What's going on here? We thought he was a good king, but now he sounds like a tyrant. The gap between these two stanzas indicates a shift in time. Here, we are going back in time to the beginning of Gilgamesh's story--before he was redeemed by his journey. He's not such a good guy here. Can you find evidence, in this stanza, of his youthful flaws and highlight them?

The speaker makes Gilgamesh sound pretty amazing. What other words and phrases can you find in this opening stanza that support this idea that he is "supreme"? Highlight a few of them and add a comment.

These are all things that Gilgamesh does in the story we're about to read. In other words, this introduction presents us with the Gilgamesh we will know by the end of the story--the good king who has been redeemed.

Who is speaking here? Remember that this story comes to us from an oral tradition. It was told over and over again for generations before it was ever written down. Picture a storyteller around a campfire sharing this tale about the remarkable king Gilgamesh.

I imagine these seeded annotations would not only promote deeper thinking but also inspire students to "up their game" in terms of the quality of their own posts.