ClassInfo - Spring 2025 English Classes

Spring 2025 | ENGL 3103 Section 001: Dragons and Druids: Literature of the Early Medieval North (65230)

Instructor(s): Andrew Scheil
Class Component:: Lecture
Credits:: 3 Credits
Grading Basis:: Student Option
Instructor Consent:: No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:: In Person
Times and Locations:: Regular Academic Session

01/21/2025 - 05/05/2025

Mon, Wed 09:45AM - 11:00AM

UMTC, East Bank
Enrollment Status:: Open (0 of 30 seats filled)
Also Offered:: Spring 2025

Course Catalog Description:: In this course you will study the literature of the earlier Middle Ages (from about 500-1200 CE). We will also adopt a comparative literature-style approach to the period in order to do justice to the multi-lingual mix of cultures and traditions in the North Sea region, centering upon Britain. We will study three great cultural/literary traditions of the early Middle Ages: "Anglo-Saxon" (sometimes now termed "Early English"), Norse, and Celtic. All texts will be read in translation. Our Celtic unit will feature the Old Irish sagas and tales of the hero Cuchulainn and the collection of Middle Welsh tales of magic, love, and heroism known as The Mabinogion. Our Anglo-Saxon unit will survey a variety of Old English prose and poetry: heroic poems (including Beowulf), riddles, chronicles, elegies, devotional lyrics, sermons, and saints' lives. In our Norse/Viking unit we will read two Old Norse sagas of mythical heroes and explore the mythological poems of the Poetic Edda. These seven hundred years of early medieval history left behind a wealth of fascinating, strange, and moving literary texts; our primary goal will be to make these voices speak to us once again. To this end we will apply the necessary historical, aesthetic, and generic contexts in order to conjure up the world of these texts and understand them on their own terms. We will cover a wide variety of topics such as manuscript culture, orality and literacy, magic and monsters, war, heroism, religious practices (both Christian and pagan), women and gender, folklore, and medieval notions of the body, soul and cosmos. A special focus will be on pre-Christian ("pagan") beliefs in all these traditions and the process of conversion to Christianity. No previous experience with medieval literature is necessary or expected.
Class Description:: Student may contact the instructor or department for information.
Textbooks:: https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/65230/1253

ClassInfo Links - Spring 2025 English Classes

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