Teaching & Learning Guide for: Alfred the Great’s Boethius
Authors: Discenza Nicole Guenther 
Published: June 2007

Author Recommends:

Walter John Sedgefield rendered the Boethius in a modern English translation, King Alfred’s Version of the Consolations of Boethius. Done into Modern English, with an Introduction (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900) for students who cannot read Old English and to supplement selected passages in the Old English for advanced students.

Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge’s translation Alfred the Great: Asser’s Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources (New York: Penguin, 1983) includes excerpts from Alfred’s translations. The Boethius is represented by several short excerpts (131–7), and their translation avoids the archaic English of Sedgefield’s rendering.

For students of Old English, Peter S. Baker prints selections on fame from both the prose Boethius and the Meters in his Introduction to Old English (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), 186–94.

Malcolm Godden’s ‘Player King: Identification and Self‐Representation in King Alfred’s Writings’, in Alfred the Great: Papers from the Eleventh‐Centenary Conferences, ed. Timothy Reuter, Studies in Early Medieval Britain 3 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), 137–50, raises important questions about the narrative voice in the Boethius and suggests that Alfred himself may not be the author.

Online Materials:

Kevin Kiernan’s site on the Electronic Boethius offers images from the manuscripts themselves at http://beowulf.engl.uky.edu/~kiernan/eBoethius/mss.htm‐OA6

Hear Peter Baker reading from another of Alfred’s famous works, the Preface to the Pastoral Care, in Old English at http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/Guide.Readings/Alfred.html

See also excerpts in Old English from the prose Boethius and the Meters of Boethius on Fame in the Anthology from Baker’s Introduction to Old English at http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/anthology/boethius.html

The Alfredian Boethius Project website at http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/boethius/index.html offers an overview of the project, a brief bibliography, and the full text of a few of the papers presented at the annual symposia.

Sample Syllabus 1: Introduction to Old English Language and Poetry

Objectives: This course is designed to:

• help you gain a reading knowledge of Old English

• teach you to use reference and research tools in Anglo‐Saxon studies

• make you familiar with some of the greatest short poems in Old English

• introduce you to the secondary literature on Old English poetry

Requirements:

Reading, preparation, and participation for each class

Weekly quizzes and occasional written worksheets

Annotated bibliography

Final exam

Required texts: Peter S. Baker, Introduction to Old English (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003) 0‐631‐23454‐3

Kevin Crossley‐Holland, The Anglo‐Saxon World (Oxford: Oxford U P, 1999) 0‐19‐283547‐5

Week 1‐ Introduction to Old English history, culture, and language

Week 2‐ Baker Chs. 1–4. For each chapter, do all online exercises. Ask me for help if you have questions or need more practice!

Sample OE poetry: ‘Heroic Poems’ (2–21) and ‘Elegies’ (45–60) in Crossley‐Holland’s translation

Lecture and discussion: OE poetry

Week 3‐ Baker 5, ‘Pronouns,’ and Minitext A; Baker 16, ‘Reading Old English Manuscripts’

Continue to sample OE poetry in translation: if you haven’t done so recently, read Beowulf (74–154) in Crossley‐Holland or another acceptable translation (Liuzza, for instance; for others, see me)

Lecture and discussion: Old English manuscripts and editions

Week 4‐ Baker 6, ‘Nouns’ and Quickstart 7, ‘Verbs’; Minitext B

Sample more OE poetry in Crossley‐Holland’s translation: The Dream of the Rood, Durham, and Bede’s Death Song (200–5); excerpts from the OE Physiologus (280–9); The Fortunes of Men (304–6)

Lecture and discussion: the Old English Corpus online (available through USF library); working on vocabulary

Written assignment for next time: worksheet on Old English Corpus

Week 5‐ Baker 7, ‘Verbs’; Quickstarts 8, ‘Adjectives’, and 10, ‘Adverbs, Conjunctions and Prepositions’; Minitexts C and D

Lecture and discussion: Anglo‐Saxon art and archaeology

Week 6‐ Review Baker 7, ‘Verbs’; Baker 8, ‘Adjectives,’: ‘A’; Minitexts I and K

Lecture and discussion: Fontes Anglo‐Saxonici (http://fontes.english.ox.ac.uk/ and CD‐Rom available in the library)

Written assignment for next time: worksheet on Fontes

Week 7‐ Baker 9 and 10, ‘Numerals’ and 10, ‘Adverbs, Conjunctions and Prepositions’

‘The Story of Cædmon,’ 182–4, sentences 1–16

Week 8‐ Annotated bibliography due

Baker 11–12, ‘Concord’ and ‘Word‐order’

