Lesson video

Hi there, I'm Mr. Buckingham, and it's so good to see you here for today's lesson.

Today we're going to be studying a brand new unit where we're going to be doing some really dramatic narrative writing based on the fantastic story of "Beowulf." In this lesson, we're going to focus on the historical context of that story.

I think you're going to really enjoy this unit and produce some fantastic writing.

So let's make a start.

Today's lesson is called understanding the historical context and the plots of "Beowulf." And it comes our unit called Beowulf Narrative Writing.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll have described some key features of Anglo-Saxon culture and how these are reflected in "Beowulf," and you'll have explored the structure of the narrative in "Beowulf." Now for this lesson, you will need to have read the story of "Beowulf" and you can find a complete reading unit based on the book in our curriculum, which uses the 2013 Oxford Children's Classics Edition of "Beowulf" written by Kevin Crossley-Holland and illustrated by Charles Keeping.

If you're ready, let's begin.

Here are the keywords for today's lesson.

The Anglo-Saxons are the European people who settled in what is now England.

Following the end of the Roman occupation.

Culture is the ideas, customs, and behaviour of a particular people or society.

And the story structure is the underlying structure of a narrative that gives it a logical and coherent order.

Here's our lesson outline for today.

we're going to start off by looking at the historical context of "Beowulf." And then we'll move on to exploring the plot of this story.

"Beowulf" as you know, is an epic poem that was written in England in around 1000 CE over 1000 years ago.

And an epic poem, as you might remember, is a narrative poem that tells a story.

We know that a narrative is a story, so a narrative poem is a poem that tells a story and some of the figures in the story of "Beowulf" are real historical figures including some of the kings.

But lots of the story is in fact fictional, including Beowulf, the main character.

So how we ended up with this story, well the story of "Beowulf" would've been passed down orally for many years by people who migrated, moved from Scandinavia, where the story is set, to England where it was written.

And these people who came from Scandinavia to England are now known as the Anglo-Saxons.

So the Anglo-Saxons came from modern day Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

And at the time these people were known as Jutes, Angles and Saxons.

And they settled in Britain in the years after the Romans left from around 410 CE.

And they brought with them lots of the language we still use today.

As you know, "Beowulf" has written in old English the language of the Anglo-Saxons, which has changed over time to become the modern English we speak today.

So we can see on the map here where the Jutes, the Angles and the Saxons originally came from before they migrated across to what we now call England.

And this happened as I said, after the Romans left Britain.

So we've got the Anglo-Saxons migrating across to Britain and of course bringing some of their culture, including their stories with them.

So which of these statements are true? Pause the video and decide.

Well done, good job.

So A says, all the events in "Beowulf" are true historical events.

Well that one's not true.

We know that there is some evidence that some of the places and people mentioned in the story of "Beowulf" were real people, but not all of the events mentioned or all of the characters mentioned are true.

And of course we have lots of mythical creatures in the story as well, and we know that those are likely to be have been invented by the people who were telling the story.

B says, the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain from Europe, and that is true of course, they came from Denmark and the Netherlands and Germany as we now call them.

And of course, even at that time the country of Denmark already existed because we see it in the story of "Beowulf." C says, the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain after the Romans left, again that's true.

We know that the Romans left in the 400 CE and following that many groups of people migrated to Britain, including the Anglo-Saxons.

D says, "Beowulf" was written down before it was told orally.

No, it's the other way round isn't it? Like when we rehearse our stories out loud before we write them, that's what happened here.

People passed them down orally, maybe people who couldn't write at all and then later on those stories were recorded in writing, which is what happened with "Beowulf." So in this unit we're gonna be writing a narrative version of part of the story of "Beowulf" that we've read.

So it's going to be really exciting and dramatic piece of writing because the story itself is so exciting and dramatic.

Now remember when the Anglo-Saxons came over to what is now England, they would've brought with them the stories of their home countries.

The stories of Denmark and the other places where they lived.

So these stories, including the story of "Beowulf," would've been told orally and passed down from generations to generation until they were finally written down, as we said.

So the culture of the people in "Beowulf" in the story is therefore very similar to the culture of the Anglo-Saxons because the Anglo-Saxons, when they wrote down "Beowulf," were describing their own past, their own history that had been passed down orally to them.

