Loyalty
Teah Sensenich
Beowulf's Eulogy
Today we are mourning the loss of our fellow king, Beowulf, who led us for 50 years. He kept Geatland safe and protected. He is the most courageous man in all of the world. Not only will we Geats remember Beowulf’s bravery, but so will the Danes. He killed Grendel with his bare hands in order to protect us all. He hunted down Grendel’s mother in her own home and killed her. Many people gave up on Beowulf’s return but not me or the other Geats. We stayed awaiting Beowulf’s return because we had faith in our great leader. He showed acts of loyalty through going through numerous situations between life and death and coming up on top. He stayed loyal to us and the Danes by promising to kill Grendel and that he did! After being king for our great land for some time, he accepted the dragon’s challenge to fight. Although he was approaching old age, he still fought to protect us, his people! He managed to stab the dragon in the stomach and kill it. At the same time, the dragon mortally injured Beowulf and sadly, our courageous, loyal, and strong leader died. We built the tower like he asked. People from all over the land can see the tower and honor Beowulf from afar. Beowulf will forever be remembered as the best leader to come into Geatland. He put his people before himself, and because of his selflessness, we will honor him from this day forward and try to show as much loyalty as he did.
Reflection
I wrote a eulogy over Beowulf from the perspective as a soldier of his army. My theme is that a great leader stays loyal to his/her people no matter what just as Beowulf did through many acts.
Beowulf Ballad
Beowulf would not accept the answer “no”
He jumped into the lake and away he goes
Beowulf swims to the bottom of the lake,
Where he battles the evil snake
Once there, his sword failed
He found one on the wall
Confronted the beast with a stab
They battled there in the great hall
He murders Grendel’s mother,
Now Grendel needs another
He finds Grendel in the hall
Then chops his head in front of all
His people wait and wait
Thinking the beast made him into bait
Everyone else gave up hope
But the Geats stayed and would not leave, nope
Finally Beowulf returned
A head is the trophy he earned
His people began to cheer and cheer
They no longer have to live in fear
Reflection
Canterbury Diary Entry
May 15, 1251
Dear Diary,
Today I got offered a new job in the city that pays double what I receive now. Of course I didn’t accept though. Why would I? Money isn’t everything to me like most of the people in this town. I would rather preach to people who listen and adore my sermons even though I make hardly any money. I may be poor on the outside, but on the inside, I am rich in holy thoughts and deeds. Since today is Sunday, I just got done preaching to my church group and speaking of the Gospel. I believe God helps me through everything, and that is why I can preach his words and teach his lessons. I also ran into the friar, monk, and pardoner. Man, what a shame those people are. I hardly talk down on anyone, but they pushed me down and spit in my face! They said God doesn’t exist, and I am a joke. How dare they! I know God is real; I can feel his presence throughout my everyday life. Anyway, not much else happened today worth sharing. Just an average day in the life of a parson. I have to run; I have a sermon in a couple hours! The people are counting on me.
Sincerely,
The Parson
Reflection
"Dear Reader"
Dear Reader,
I completed a multigenre project over Beowulf and Canterbury Tales. The topic I came up with to use for every project was loyalty. I chose this certain topic because loyalty is portrayed frequently throughout Beowulf and even some in Canterbury Tales. I would explain this project as being stressful due to the fact that there was something due every week while trying to complete blog posts. Once I got the hang of the project, I actually grew to enjoy it. During this project, I learned that loyalty is shown within many different stories and that there are many different ways to go about loyalty. For example, I used loyalty to show that a good leader sticks to his people, but I also used it to describe a good citizen remains loyal to their leader. One thing I believed to do well was the ballad. I actually was really nervous to try to write a ballad, but I ended up really liking it! It was unique and showed inner creativity. One thing I felt challenging was to write a diary entry from the perspective of the Parson mainly because I felt as if I didn’t have enough information on him. Although, I used his description from the prologue, and it didn’t turn out too bad. One thing I will remember to do in the future is to try to take more time to make it as best as possible. As a stressed senior in high school, we seem to forget to just relax and take our time.
Sincerely,
Teah