answer this? Feel free to respond in the comments.)
I assume this one has an obvious answer and I would just die in a damp cave if asked it, but "men die violently when I shake the forest" and "with my roof of water" sound even more contradictory than the usual language of riddles. A storm?
(The rising and roaring and rampaging and forest-shaking are windlike, but then one has to account for the water. While I'm here in this parenthesis, have you read Patricia McKillip's Riddle-Master trilogy?)
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 05:20 am (UTC)I thought this bit
I carry on my back what once covered
Every man, body and soul submerged
Together in the water.
...Might refer to the waters in which we float before birth, but apparently it means the Flood.
(Just the first book, which I liked. How do they go on?)
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 05:28 am (UTC)Whew.
Have you seen Peter Jackson's Hobbit? I was shown selected portions of the first movie; even those were mixed, but there were things in the handling of the riddle-game that I really liked.
...Might refer to the waters in which we float before birth, but apparently it means the Flood.
I figured the riddle was Christian enough to mean the Flood! That was easier for me to figure out than the whole of the answer.
(Just the first book, which I liked. How do they go on?)
As one of my favorite stories in any genre, full stop. [edit] I would link to a review if I had ever written one, but I read the trilogy for the first time when I was very young and in consequence have never written substantially about it. It holds beautifully all the way through.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-09 03:06 am (UTC)I'd like to read your review, though, if you felt you *could* go back in and write about it. I mean, I'd happily read your review of any given blade of grass or inch of asphalt, but particularly of the books.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-09 05:13 am (UTC)Yay!
I mean, I'd happily read your review of any given blade of grass or inch of asphalt, but particularly of the books.
Thank you. I will try, but I cannot promise anything in the near future. I am feeling especially and badly brain-dead lately.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 09:46 pm (UTC)And at the end, the Storm bears the burden - of the water-roof, yes, on its back; but possibly the burden of all the flood-deaths (and the forest-deaths?) too.
*goes off to look closely at the passage*
no subject
Date: 2018-07-09 02:54 am (UTC)When you look, you'll see that I strategically left out bits (hellooo ellipses) in order to make the riddle a bit trickier.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-09 05:12 am (UTC)Is the translation your own?
no subject
Date: 2018-07-10 04:05 pm (UTC)I may have tweaked some language where I thought it might add clarity for the students? I have vague recollections of doing that. It wouldn't have been at all in aid of faithfulness to the original...
no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 09:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-09 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-08 11:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-09 03:08 am (UTC)Actually, thank you for making me think of this -- I have the audio link somewhere, and it's hard to find -- I'll add it to the post.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-09 12:53 pm (UTC)