NOTICE: This is an older course recorded with Adobe Connect and/or Vimeo recordings. We are currently working to replace the recordings with new Zoom recordings. Please don't hesitate to email us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.
How to get the most out of Medieval Literature for Modern Catholics with Dr. Henry Russell:
- First, read the course details below.
- Purchase or borrow the book and begin reading.
- Prepare a notebook for taking notes as you read and watch the lectures.
- Students begin the course by clicking on the "Recording" and watching the lecture for Class One.
- Complete the weekly quizzes, which are graded automatically by the computer. Report your grade to your parent.
- If you need review, go back and watch the recording again.
- Repeat until all 13 classes are complete.
- Once the course is done to the parent's satisfaction, complete the Certificate of Completion at the bottom for your records.
- Make sure to record your grades (HSC does not provide record keeping services).
Total Classes: 13
Prerequisite: The ability to read and enjoy the works
Suggested Grade Level: 10th to 12th grade or college
Suggested High School Credit: One full semester Classical Literature
Instructor: Henry Russell, Ph.D.
Course Description: Each of these three books is written from the Medieval perspective of a Catholic faith demanding heroic action and courtesy in the world, in imitation of Christ our Master. J.R.R. Tolkien’s complete familiarity with these works made them a kind of canvas from which he drew forth the high virtues of his own Lord of the Rings. Beowulf shows how the heroic virtues of the Norse and Germanic war bands found their true fulfillment in the following of Christian heroism. Beowulf fights both a descendant of Cain and a dragon that represents the power of Satan on earth. Le Morte D’Arthur is the Englishman Mallory’s collection and harmonization of tales told of Arthur throughout Europe.
The book is too long for us to read entire, so we will look at the bones of the great story of founding a Catholic Kingdom, based on chivalrous and holy defense of the weak and on using strength for good. Ultimately it becomes both the story of the search for holiness in looking for the Holy Grail—the cup of the Last Supper—and a story of how all great nations fall because of personal sin—the tangled tale of holiness and falling that Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot enact. Finally the most elegant of Arthurian tales, Gawain and the Green Knight, shows how all men must be willing gaily to leave the beautiful world that God has given them, in imitation of Jesus himself. We will see how courtesy and heroism must be found together. Our basic question will be, who is the Green Knight, and how will we ourselves meet him just as surely as Gawain did? An answer is guaranteed.
Course Materials:
- Beowulf. Kennedy translation . Oxford. 0195024354
- Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. Burton Raffel. Signet. 0451531191.
- Le Morte D’Arthur. Penguin editions use modernize spellings—very helpful. Do not use Pyle or other de-Catholicized rewritings.
Homework: Weekly quiz, midterm, and final. Answer keys provided for parental or self grading. Expect 1 to 1.5 hours of reading each week.
- Teacher: Henry Russell