For Teachers

The Coming of the Dragon

Questions for Discussion

PROLOGUE

Whose point of view is the prologue told from? What do we learn about the kingdom from the prologue?

What sorts of things do the people of the kingdom fear? What does this tell you about their society?

How do the women’s fears and concerns differ from the men’s?

What connections can you draw between the birds, whose nests are being raided for eggs, and the women whose children are gathering those eggs?

Why does Dayraven react the way he does to the boat and its cargo? What does he want to do with it and why? Is his reaction reasonable, given the context? Explain.

What kind of person is Amma? What details help you to know? Where did she come from and what happened to her family? Where does she live now and why? How do you think she knows about the boat?

What kind of a person is King Beowulf and how do you know?

Contrast Amma’s relationship with the king and Fulla’s relationship with him. What does that tell you about Amma?

THE REST OF THE NOVEL

Why do some people in the kingdom view Rune with suspicion?

Why does Amma choose to raise Rune on a farm? What sorts of things does she teach him that become useful later on?

What details does Rune learn about Amma throughout the book? Describe Amma’s past and her relationship with King Beowulf.

How would you describe Rune’s relationship with King Beowulf?

What role does courage play in the novel? Find specific examples of Rune’s courage—or lack of it. When does he seem the least courageous? The most courageous?

In what ways is friendship important in the novel? What does Rune gain from his friendship with Ketil Flat-Nose?

When Rune is first introduced, what are the things he wants the most? Chart the ways his desires change at different stages of the novel. What is the catalyst for each change?

In what ways is Rune a different person at the end of the novel, and in what ways does he remain unchanged?

Both Beowulf and Rune have to be leaders. In what ways does their leadership differ? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each as a leader?

CONNECTIONS WITH BEOWULF

Compare the following characters and situations in the poem and the novel: Beowulf, Wiglaf, the dragon fight.

In what ways do the events in the novel’s prologue echo the story of Scyld Scefing (Shield Sheafson in Seamus Heaney’s translation) in the first 52 lines of the poem?

Look at Rune’s words at Beowulf’s funeral (Chapter 23). How are the final words of the poem used within his speech?

Read the passage within the poem about Sigemund slaying the dragon (lines 873-900—In the poem, Beowulf, who has just slain Grendel, is being compared to the great hero of an earlier age). Compare Sigemund’s fight with the dragon to Beowulf’s and Wiglaf’s. How do the stories of Sigemund and Sigurd, another dragonslayer, get used in the novel? (See Chapter 9.)

The story of Hildeburh, the failed peaceweaver, gets told in lines 1070-1158 of the poem. Read that passage and compare Hildeburh’s story with Amma’s. Look at the poem Rune recites in Chapter 5. What lines and ideas from the Hildeburh story in Beowulf does it echo?

When Beowulf returns home after killing Grendel and Grendel’s mother, he talks about what will happen to the Danish King Hrothgar’s daughter, Freawaru, when she is married into an enemy tribe in order to bring peace (lines 2020-2069). In what ways is Amma like Freawaru? What is Beowulf’s opinion about this marriage? Compare what Rune says that Beowulf says about this kind of marriage in Chapter 27 to lines 2029-2031 in the poem.

The bard sings about the dragon fight at the end of Chapter 23 of the novel. Compare his words with those of the Beowulf-poet in the section about the dragon fight.

The slave who steals the cup from the dragon’s hoard takes on a larger role in the novel than in the poem. Explain his role in each.

The poem ends shortly after Beowulf’s death, leaving the audience with a sense of foreboding, of enemy warriors preparing to attack now that the king is dead. Discuss ways that has been changed in the novel. How does Rune deal with threats of attacks? How does he use events from the first part of the poem, Beowulf’s trip to Denmark to fight Grendel, to help him decide what to do?

CLASSROOM PROJECTS

RUNES
Find a copy of the runic alphabet, such as the Anglo-Saxon Futhork on the Omniglot Webpage http://www.omniglot.com/writing/runic.htm. Another good source is R. I. Page’s book, Runes (University of California Press/British Museum, 1987).

--Which runic symbols look like letters from the English alphabet? Which of those have the same value as the English letter?

--Have students take on the role of one of the characters in the novel and write a short message in runes to someone else in the novel. Exchange messages with someone else in the class and decode them. Can they determine which character is writing to whom?

--Runes represent both sounds or letters as well as entire words. For example, þ is a runic letter that represents a th-sound. Its name is thorn; the word means the same thing in Old English and Modern English. In The Coming of the Dragon, Wyn has a runic name that means “joy.” Look at the words that correspond to the runes. Which ones could be incorporated in the above messages as entire words, not just letters?

