For Thursday: The Word Exchange, Poems About Living: (see poems below)

For Thursday's class, read the following poems from this section (you can read them all, but we'll only have time to discuss a few, so I don't mind limiting it to the following):

* Maxims I-A

* Maxims I-B

* Maxims I-C

* Vainglory

* The Riming Poems

Here are some ideas to consider as you read (we'll do an in-class writing response as usual when you get to class):

* How should we read the Maxims? As an anthology of short pieces (scraps) of wisdom? Or as complete, coherent poems? Do they move logically from beginning to end? Or are they a hodgepodge of wise, but contradictory information from many times and lands?

* However, if we assume that each set (A, B, and C) are by a single author, what kind of poet wrote ‘A’? Who wrote ‘B’? And who wrote ‘C?’ What personality shapes the ideas and sayings of each one? You might even connect it to the author of one of the poems we’ve already read (which one did the Deor poet write, for example?).

* Would you say these poems are more philosophical or pragmatic in nature? In other words, do they deal with poetic abstractions that require deep thought and speculation; or are they mostly practical sayings for the guidance of the common folk? 

* How do these poems illustrate the social rules and expectations of women in the Anglo Saxon world? How might this shed some light on the fate of women in such poems as “The Wife’s Lament” and “Wulf and Eadwacer”?

* Are there moments of contradiction in these Maxims? Do they more or less advocate the same ideals and truths? Or are these sentiments impossible to follow due to conflicting ideas and values? Do the contradictions (if there are any) occur in a single poem, or only in one vs. the other? (A vs. C, for example?).

* Reading these with Tolkien in mind, are these poems more likely to be written by a Bilbo or a Gandalf? A Hobbit or an Elf? Or a Dwarf? What kind of knowledge/wisdom do they seem to represent?