Beowulf or Grendel

Beowulf translated by Burton Raffel or Seamus Heaney - Audiobook available in the CHS library.
Grendel by John Gardner - Audiobook available in the CHS library.

Poetry (choose 2 or 3)

"Forms of Heroes" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Oh Captain, My Captain" by Walt Whitman
"The Mental Traveler" by William Blake
"I Have a Rendezvous with Death" by Alan Seeger
"St Crispin's Day Speech" from Henry V, Act IV, Scene III by William Shakespeare

Short Fiction (choose 1)

Short Fiction (choose 1 or 2)

Multimedia (choose 2)

Clips from Super-hero movies or examples from comics
"St Crispin's Day Speech" from Henry V by William Shakespeare, starring Kenneth Branaugh
"Steps in the Hero's Cycle" Version 2 by Joseph Campbell (visual diagram)
"Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Leutze
"Liberty Leading the People" by Delacroix
"The Death of Socrates" by David
"St. George and the Dragon" by Raphael
"The Nightmare" by Fuseli

Documentaries/Movies

Short Videos

What Makes a Hero? from TEDed [4 minutes] on the hero cycle
An Anti-Hero of One's Own from TEDed [4 minutes]
Vampires: Folklore, Fantasy and Fact from TEDed [7 minutes]
The Hero's Journey through Hollywood movies [2 minutes]
Looney Tunes Guide to Fairy Tales from Looney Tunes [10 minutes] (compares fractured fairy tales to the Joseph Campbell model) - this is currently a .vob file, so download and open on your computer's VLC media player
"What is the Hero's Journey?" by Pat Soloman from TEDx [11 minutes]
The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth by Crash Course World Mythology [13 minutes]
Beowulf Overview [3 minutes] from Shmoop
All About Beowulf as a Translated Piece of Literature [3 minutes] from Shmoop
All About Beowulf's Historical Context [3 minutes] from Shmoop
Beowulf and Material Goods [3 minutes] from Shmoop
Beowulf and Gnomes [3 minutes] from Shmoop
The Antagonists of Beowulf [3 minutes] from Shmoop
Beowulf as a Hero [3 minutes] from Shmoop
Beowulf: A King's Responsibility [3 minutes] from Shmoop
Beowulf: The Film Versions [3 minutes] from Shmoop
Digressions in Beowulf [3 minutes] from Shmoop
Beowulf and Grendel: British Literature [3 minutes] from Shmoop
Beowulf and Repetition [3 minutes] from Shmoop
Beowulf: I Need a Hero [3 minutes] from Shmoop

Websites

Beowulf Manuscript at the British Library (owners of the oldest surviving manuscript)
Beowulf by Schmoop.com

Articles

"J.R.R. Tolkien Translation of Beowulf to be Published" from The Guardian
Beowulf: Context from SparkNote (Good, easy-to read summary of history of the poem itself/manuscript and context (conquests, heroes, etc.))
Anglo-Saxon and Germanic Culture: The Historical Setting of Beowul (Not entirely sure of the author/source, but a good, short easily jigsaw-ed article with sections on Anglo-Saxons, warrior-kings, paganism, etc.)
Placing Beowulf in History from Student Resources in Context (Focused mainly on the history of and dating the manuscript, based on literary clues)
Beowulf from Gale Resources in Context (Very short and simple article about the plot, history of manuscript, themes and enduring impact)
Beowulf from Myths and Legends of the World (Includes a 2 paragraph context section, and then a longer plot summary.)
Why Read Beowulf? by Robert Yeager (National Endowment of the Humanities, Mar/Apr 1999) (Largely about the history/authorship/dating of the work itself, but also discusses the appeal of its themes, and why it has endured)
Norse Mythology from Myths and Legends of the World (Medium-length rundown of how these stories were written down, major figures and themes)
James Bond as Literary Descendant of Beowulf from DISCovering Authors (Literary criticism)
Beowulf: New Light on the Dark Ages from History Today (Archaeological and historical evidence)

Books

Historical Nonfiction (choose 1)

Contemporary Nonfiction (choose 1 or 2)