Beowulf

by Stanley P. Baldwin

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. The latest generation of titles in this series also features glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format. CliffsNotes on Beowulf takes you into the epic story of warriors and strange beasts. Beowulf is considered to be the longest and greatest surviving Anglo-Saxon poem. Some see it as an early celebration of Christianity. Others think it extols – or perhaps condemns – heroic values.

Step into this epic poem and get ready for sword fights, feasts, and treasures. With this study guide, you’ll be able to follow all of the action as you consider the artistic impact of the work. You'll also gain insight into the characteristics of the unknown poet and the manuscript itself. Other features that help you study include

Character analyses of major players A character map that graphically illustrates the relationships among the characters Critical essays A review section that tests your knowledge A Resource Center full of books, articles, films, and Internet sites Classic literature or modern modern-day treasure — you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

Genres: Classics, Nonfiction

59 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 1966

About the author

Stanley P. Baldwin (born 1942) is a writer and teacher, currently living in Nebraska. He is a frequent contributor to scholarly series as SparkNotes and CliffsNotes. He wrote about Beowulf and many others in the latter series, and J.R.R. Tolkien in the former.

Reviews

[Cheryl]

Read some, skimmed carefully the rest, November 2024.

I appreciate learning that it's only an epic in a loose sense. I'm convinced by the argument that Tolkien was right to call it a 'heroic-elegiac poem' instead.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

So it's pretty weak that I read the Cliff Notes instead of the actual poem. But omg, it was crazy hard and boring in poem form. It's interesting to notice the difference when you read something once versus when you teach it. Each time you read something, you notice something new, you understand it better. Plus class discussions to delve into the material and making assignments/tests/quizzes about the reading helps the teacher really learn it. Reading it once and trying to remember it for the random question I might get (my current teaching position is too hard to explain but this book is in the curriculum in certain circumstances and I had never read it.)

So I read this thing and it was underwhelming. Why is this in school curricula? I must have missed something vital. There's no characterization. It's not especially sad or happy. It's about a hero who does heroic stuff and then he dies in a heroic way. It's really old. I'm not sure what else is has going for it.