I like the original text (translated from Old English to English, of course). I can't remember which translation I read it in; some are better than others.
watching down on us
why have I not posted in this thread yet
Warrior Eowyn: There are a wide variety of ways to translate Beowulf, so any translation is technically not the original text. While I'd love to read it in its original form, my old english is not nearly good enough and because it is a dead language won't ever be. Also, the one surviving manuscript has some scribal errors and severe damage.
As for my favorite translation:
Footnotes and all.
Also, the absolute greatest totally nonserious retelling of Beowulf ever conceived:
http://bettermyths.blogspot.com/2010/11/beowulf-eats-napalm-and-shits-asses.html
http://bettermyths.blogspot.com/2010/12/beowulf-is-product-of-genetic.html
http://bettermyths.blogspot.com/2010/12/beowulf-can-kick-ass-so-hard-it-flies.html
This website is the most wonderful website and everybody should read it.
I also derive some enjoyment from plotting my own vanity project.
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I would also love to see this guy live. Benjamin Bagby is the name and he's touring in the USAAAAAAAAAAAA
BEO-WULFFFFFFF
I could sperg on all day about Beowulf and all its forms that I enjoy, except the day is mostly set where I am and I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing what annebeeche has to say about Beowulf for now so I won't start.
edited 28th Oct '11 6:48:58 PM by annebeeche
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
Slay foes with bow and arrow
I thought this would be an annebeeche thread.
watching down on us
Nah—heaven knows that I do enjoy milking and poking fun at my reputation as the local Beowulf/Germanics fanatic, but making a thread about your favorite version of Beowulf is a bit too obvious for me to do.
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
Zzzzzzzzzz
I partly (mostly) wanted to hear your reaction to the video.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
watching down on us
Well, I thought it was hilarious. Not the first time I've seen that interpretation of Beowulf, and won't be the last. That was very well done. :D
With regards to the presentation, I was pleased by the fact that the costume and setting looked somewhat accurate, ignoring obvious intentional anachronisms. "Somewhat" is the least I ask for, people, and these artists gave it. A nice big brofist to them.
And the drinking-horn phone is awesome.
That would be a longhouse/meadhall, not a castle, though, and pretty much the whole thing is a feasting hall. Castles as we know them wouldn't appear in Scandinavia for quite a while. In the sense of a fortified settlement, though, the whole settlement of Heorot/Lejre (including surrounding buildings and possible fortification) could be considered a castle, but not the hall itself.
</nitpickynitpickblahblahpromisenottospergaboutgermanicsfailedmiserably>
edited 28th Oct '11 11:15:04 PM by annebeeche
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
watching down on us
Hey, I just realized—where's Unferth, the dude who actually challenges Beowulf in the original? He was my favorite character in the poem.
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
I have balls.
No mention of Michael Crichton's version (Eaters of the Dead)? I thought it was pretty entertaining—not so much the movie adaptation, however...
They never travel alone.
Collector Of Fine Oddities
The translation done by William Alfred is the only one I've read, so I'll go with that one.
Redmess
I really enjoyed Tolkien's translation of the work, as he also provides many notes to the text.
Tolkien has also written several papers on Beowulf (well, lectures, actually, but they are structured like papers), and kickstarted the modern way of reading Beowulf. "The Monsters and the Critics" is well worth a read if you are ready to study the text a bit more in depth.
And it is an extraordinary poem! Consider that when it was written down around the year 1000 (give or take a quarter century), it's subject was already ancient, going back to the sixth century. Tolkien puts it most beautifully in the abovementioned essay:
Edited by Redmess on Feb 26th 2020 at 2:05:13 PM
Optimism is a duty.
I like the Tolkien version, and the re-telling in Sellic Spell. In particular I like the way he tries to preserve some of the original alliteration in his English version.
However, I took a few Anglo-Saxon classes as part of getting my English degree (Lo those many years ago) and I'm fluent in Dutch (which is relatively close to Anglo-Saxon in some ways), so with the help of a glossary I can reasonably enjoy the original.
Redmess
Well, technically, Frisian is the closest. It's not so much that Dutch is closer to Anglo-Saxon, than that Anglo-Saxon is closer to Germanic languages in general.
Optimism is a duty.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Right. I've never been able to find much support in learning Frisian, the language of my own ancestors, however. At least not here in America. It would probably be different if I were living in Freisland.
Edited by Bense on Feb 27th 2020 at 10:58:31 AM
Redmess
Well, given that Friesland is a small rural province within the Netherlands, that does not surprise me.
Optimism is a duty.
This one is my new favorite.