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Thursday, January 8, 2015

GETTING REACQUAINTED WITH YOUR ANCESTORS. AN EVENING WITH THE WOMEN OF BEOWULF.



Local author Donnita Rogers will return to the Northfield Public Library on Tuesday, January 27, 2015, at 7:00 pm and talk about her newest book, Fanning the Flames, book two of her Women of Beowulf series.

Drawing on her years of research and travels in Scandinavia, author and retired teacher Donnita Rogers will bring to life the women of the 6th century epic, Beowulf, and the related Saga of King Hrolf Kraki.

The elevated status of women in Norse culture will be compared and contrasted with the struggles of modern women for recognition and respect.

From her roots in rural Indiana, Donnita Lamb Rogers grew into a teacher, traveler and author. A lifelong passion for learning was fueled by her education at Earlham, a Quaker college, and the University of Minnesota, culminating in a PhD in English Literature. She adopted four children before beginning her teaching career in Texas, which included work at the University of Houston, Lone Star College and Kingwood High School, where she used drama and extensive student involvement to bring literature to life.

After retirement in 2001 she traveled the world, then began to research and write Faces in the Fire, a novel inspired by her teaching of the Old English epic, Beowulf. Five years were spent studying materials on Viking Age culture; a trip to Scandinavia offered such "on-site" experiences as crewing on a Viking ship replica in Denmark and climbing funeral mounds in Sweden, all to discover what life might have been like for women in sixth-century Scandinavia.  She and her partner Don divide their time among an island cabin in Canada, a river home in Texas, and a farmhouse near Northfield.

Book sales and signing will follow her presentation

The program is free and open to the public.  This program is part of the Northfield Public Library’s Hot Reads for Cold Nights adult winter reading program.

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