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Kat Deal's avatar

Jeremy, great job on this post! I decided to read yours before I wrote my own because you mentioned women in the title and as someone that writes mainly about women in connection with our assigned texts, I am struggling this week! Glad you're experiencing the same frustration! Great job articulating Brak's death and how women's sacrifice never amounts to hero/martyr status.

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Kamela Miles's avatar

Jeremy, I really could hear you through your tone in this. It's honest and you do a great job of explaining what happens in Beowulf and Egil's Saga surrounding the women but also telling it like it is that they weren't properly represented. I specifically connected to the parts of Brak and her physical strength in contrast with her motherly side. This may be too cliche but I feel that she was killed off because she was too powerful for the story and time that she was presented in.

This savior and nurturing figure is given for the women because it is believed that men are, and are supposed to be, the opposite of that. That's why I think the contrast between Egil's violent side and his poetic side was so important to him as a character and the story. Though it still missed the mark, I believe Egil's Sage did a better job at portraying the women in the story and attempting to acknowledge them more than a shadow of a woman who is not important enough to be named.

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