--Decode the runic inscriptions in chapters two and twenty-five of The Coming of the Dragon. The latter inscription is written in Old English and translates as “Wiglaf son of Weohstan and Inga the Good.”

BEOWULF ALOUD

Play a section of the videorecording of Benjamin Bagby performing Beowulf (Films for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Princeton, NJ, 2007).

--The performance is in Old English with modern English subtitles. Have students listen for words that sound familiar to modern English words, especially shorter words such as we. How do the vowels sounds differ even in familiar words?

--After listening to Benjamin Bagby’s pronunciation of the first words of the poem, have students try to pronounce them: Hwæt we gar-dena in gear-dagum. The first two words literally mean, “What we.”

--Look at the shape and size of the harp, which is modeled on Anglo-Saxon harps. How does it differ from students’ expectations of the harp the bard uses in the novel?

--We don’t know how the harp would have been used in the performance, or whether the words would have been chanted or sung. How do students react to the choices Bagby, a musician who worked with Beowulf scholars, makes?

NORSE MYTHOLOGY

In Beowulf, the poet describes the people as “heathen” without giving any specific details. Describe their religion (which is based on Norse mythology) as it is portrayed in the novel.

--What roles do you think the gods Odin, Thor, Freyja, and Loki play in the novel?

--In what ways are goats and ravens important to the story? What gods are they associated with in Norse mythology?

Do a little research on the Norse pantheon to find out what animals and implements are associated with specific gods. In particular, look for ravens, goats, cats, and wolves, as well as hammers, magic cloaks, and gloves.

How do the giants and the gods interact in stories from the Norse myths?

---

The Book of the Maidservant

Questions for Discussion

--Johanna lives in the 15th century, almost 600 years ago. What details of 15th-century life appeal to you? What would you dislike the most?

--Johanna doesn’t know how to read or write. Neither does her mistress, Margery Kempe. What effect does this have on their lives? How would Johanna’s life be different if she were literate?

--Johanna carries practical items such as her flint, some food, and extra pins for her mistress’s veil in her scrip, the leather pouch she wears at her belt. She also carries treasures such as the pebble from the river where she grew up and a blue glass bead she finds on the journey. What role do these items play in her story? What would you put in your scrip if you were going on a pilgrimage?

--One of Johanna’s duties is to build fires. What role do fires (and fire-building) play in the story?

--In what ways are kitchens and food-preparation important to Johanna and her story?

--What do you think will happen to Johanna after the end of the novel? What details in the story lead you to that conclusion?

--Why is each of the travelers going on the journey? Who, among the pilgrims, is the most changed by the pilgrimage? In what ways? How is Johanna’s outlook on life affected by her pilgrimage? In what ways does she change? In what ways does she stay the same?

Classroom Projects

--If you have read the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, you know that a group of 14th-century pilgrims journeys to the shrine to St. Thomas à Becket in Canterbury, England. Compare the travelers on Johanna’s journey to Chaucer’s pilgrims. You might look particularly at Chaucer’s Clerk (student), his merchant, and his Wife of Bath.

--Chaucer includes teenaged boys (such as the clerk and the squire) among his pilgrims, but no teenaged girls. If Johanna had been one of his pilgrims, how might he have described her in his General Prologue? What sort of tale might he have given her to tell? Plan out and write Johanna’s Tale.

--During the Middle Ages, people went on pilgrimages to many shrines, and at each one, they could collect a metal badge. For example, pilgrims to the shrine of St. James in Compostella, Spain, got badges shaped like a scallop shell. Often, people wore their badges on their hats to show where they had been. Do some research to see if you can discover what other kinds of badges medieval pilgrims got. Where were some of the most important shrines?

--Choose a character in the novel you would like to know more about. Make up a story about that person, inventing a scene we don’t see in the novel. What research will you have to do in order to give accurate details?

--Retell a scene that’s already in the novel, from the point of view of a different character. How much does the scene change, and why?

--Visit the website, “Mapping Margery Kempe,” at http://www.holycross.edu/departments/visarts/projects/kempe/ to find out more about life in 15th-century England. Choose a character from the novel, or make one up, and using research from the website, write a day in the life of that character, from sunrise to sunset. What social class is your character, and how much difference does that make to his or her daily life? What kinds of details are you unable to find?

--Another good visual source for medieval life is the 14th-century English manuscript, The Luttrell Psalter. It has pictures of a knight and his family, as well as images of peasants working and playing. Many images from the manuscript are available on the Web. A particularly good site is The British Library’s “Turning the Pages,” which allows viewers to zoom in on images from several pages of the manuscript. http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/luttrell/luttrell_broadband.htm