ASU schedules 2nd annual Beowulf Symposium

Even though it was written hundreds of years ago, the epic story of Beowulf, hero of the Geats, remains a mainstay of Anglo-Saxon literature.

ASU scholars and lovers of “Beowulf” will gather for the second annual Beowulf Symposium March 21-22 at two different locations.

The symposium begins March 21, with a lecture by Asa Mittman, lecturer in the ASU Herberger School of Art, titled “The Monster That I Am: Otherness and Identity from Beowulf (circa 1,000 A.D.) to Beowulf (2007),” and the showing of a medieval monster movie (title to be determined), from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the College of Design North, room 60, on ASU’s Tempe campus.

Mittman is the author of “Monsters and Maps in Medieval England” and “Inconceivable Beasts: The Wonders of the East in the Beowulf Manuscript,” co-written with Susan Kim, which will be released this year by the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

On March 22, there will be “An Epic Event: A Communal Reading of Beowulf in Old and Modern English” at 4 p.m. at Bob’s Mead Hall (the home of Robert Bjork). (R.S.V.P. to Heather Maring at heather.maring@asu.edu for this event and send an e-mail to jennifer.michaud@asu.edu for directions.)

The Beowulf Symposium is sponsored by the English Department, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the English Club.

For more information, contact Maring at (480) 965-3744.