So it's going to be important when we write our own narratives to include aspects of that Anglo-Saxon culture to make our stories sound really authentic to the time they're set in.

So what do you already know about the Anglo-Saxons and how they lived? I bet you might have studied them at some point during a time at school.

So I wonder what you can remember.

Pause the video and have a chat to the person next to you about what you remember and what you know about the Anglo-Saxons.

And if you don't know anything, please don't panic.

I'll be telling you lots of important information in the next part of our lesson.

Pause the video and have a chat.

Well done for sharing all that knowledge.

So I'm going to give you some information now about the Anglo-Saxons, which hopefully we can feed in to our own writing later in this unit.

So the Anglo-Saxon people mostly lived in small villages in wooden buildings with thatched roofs.

And we can see an example here.

This is a reconstructed Anglo-Saxon village.

Now remember how the wooden buildings were easily destroyed by the dragon's fire in the final part of the book where the Geat's stronghold was destroyed.

And we can imagine these houses going up in flames very easily couldn't we? Because they're built of wood and they've got the thatched roofs on top.

So most Anglo-Saxons would've lived in villages like this and worked as farmers.

And they would've visited perhaps the mead-hall just like we see in "Beowulf" for drinking and entertainment.

That would be their real social activity they would do.

And they would've enjoyed listening to songs and stories like the story of "Beowulf," which would've been passed down orally.

So perhaps they'd go to their mead-hall and they might have heard the story of "Beowulf" being told or even sung to them.

And then of course they might have passed it onto their children and other people would've heard it for generations and generations until it was finally written down.

Anglo-Saxon culture was also based on a strict hierarchy, and that word hierarchy means that people have more or less power depending on their position in society.

So enslaved people and peasant farmers were at the bottom of that hierarchy with little or no power and owning no land.

Then above the peasants came the thanes, and we see two spellings there.

The first one is the one that comes up in our book, and they were warriors who owned the land that the peasants worked on.

They were also obliged to fight for the king, and the king was at the top of the hierarchy with huge amounts of power.

And Anglo-Saxon Kings created laws to govern their people.

We know that nowadays our king in this country has much less power than that.

It's parliament that has most of the power and the government, which is made up by the largest party in our parliament.

But in the past, the King would've had much more power.

So which of the categories in this hierarchy have we seen in the story of "Beowulf?" Pause the video and have a think and a chat to the person next to you.

Well done, we've seen most of these haven't we in the story? So we know that it was a slave who stole the treasure from the dragon provoking it to attack the stronghold.

We had the thanes featured in the story because Grendel had been attacking and killing the thanes in Denmark, which is what made Beowulf want to go over there and fight it.

And the warriors we see in the story would probably be thanes as well because they're fighting for the king.

And we saw lots of kings in the story.

We saw King Hygelac and King Hrothgar, and of course Beowulf became king at the end of the story as well.

So we see lots of this hierarchy in the story of "Beowulf." Which shows us it's very similar in its culture to the Anglo-Saxon culture when it was written down.

So which of these are true of thanes in the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy and in the story of "Beowulf?" Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, good job.

So first of all, yes it's true that they would've owned land.

They were not enslaved by kings.

They did have to fight for the king though, and they were warriors.

And warriors do feature a lot in the story of Beowulf So we can assume that those warriors would've been thanes so they have some power, but they're still at the mercy of the king.

They still have obligations towards the king, which means they're not at the top of that hierarchy.

Well done forgetting this.

So just like in the story of "Beowulf," war and warriors were very important in Anglo-Saxon culture.

During the Anglo-Saxon period, the Anglo-Saxons were frequently under attack from the Vikings and different Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in Britain would also have fought each other regularly.

So we can see why war and warriors would be so important here.

And a king held onto power by being able to protect his people from attacks and expand his territory outwards.

To do this, he needed his thanes to be strong warriors.

And successful warriors were given positions of power.

They were highly respected and they could earn lots of wealth by fighting well.

And we see lots of these features in the story of "Beowulf." Remember when Beowulf has been king for 50 years, he's well respected because he's protected his people and he's fought off different enemies that they faced over that time.

And it's really important to note that the stories of these successful warriors would've been well known by everyone.

