Summary: The oldest story in the English language, Beowulf is the Norse epic saga of good vs. evil and man vs. monster. The famous Viking warrior battles invaders, monsters, and a fire-breathing dragon. This episode of Clash of the Gods examines Norse mythology’s greatest hero and the intriguing possibility that he may have been a real-life warrior. Recently unearthed burial mounds and ancient carvings...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: With the intensity and commitment of an ancient Norse warrior, Benjamin Bagby brings the epic poem Beowulf to incandescent life. This program documents Bagby's brilliant iteration of the saga before a live audience in Helsingborg, Sweden-demonstrating the spellbinding qualities of both the poem and the performer. Reciting the entire 1,062-line Grendel story in the original Old English and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Recently re-translated by Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Beowulf has caused a sensation in both the U.S. and the U.K. In this program, NewsHour correspondent Elizabeth Farnsworth speaks with Heaney about his attraction to that epic poem, the probable background of the bard who created the original, similarities between Old English and bits of Anglo-Saxon that still crop up in rural Ireland, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Beowulf is the oldest written epic in English literature. In this program, Dr. Robert DiNapoli-teaching fellow in Old and Middle English at the University of Birmingham, England-and Professor John Burrow of Bristol University examine the symbolism and the influence of Christianity in Beowulf and other masterpieces of English and Germanic poetry. The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Dream of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Cultivating an appreciation of the English classics requires studying the mother tongue as it was originally spoken. In this program, Dr. Joseph Gallagher brings language to life by reciting examples of Old, Middle, and Early Modern English in their original dialects. In addition, he discusses the evolution of English syntax and morphology. A dramatization of a portion of Beowulf is also...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Melvyn Bragg begins the story of English in Holland, finding ancestral echoes in the Frisian dialect. What follows is a chapter on survival as the English language weathers Viking and Norman invasions, vying with and eventually absorbing rival tongues. Lively settings such as village pubs and markets bring home the lasting influence of Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, and Old French. The connection...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: The making of English is the story of three great invasions and a cultural revolution. This classic PBS program shows how an early form of English was carried to Britain by invading Anglo-Saxons, how that language was all but obliterated by waves of Viking settlers, and how it was reshaped by the French-speaking Normans. The fact that English survived on the lips of people who left no written...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007