Oh, actually good question. Yeah, I'd hold off watching until you've read it. I don't know if there are any major spoilers in it, but best not take chances. One thing I will say is watch a part of the video: from 5.15 to 6.30, to see the start of the Julian Glover performance. of the poem. It's a mood like that I had in my head when I first read it, with a heavy rain outside, and a big & roaring fire, and the smell of roasted chicken and ale glasses.
I took a literature class in college where we read Beowulf. When I read it I thought, OK, that was an interesting story about a dragon. Then the professor started lecturing and he talked about all kinds of symbolism and linkage and massive amounts of hidden meaning and minutiae and I thought to myself, "We didn't read the same book." All of the academic stuff had gone completely over my head when I read it. I remember thinking at the time, did the author really intend all of the stuff the professor was talking about or have academics read meaning into places it wasn't intended? I'm sure some (much?) of it was symbolism intended by the author, but I thought to myself at the time, "I bet some of interpretation by academics goes beyond what the author intended." No way to know for sure. But the high-brow academic stuff was not very interesting to me. Struck me as a case of too much time on their hands. I found the microscopic interpretations painful to endure.
Wow, a thread returns to life! I've read a few translations, but I always go back to the Heaney translation and recommend it to others. For one thing, he adheres closer to the rhythms and alliteration schemes of true skaldic poetry, as the sample Jannert quotes: There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes, A wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes. This terror of the hall-troops had come far. A foundling to start with, he would flourish later on As his powers waxed and his worth was proved. In the end each clan on the outlying coats Beyond the whale-road had to yield to him And begin to pay tribute. That was one good king. I think it takes a poet to translate a poet. Heaney and Beowulf, Ciardi and the Divine Comedy. It's true they take liberties that more scholarly translators wouldn't, but they seem to know when they can get away with it, and they give us a richer experience. A friend of mine, Robert Koepke, has been working on a "translation" of Beowulf for some time now. More properly described, it's a "reconstruction" in that he is trying to eliminate the Christian influences to produce a work that is more properly authentic to the period in which it was first created. Interesting project!
If you haven't read a bit of the Translation done by JRR Tolkien than you are MISSING OUT. It is simply gorgeous. and since my fam is Scandinavian I feel very close to my ancestors through this legend. I love Beowulf.
I once read this book in the original. This was incredible. I first learned about this collection of poems from my friends. They advised me to read it. And I was very fond of her. Every poem is something incredible. I especially liked the second part about the old king who defeats a dragon but gets fatally wounded. If someone hasn't read "Beowulf" yet, I recommend reading it. (Off-forum link removed by Moderator.) You will definitely not remain indifferent and will want to read it. It is not for nothing that this is the oldest of all the national epic poems of medieval Europe. Moderator Note: We do not allow off-forum links to pages that offer merchandise (in this case 'essays') for sale. Please read our Forum Rules for full details.
It's really cool that this thread is still being used! Heaney certainly does some interesting things with his Beowulf, doesn't he? I know people who really don't like his translation, but as a poem I think his version is really good all the same! Helps I played Skyrim when I read it for the first time, and the two things kind of bled into each other. Over the years I've translated bits of Beowulf myself. I'll have to check with an editor if I can reprint it here if anyone would be interested in my translation of the first 40-or-so lines, since I had it published in a magazine. Translating it's a tough thing to do! How's your friend getting along with it?
