On Debates and Five Minute Feuds

I love debates. They are exciting, thought-provoking and they satisfy my need to argue and prove others wrong (Yes, I know it's kind of childish, but I don't believe that you've never felt that urge.) However, this is something that I wouldn't imagine myself actually enjoying five years ago. Back then,  I was a poor public speaker. Delivering a speech in front of a small group made me stutter and shake so badly that I felt this was one of the worst forms of torture ever. Now, years of practice has given me confidence, and a feeling of enjoyment whenever I participate in a debate. Unfortunately, success in debate does not translate into victory in arguments. I still lose almost every argument I have with my little sister.
We've been doing Five Minute Feuds in British Literature, a short form of debate where there are two teams of three and everyone has 50 seconds to argue their case. You need to be short and concise when stating your arguments, because there is little time. This was something I kept forgetting. In a normal debate, you have four or five minutes to state your case, which gives you the opportunity to state your arguments, counter your opponents and expand on your points. A Five Minute Feud doesn't give you time to do that. What it does teach you is how to keep your arguments short, to the point and powerful.
I don't think I've mastered the skill of being concise and to the point yet, so I think I will stick with longer debates for now.

Beowulf

Beowulf is known as one of the greatest works of literature in Old English. It is an epic poem that has approximately 3,200 lines describing the adventures of the hero Beowulf. The poem is divided into three parts: Beowulf's fight against Grendel, the revenge of Grendel's mother and Beowulf's last battle against the dragon.
Beowulf is known from one single manuscript that is housed by the British library. The was a part of the Nowell Codex which originated from the late 10th century or early 11th century. Sir Robert Cotton later bound the Nowell Codex with the Southwick Codex and called it Cotton MS Vitellius A XV. Unfortunately, a fire in 1731 damaged the manuscript, charring its edges and making it very fragile. Further conservation efforts have kept the codex from deteriorating further, though the strips used to secure the parchment covered the text.
 Nevertheless, the language used in Beowulf is beautiful, filled with alliteration, imagery and symbolism. Reading the poem, you can see how life was before, when people died young and few could read. And if you listen closely, you might hear "the harp's rejoicing call and the poet's clear songs, sung of the ancient beginnings us all"(Beowulf v. 4-6) in Hrothgar's hall.

The original manuscript is available in digitized form here.

If you're interested in reading more, this post by the British Library's Medieval Manuscripts blog is about the contents of the Beowulf manuscript, and this one is about some interesting aspects of the Beowulf manuscript.