They would've been told out loud and people would've learned how brave these warriors were.

And that really rings a bell for our story because that's what Beowulf was desperate to get wasn't it? He really wanted to be remembered and have his story told in this way.

Now because kings needed great warriors, Anglo-Saxon culture highly valued qualities like bravery, loyalty and honour, which are very useful and important if you are a warrior fighting for your king.

So successful warriors would be given elaborate burials with great treasures like this helmet which was found here in England.

And they might be buried even in burial mounds like this one at Sutton Hoo, which is where the helmet was found.

Now actually it's believed that a king was buried in this burial mound, but he must also be a warrior to wear this incredible helmet we see here.

So clearly if a person is being buried with this incredible piece of treasure in this impressive burial mound that shows really clearly the respect with which warriors were held in this culture.

So Anglo-Saxon warrior might also be buried with gold coins like these ones, these are real Saxon coins we see here.

What does this tell us about how the Anglo-Saxons felt about their warriors? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, great job.

You could say this, it tells us they must have respected their warriors a great deal.

Gold would have been rare and valuable.

The Anglo-Saxons respected their warriors so much, they were willing to give them precious treasure even when they were dead.

So remember, if you're putting this treasure in the ground, it's gone isn't it? You've lost it, so you don't have it anymore and you've lost something very valuable.

So the fact that they're willing to put this treasure in the ground with their warriors really clearly shows how much they respected those people.

Well done for your first step.

So let's do our first task for this lesson.

We've learned some important historical context to the story of "Beowulf." So we're going to have a discussion now.

So we've seen evidence that warriors were highly respected in Anglo-Saxon culture, but what evidence of this is there in "Beowulf" the story? How does the story show that Warriors were respected? I'd like you to have a go at listing all the evidence you can think of from the story either orally with a partner or written in notes to prove that warriors were respected in this culture.

Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, fantastic job.

Here's some evidence from "Beowulf" that shows us that warriors were highly respected in Anglo-Saxon culture.

Throughout the story, Beowulf is praised and admired for his actions, isn't he? And in Denmark, Beowulf receives huge amounts of treasure as his reward for helping the Danes.

Beowulf constantly seeks out danger, knowing that this will win him glory.

He faces all these difficult situations, but he does it happily because he knows that will win him all this praise.

When he dies, Beowulf is memorialised with that huge barrow, showing the respect in which he was held.

And the story of "Beowulf" was of course written down and this shows it was respected and that people wanted to hear about this great warrior.

Remember the story was set several hundred years before it was written down.

So the fact that the story lasted all of those years being told orally from person to person, shows us how important it was for the people.

And of course it's a story about a great warrior.

So the fact that that story was remembered and passed down until it could be written down shows us again the respect with which warriors were treated in this culture.

Really well done for finding all the evidence, great work.

So now we're going to think in detail about the plot of the story of "Beowulf." And we could summarise the plot of "Beowulf" like this.

And I'm gonna try and do it in four bullet points only.

First of all, Beowulf, a Geat warrior travels to Denmark to help King Hrothgar by killing the monster Grendel.

He fights and mortally wounds Grendel.

Then Grendel's vengeful mother attacks Heorot, and Beowulf pursues her to her underwater lair and kills her with a giant sword he finds there.

Then Beowulf returns home to Geatland and eventually becomes king.

And he rules wisely and bravely for 50 years.

Then in his old age, Beowulf faces a dragon that threatens his kingdom.

He kills the dragon with the help of his loyal follower.

His cousin in fact, Wiglaf, but he dies from his injuries and is given a hero's funeral by his people.

So I've tried to summarise that whole story in just four bullet points there.

So let's check your understanding now.

Can you put these events in the order they appear in "Beowulf" from one to four? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done, great job.

Hopefully you started with this one.

We've got Beowulf travels to Denmark and defeats Grendel with his bare hands.

Then we've got Grendel's mother attacks Heorot in revenge, but Beowulf kills her after diving into a lake to find her.

Then we've got Beowulf returns to Geatland a rich man, and eventually becomes the king, ruling well and defeating many enemies.

And finally a dragon threatens Geatland, and Beowulf kills it with the help of Wiglaf.

But he is mortally wounded and dies a hero.

