Contextualization:

The text is extracted from "Beowulf" an epic Anglo-Saxon poem that deals with the fight between Beowulf, a great hero, and Grendel, a monster who terrorized Beowulf's neighbors.

The poem was probably written in the 11^th century and its author is still unknown to us.

The poem describes an old society, based on values and war, and the struggle between good forces, Beowulf, and evil ones, Grendel.

Layout analysis:

This extract is made up of four irregular stanzas: the first one has eight lines, the second has sixteen lines, the third has twelve lines and the fourth has seven lines. There are no rhymes and the lines are organized in couplets.

The original version of the epic poem was written in Old English, a mixture of German dialects, and this extract was translated into modern English By Seamus Heaney, in 2001.

Denotation:

The extract deals with the fight between Beowulf and Grendel.

Firstly, the monster arrived to Hrothgar's dwelling. When he arrived, he went silently into the high hall and killed and ate a man on his bench. After, Grendel went near to Beowulf, who was sleeping, to kill him, but Beowulf woke up and started the fight against Grendel.

At the end, Beowulf defeated Grendel and sent back him into his desolate lair.

Connotation:

In the text, there are many figures of speech, such as metaphors, similes and alliteration. Alliteration are used a lot in this extract.

For example, the repetition of "g" and "gr" in the second line: "God-cursed Grendel came greedily loping", makes an idea about Grendel's strenght; in the fourth line, the repetition of "h" is used to memorize the lines. The thirty-first line, with the repetition of "str", and the thirty-ninth line, with the repetition of "s", have the same function of the fourth line.