Finish ‘The Story of Cædmon’, 184–6

Week 9‐ Baker 13–15, ‘Metre’, ‘Poetic Style’, and ‘The Grammar of Poetry’

Boethius on Fame: Meter VII, pp. 192–4

Week 10‐ Nicole Guenther Discenza, ‘Alfred the Great’s Boethius.’Literature Compass 3 (2006): http://www.blackwell‐compass.com/subject/literature/section_home?section=lico‐medieval

Begin reading Dream of the Rood (201–5)

Week 11‐ Complete Dream of the Rood

Week 12‐ Mary Dockray‐Miller, ‘The Feminized Cross of The Dream of the Rood,’Philological Quarterly 76 (1997): 1–18 (available online through MLA Database)

Begin reading The Wanderer (196–200)

Week 13‐ Complete The Wanderer

Week 14‐ Wulf and Eadwacer and The Wife’s Lament (206–10)

Conclusions

Final paper due

Week 15‐ Final examination

Sample Syllabus 2: British Literature to 1616

Objectives: This course is designed to help you:

• Become familiar with some of the most significant genres, writers, and works of English literature through the early Renaissance.

• Gain an overview of the historical development of English language and literature.

• Refine your analytical, verbal, and research skills.

• Prepare yourself for more specialized courses in literature.

Requirements:

In‐class quizzes

Two examinations

Five‐page essay

Three‐ to five‐page research proposal

Ten‐page research paper

Required texts:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8th ed., vols. 1A–B

Coursepack of supplementary readings

Highly recommended:
The MLA Handbook, sixth edition.

Week 1‐ Introduction to course

Old English Period

Read introduction to the early Middle Ages (1–7, 19–20)

Riddles (coursepack)

Alfred’s Preface to the Pastoral Care (108–111)

Week 2‐ Selections from the Boethius (coursepack)

Nicole Guenther Discenza, ‘Alfred the Great’s Boethius.’Literature Compass 3 (2006): http://www.blackwell‐compass.com/subject/literature/section_home?section=lico‐medieval

Week 3‐ Beowulf (Headnote, 29–34, and pp. 34–100)

Look at Illustrations to Beowulf Norton Online http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/middleages/topic_4/illustrations.htm

Week 4‐ Finish Beowulf

Dream of the Rood (27–9) and the Ruthwell Cross:

http://www.flsouthern.edu/eng/abruce/rood/home.htm

Week 5‐ Anglo‐Norman Literature

Introduction, 7–10

Marie de France, selections from Lais (141–57)

Essay due

Week 6‐ MIDDLE ENGLISH

Introduction, 10–21

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Parts 1–2 (160–85)

Illustrations, esp. #2 (from the Gawain manuscript): http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/middleages/topic_2/illustrations.htm

Week 7‐ Finish Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Parts 3–4 (185–213)

First examination

Week 8‐ Reread Intro, 15–19; Headnote to Chaucer and CT (213–8)

Look at Illustrations: http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/middleages/topic_1/illustrations.htm

Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue (218–38)

Week 9‐ Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Tale (257–84)

Research proposal and bibliography due

Week 10‐ Chaucer, The Nun’s Priest’s Tale (298–312) and ending (312–5)

Henryson, ‘The Cock and the Fox’ (457–63)

Week 11‐ Early Modern: The Sixteenth Century

Intro, 485–513

The English Bible: Selections from 1 Corinthians 13 (619–21)

Selections from Elizabeth I’s translation of the Psalms (coursepack)

Mary (Sidney) Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, translations of Ps 52 and 139 (994–7)

Week 12‐ Royal Speeches

Background:

http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/16century/topic_3/welcome.htm

Queen Mary (headnote, 663), ‘Oration in the Guildhall,’ (666–8)

Elizabeth I (headnote, 687–8), ‘Speech to the House of Commons’ (690–2), ‘Speech to the Troops at Tilbury’ (699–700), The ‘Golden Speech’ (700–3)

Poetry

Selections from Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder (headnote 592–4): ‘Divers doth use’ (598); ‘They flee from me’ (versions on 599 and 600); ‘My lute, awake!’ (600–601), ‘Blame not my lute’ (602–3), ‘Mine own John Poins’ (604–6)

Verse Exchange between Elizabeth and Sir Walter Ralegh (698–9)

Week 13‐ Shakespeare, from The Sonnets (1058–77): Sonnets 1, 20, 65, 80, 85, 126–30, 135, 144

Second examination

Week 14‐ Shakespeare, Twelfth Night or Lear

Week 15‐ Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (1025–55). Read also headnote 1002–4 and see http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/16century/topic_1/welcome.htm and http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/16century/topic_1/illustrations.htm, Illustrations 1 and 2

Research paper due