So we've managed to summarise a long story there in just four points, great work.

So we're going to think now about the structure of the story of "Beowulf." We know that stories often follow a structure like this.

We have an opening where the writer describes the setting and the characters.

We have the build-up where the problems are introduced and tension rises.

We have the climax, which is the high point of the action and the tension and we have the resolution where the problems are resolved.

And the reason we present it like this using bars is that the height of the bars helps us to show that rising tension.

So the climax bar is the highest one because the tension is at its highest point in the climax and it goes down at resolution because that's where those problems are resolved.

So we've said that the build-up is where problems are introduced in the story.

What do we mean by problems? And can you give any examples from "Beowulf?" Pause the video, and have a think.

Well done, good thinking.

Sophia says this, "Problems are just things that the characters have to deal with and obstacles they face.

For example, in 'Beowulf' the dragon becomes a problem when it's awoken and attacks the Geat's stronghold.

This is something Beowulf has to deal with and overcome." So the Dragon is one of the problems that exists in "Beowulf," but problems in general are just barriers for our characters, things they have to overcome in order to achieve their goals to be happy or to be successful in some way.

Really well done for your thoughts there.

So which part of the story structure, the opening, build-up, climax or resolution is being described with each of these labels here? Pause the video and decide.

Well done, good job.

Where the problems in the story are resolved is the resolution.

where the characters and setting are introduced is of course the, well done, opening.

Where tension rises as problems are introduced is the build-up as we just talked about.

And whether tension and action reach their high point.

That's the highest bar in our story structure is the climax.

Really well done if you got this.

So do you agree with Sam here and why or why not? She says, "I don't think 'Beowulf' follows that structure.

It's not one big story, it's three smaller stories each with its own build-up, climax and resolution." Pause the video and decide if you agree with Sam, and why or why not.

Well done, good thinking.

So Alex says this, "You're right, it does contain three mini stories, each with their own story structure, but it also tells the story of Beowulf's life as a whole.

Maybe we can think of it as a big story made up of three smaller stories.

?" So we can think of one big story structure with three smaller story structures underneath it for each of the three mini stories that make up the big whole story.

So as I just said, we can think of the plot of "Beowulf" in two different ways.

First of all, we can think about the plot and the structure of the whole story from beginning to end, the entire book.

But we can also think about the plot and the structure of each of our three mini stories.

We have the story of Beowulf and Grendel, then we have mini-story two, which is Beowulf and Grendel's Mother.

And finally mini story three, which is Beowulf and the Dragon.

And there are different problems and different resolutions in each mini story.

So we've got our overarching story structure for the whole story and then our individual mini stories each with their own problems and resolutions as well.

So we're thinking in two different ways at the same time.

So let's think now about the structure of the story of "Beowulf" as a whole, the beginning to end whole story.

What problem is Beowulf trying to overcome throughout the whole story? And how is this problem resolved? Pause the video and have a chat to the person next to you and see if you can identify that problem that drives the whole story and how is that problem resolved? Pause video and have a chat.

Now we could disagree on this, but here's my perspective on it.

I think that he's trying to overcome the problem of being forgotten when he dies.

I think that's the main problem of the whole story.

And this problem is what drives him forward to defeat his foes.

He's anxious not to be forgotten.

And that problem is resolved of course in the final scenes of the book when the barrow is built and the Geats celebrate his life.

And in the end he is remembered.

So he has overcome the problem.

So I'm saying that all the way through the story.

What's driving Beowulf forward, the problem, the obstacle he has to overcome is this risk, this threat of being forgotten when he dies.

So when he does die and the barrow is built to memorialise him and people are singing his praises, that problem is finally resolved.

So that's the resolution of the whole story is when he's memorialised, just as he'd hoped all along.

So true or false? Wanting to make sure he's famous after he dies is the only problem Beowulf faces.

Pause video and decide, Well done, your right, of course that is false, but why is that the case? Why is that not the only problem he faces? Pause the video and try to explain.

Well done, good job.

So we can say that Beowulf faces numerous problems in the story, including those three different monsters in the three mini stories.

However for the overall story, this problem worrying about his legacy, is something Beowulf is desperate to overcome and it's driving him forward to keep doing these dangerous things.

And again, this is my perspective, which you might disagree with and that is fine.

