English and American literature - Reading list

1. Old English Literature
• anonymous - “Beowulf”
- heroic epic poem of 3182 alliterative lines; set in Scandinavia
- Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, battles 3 antagonists: Grendel and his mother who trouble Danish king Hrodgar and an unnamed dragon. After the first two victories, Beowulf goes home to Geatland in Sweden and becomes king of the Geats. The last fight takes place fifty years later and in this battle is Beowulf fatally wounded and buried in a tumulus in Geatland.
• anonymous - “The Wanderer“
- poem of 115 lines
- an old man describes his feelings of loneliness after loosing his Lord
• Cynewulf - “The Dream of the Rood”
- dream poetry
- writer describes the cross which comes alive and tells the story of crucifix

2. Middle English Literature
• Geoffrey Chaucer - “Canterbury Tales”
The Shipman's Tale
- It is in the form of a fabliau and tells the story of a miserly merchant, his avaricious wife and her lover, a wily monk.
- The tale tells of a merchant whose wife enjoys revelry and socialising, on which she spends much. A young monk, who is very close friends with the merchant, comes to stay with them. After confessing that she does not love her husband, the wife asks the monk for one hundred franks to pay her debts. The monk without her knowledge borrows the money from the merchant to give to the wife. When the merchant asks for his money back from the monk, the monk says that he has returned the loan back to the wife; and then promptly leaves town. When the merchant asks his wife about the money she says it is spent and blames the monk saying that she thought the money was in payment for him being such a long house guest. Instead of giving her husband the money back she says she will repay the debt in bed.