Hrothgar+(E+Block)

**Hrothgar ; Position 2**
By. Dongmyung Lee 1. Trial Preparation:
 * check your block's wiki page for your role assignment for the trial
 * outline the major points for your role in the trial - post on your "role" wiki page D or G block (e.g. Beowulf)
 * lawyers - you should communicate with the other lawyers in your group so you can divide up the opening and closing statements, and who will be questioning which witnesses. You should also communicate about your major arguments and counter arguments.
 * your outline should include specific ideas and page / line numbers for the direct quotations you plan on using
 * include as much information on this outline as possible


 * __Thesis:__** The world and everything is planned, existence is meaningful, the past is relevant, and everything matters. Disproving the statement "The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters." which is not true.


 * __Argument 1:__** Existence is meaningful because it represents something in the world; Hrothgar has contributed greatly to the development of people in the Danes. Hrothgar took his time to sit down and talk to his council to make roads which will help the Danes. This shows how wise Hrothgar is and how much he is willing to help the Danes. Existence of Hrothgar is very significant to the Danes because without Hrothgar, they wouldn't be getting much developments.


 * __Textual Support 1__**: “Hrothgar met with his council for many nights and days, and they drank and talked and prayed to their curious carved-out creatures and finally came to a decision. They built roads. The kings from whom they'd taken tributes of treasure they now asked for tributes of men. Then Hrothgar and his neighbors, loaded like ants on a long march, pushed foot by foot and day by day around the marshes and over the moors and through the woods, pressing flat rocks into the soft ground and grass, and packing smaller stones around the rocks' sides...” Page 39 Paragraph 2 Grendel.


 * __Argument 2:__** Past is relevant because past will help you and everything is planned. Hrothgar gets benefits for knowing the past of Beowulf’s ancestry. In the past, Hrothgar’s father and Beowulf’s father were friends which helps Beowulf believe Hrothgar and help him when he is in danger. Hrothgar says that his father was a great man, which makes Beowulf trust that Hrothgar is also a great man. Their father knew each other in the past and now they met each other and got to know each other. This shows that everything is planned because their father knowing each other lead to their sons to meet and get to know each other. The past, which in this case is the father/ancestry, is relevant because it will help in someway.


 * __Textual Support 2:__** “Hrothgar, protector of Shieldings, replied:/ “I used to know him when he was a young boy./ His father before him was called Ecgtheow./ Hrethel the Geat gave Ecgtheow, his daughter in marriage. This man is their son,/ here to follow up an old friendship. … bids me announce that he knows your ancestry.” Lines 371~391, Page 27, Beowulf.


 * __Argument 3:__** Everything matters because everything someone does, shows us about them selves. Hrothgar called Beowulf after he had defeated Grendel’s mother to tell him how great he was. Flower of Warriors shows us that even though Beowulf used strength, he used it to help the Danes. Violence is sometimes good because it should be used when we are protecting someone. Flower of warriors is that by defeating Grendel’s mother, which is something Beowulf did, shows us something about what person they are.


 * __Textual support 3:__** “O flower of warriors, beware of that trap./Choose, dear Beowulf, the better part,/eternal rewards. Do not give way to pride./For a brief while your strength is in bloom/but it fades quickly; and soon there will follow /illness or the sword to lay you low,/or a sudden fire or surge of water/or jabbing blade or javelin from the air/or repellent age. Your piercing eye/will dim and darken; and death will arrive, /dear warrior, to sweep you away.” Lines 1758 ~ 1768 page 121 Beowulf.

I, the king of the Danes, think that the world and everything is planned, existence is meaningful, the past is relevant, and everything matters. Existence of me and everyone else is very meaningful for many reasons. Without existence, the world wouldn’t have been developed. We are born, therefore we have to live our lives and it would be better if we live in a developed place. Therefore development is significant, and development comes from existence. //“Hrothgar met with his council for many nights and days, and they drank and talked and prayed to their curious carved-out creatures and finally came to a decision. They built roads.” Page 39 Paragraph 2 Grendel.// Me building roads would help the Danes with a better life, which shows that existence is important.
 * __Paragraph:__**

Also I say that past is relevant and everything is planned because the past will help you and the past shows that everything is planned. //“Hrothgar, protector of Shieldings, replied:/ “I used to know him when he was a young boy./ His father before him was called Ecgtheow./ Hrethel the Geat gave Ecgtheow, his daughter in marriage. This man is their son,/ here to follow up an old friendship. … bids me announce that he knows your ancestry.” Lines 371~391, Page 27, Beowulf//. I know that my father was friends with Beowulf’s father. This helped me because whenever I was in danger, Beowulf would have helped me because his father and my father were friends, showing that Beowulf could trust me. Also everything is planned because my father knowing Beowulf’s father and me meeting Beowulf are related. Parents know each other lead to me and Beowulf get closer, meaning that past is relevant and everything is planned.

Lastly, I say that everything matters because everything you do, we get to see what kind of a person you are and what kind of things you do. //“O flower of warriors, beware of that trap./Choose, dear Beowulf, the better part,/eternal rewards. Do not give way to pride. Lines 1758 ~ 1761 page 121 Beowulf.// Beowulf went to defeat Grendel’s mother inorder to protect my Danes. This had showed us what kind of person Beowulf is and shows us how we could trust him. I called him Flower of Warrior. Because flower is a beautiful thing but warrior is a violent thing, those words doesn’t match however, I used it to emphasise that Beowulf is a warrior who is beautiful meaning that he uses his strength inorder to help someone.

****Letter reflection:****
The next document will help you gain a deeper understanding of the philosophical issues being dealt with in //Grendel//. Reading it may very well help you develop clearer ideas about how you approach your role in the trial. It's a letter that John Gardner wrote to three students who had sent Mr. Gardner their papers about //Grende//l. Your assignment is to read the letter and explain what you learned by reading it and how what your learned will help you in the trial. Write your reflection on your "role" wiki page and title it "Letter Reflection." Clarification: in your "Letter Reflection" you are explaining what you learned by reading the letter and how what you learned will help you in the trial. 

By reading the letter from John Gardner, I got a deeper understanding about the philosophical issues in //Grendel//. When I was reading the book, it was very hard to difficult for me to understand the things about philosophy. I didn't know that Grendel wanted to end his stupid thoughts from the book because he kept on doing it which made me think that he didn't want to end it. However by reading the letter, I got further understanding about it. I found out that John Gardner writes his own thought and people interpret in different ways because people all think differently. By reading the letter from John Gardner, I tried to think in different ways and therefore I got a better understanding of the book and I viewed everything in different ways. Also by reading the John Gardner's letter, I found out that his writings are very confusing but when we think about it, the answer comes out. Therefore, I didn't get some parts from Grendel but because i tried to think in different ways and tried to dig the meaning out from it, I got some idea of the real meaning. This letter made me think about the things I didn't understand and when I thought about it, I finally got the meaning.