So we've looked at the whole story now.

Now let's zoom in on the story structure of the mini stories in "Beowulf." Let's begin with the story of Beowulf and Grendel.

How does that fit in to this story structure? We can say that the opening is right at the start in Geatland where the wanderer tells Beowulf about Grendel, he's introducing that character of Grendel.

And the build-up is where the Geats travel to Denmark.

And the climax is where Beowulf fights Grendel in Heorot.

And the resolution is of course when Beowulf defeats Grendel by pulling off his arm.

So we've got a perfect story structure there for our first mini story within that bigger whole story.

But within this mini story we can see it really clearly slots in to this story structure.

We've got an opening, builds up, a climax and a resolution.

So how does that work for the second mini story, the story of Grendel's mother? Have a think what might be the opening, build-up, climax and resolution here? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, good thinking.

So we could say here the opening is where the Danes and the Geats are sleeping happily in Heorot after Beowulf defeats Grendel.

So we've resolved one mini story and now we're starting the next one.

So the build-up is where Grendel's mother attacks and warriors set out to track her down to her lair.

Then the climax is where Beowulf dives to find Grendel's mother and fights her and his sword fails and he's saved by his armour.

So that's the climax because Beowulf is at risk, he could be dying at this point, he's just been very lucky that his armour saved him.

So he is still in danger.

How is that resolved? Well, it's where Beowulf finds that giant-made sword and he's able to kill her.

So the problem here was the threat from Grendel's mother and that's been resolved by Beowulf finding that sword and being able to kill her.

So again, within this mini story, we've been able to identify a story structure just like we did in the first.

Really well done if you managed to do that.

Now let's do our final task this lesson.

In this unit we are going to be writing our own narrative version of part of the third and final mini story in "Beowulf," which is of course Beowulf and the Dragon.

So for the mini story of Beowulf and the Dragon, can you identify each part of the story structure? What's the opening, what's the build-up, what's the climax and what's the resolution? Remember the build-up should be where problems are reduced.

The climax should be the highest point of tension.

And the resolution is where that problem is resolved and that tension is reduced as we can see by the bar going down for the resolution.

So thinking about just that mini story of Beowulf and the Dragon, can you identify each part of the story structure within it? Pause the video and have a go.

Well done.

Great job.

So here's the story structure of that third mini story in "Beowulf," Beowulf and the Dragon.

The opening is where Beowulf is king of the Geats, 50 years after his exploits in Denmark.

And the build-up is where the slave provokes the dragon to attack the Geat's stronghold, leading to lots of destruction.

And Beowulf then argues that he should fight the dragon and he heads to its cave.

So we sees the tension rising, because Beowulf is heading into a dangerous situation.

And the climax is where Beowulf tries to kill the dragon, but instead he's picked up in its jaws and he's covered in blood.

Why's that the climax? Well, it's incredibly high point of tension because Beowulf is about to die, he's at risk of death.

And even worse from Beowulf's perspective, he might not be able to kill the dragon because he could die before he manages to kill it.

How is that tension resolved? Well, the resolution is well Wiglaf stabs the dragon, causing it to drop Beowulf and allowing him to slit it's throat with his dagger.

So Beowulf is able to resolve there the problem of the dragon being in Geatland by killing it.

Does that resolve the problem of Beowulf himself dying? No he's already been mortally wounded by the dragon, but he is able to solve the problem of the dragon's presence in Geatland, by killing it thanks to Wiglaf's help.

So we've managed to identify within that mini story of Beowulf and the Dragon, the story structure that we see here.

Really well done for doing that.

Let's summarise our learning in this lesson.

We've said that "Beowulf" was an epic poem written in England during Anglo-Saxon times.

And the story shows important aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture, including the great respect shown to warrior like the fictional Beowulf.

The story of "Beowulf" as a whole is one of a hero trying to win fame.

This is resolved when he's given a hero's burial.

"Beowulf" also contains three mini-stories, each following a clear structure where the problem of a monster's presence is resolved by Beowulf's actions.

So as I said, the rest of this unit is gonna be devoted to starting to write some fantastic writing based on the story of Beowulf and the Dragon.

I'd love to see you in the next lesson to get started on that process.

Goodbye.