Mixed Messages: - from beowulf to sassy red-tails

So I'm finally done with the unit from my online World Literature class that I had to request an extension for.  This one was on Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  I was looking forward to writing my second paper comparing JRR Tolkien's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the one by Marie Borroff (the one we used in class).  Alas, I was so sick that it was all I could do to get the discussion questions done for this unit.

I'm really disappointed because I think Beowulf kicks ass.  I like SGGK, too.  It's the genre of fiction that I totally, totally lived and breathed when I was younger (and when I was older).  My favorite, favorite book ever ever is Lord of the Rings, and Beowulf had quite an influence on Tolkien's writing of the trilogy.  One of the first thick "grown up" books that I got as a child wa a treasury called King Arthur and His Knights and since then, I've read many interpretations of the King Arthur story, such as Mists of Avalon and The Once and Future King*.  So, really, if I claim to have any small amount of knowledge of any fictional genre, it's this one.

Imagine my disappointment when the people in my Lit class proved once again that they are all idiots.  Now, OK, I tend to be a bit of a snob academically.  But I'm willing to admit what I don't know.  And if my half-assed answers to the discussion questions online make this Biology major look like a genius, it's pretty damned sad.  The gem of it all was them claiming to relate to Beowulf "because he was such a good Christian."  Really?  A pre-Christian Germanic tribesman a Jesus follower?  Wow.  My response was  "I totally disagree with you on Beowulf's "being a good Christian". The person who set the tale down in written form was a Christian and inserted Christian elements into it, which, I might add, seem very artificial in a story that is about a pre-Christian Germanic world. Please read the first full paragraph on p. 1629 in our book. The editor examines the convention of the translator's use of using "God" instead of "the god", which is just as valid a translation. And, remember, many ideals which are seemingly "Christian" are found in the universal moral code of many cultures, spiritual and religious or not."

Why?  Why?  Is it too much to ask to have an intelligent discussion on one of the most kickass pieces of literature ever?  A lot of them are failing to understand a lot of the basic reading comprehension stuff from it, and fail completely to put the character's actions into historical context.  Yeah, that reply may have been a little harsh, but it was better than calling her an idiot.  Which I wanted to do, especially after 5 or 6 students agreed with her that he was a good Christian.  Not that I have a problem with people being good Christians (I frankly don't care), but that I appreciate a little historical accuracy and context.

Yesh, I am getting worked up over something that I shouldn't it just irks me that these people will have college degrees.

*If you haven't read this one yet and are a fan at all of this genre, you should.  I would recommend it if only for the scenes in which he is turned into a merlin, an owl, and an ant.  They are really clever.

"What a horrible, grand crew!"  The Wart exclaims after having spent the night in the mews with the rest of the birds used for falconry.  LOL!  If only I had a chance at what some of my birds were thinking!

Well, yes,  there were a few instances when I could quite clearly here what they were thinking.  Once, I was carrying Kily (a Harlan's Red-tailed hawk) on my glove on a bitterly cold day in Sitka when I'd forgotten a scarf.  I had quite a good relationship with Kily, but I really don't know what I was thinking when I put my frozen nose in his nape feathers and blew out.  He turned around and looked at me and said "I am NOT your nose warmer!"  I got the message quite quickly.


My Kily-bird