Story Time for Grownups, Portland - Beowulf and Grendel, M..

External Since: Apr 24, 2007 Posts: 13

STORY TIME FOR GROWNUPS

at Grendel’s Coffee House

presents

"The Fourth Fourth Annual Evening with Beowulf and Grendel"

Monday, July 7, 2008

For the fourth year in a row, guest reader Dick Lewis will perform
excerpts from the medieval epic Beowulf in the original Anglo-Saxon
and talk about this classic at Grendel's Coffee House, 729 East
Burnside in Portland, 503-595-9550, at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, July 7,
2008. Admission is free.

"Story Time for Grownups" host David Loftus also will read from
Grendel, John Gardner's modern retelling from the monster’s point of
view.

The first great work of English literature, dating from somewhere
between the 8th and 10th centuries by author or authors unknown,
Beowulf tells the story of a great Danish warrior who defeats the man-
eating Grendel and his hideous mother, as well as a treasure-guarding
dragon (who became the model for Tolkien's Smaug, in The Hobbit). The
only known copy of this masterpiece of medieval epic verse is on
display at the British Museum.

Lewis holds a doctorate in Old and Middle English Literature, and has
taught at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Willamette University,
and Washington State at Vancouver. Lewis was executive director of the
Oregon Council for the Humanities for 20 years. A cofounder of the
English morris dance team, the Bridgetown Morris Men, Lewis is also a
cofounder and guiding light of the Portland Christmas Revels.

External Since: May 05, 2007 Posts: 57

On Jun 27, 10:13 am, David Loftus <dlof... DeleteThis @earthlink.net> wrote:
> STORY TIME FOR GROWNUPS
>
> at Grendel’s Coffee House
>
> presents
>
> "The Fourth Fourth Annual Evening with Beowulf and Grendel"

Ah, me favorite evening dining companions.

"Beowulf, could you pass a piece of Grendel, and
stop with the jokes about 'disarming' him already."

My favorite tale of the theme "The Bully Examined" was
John Gardner's _Grendel_. To me, the significance
of this short, brillliant piece goes largely unappreciated.
If you can get into the mind of a monster who goes
running to mum when he's mortally injured, then
you understand half of history's villains.