Posted on 08/31/2013 8:24:39 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Although the story of Beowulf centres around the heroic exploits of the Scandinavians, it found fame in the epic poem written in Old English by an Anglo-Saxon bard.
The poem, which is 3,000 lines long, is testimony to the historic links between the Norse and the Anglo-Saxons, some of whom emigrated from southern Scandinavia.
It tells the tale of Beowulf, a Geat warrior from modern-day Scandinavia, who travels to Denmark to help King Hrothgar defend his magnificent hall of Heorot.
Beowulf kills the monster Grendel, saving the Danes from his murderous attacks, then defeats the fiend's mother and is later acclaimed king of the Geats.
The poem concludes decades later with a face-off between the ageing king and a fearsome dragon, ending with the death of both.
It could have been written as early as the seventh century, but survives only in one manuscript from the early 11th century, which is now in the British Library but has been badly burnt...
The extent to which the events of the poem are based on historical fact is controversial, but it seems to have been inspired by the wealthy Danish court at Lejre...
Archaeologists have found a total of seven halls dating from various points between 500 and 1000, implying that the structures were periodically torn down and rebuilt.
The earliest of all the halls, located 500m from all the others, is the one most likely to have provided the historical inspiration for Heorot.
On the site there are the remains of hundreds of animals apparently killed and eaten at massive feasts, as recounted in the poem.
The animals include cattle, sheep, suckling pigs, goats, chicken, geese, ducks, deer and fish -- implying that the Scandinavian elite enjoyed a diverse and luxurious diet.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
My pleasure, and thanks!
Thanks all!
Ping of interest to you?
The movie was "The 13th Warrior." The film did poorly at the box office and with critics. In addition to it's play on the Beowulf legend, they also tried to weave in a fictionalized account of the travels of Ahmad ibn Fadlan.
It's a pre-9/11 film (came out in '99) and has a sympathetic portrayal of a muzzie scholar by Antonio Banderas.
As a Scandinavian, I can't believe I wasted an hour and a half of my life on that movie...
CA....
I kinda liked it. John McTiernan’s a good director and it had the best language scene I’ve ever seen, a montage of nights by the campfire with Banderas listening to the Vikings speaking, well, Viking, until slowly words he (and we) understand start to come through, and ending with everyone speaking English. He did a similar thing in “Hunt for Red October” when they shift from speaking Russian to English when they read from the Bible.
Thanks a lot. Where was the *spoiler alert* ?
I’ve had Beowulf waiting on my DVR for a thousand years and now it’s ruined.
God bless you, Ponygirl.
As a Scandinavian also, I will say that there have been worse:
The Nephilim (giants) in the Bible were the offspring of fallen angels and human women. ....?!?
You need to listen and watch A Canterbury Tale /1944 British film by Powell and Pressburger. Set near and in Canterbury
area. Contains mystical overtones- being produced by P&P.
Anyway, opens
with the Prologue in Olde English. Sure you can probably find
it on Youtube or dvd.
There is a whole reinactment thingy now in those villages
by the youngest original cast members offering tours.
The language of Chaucer was Middle English, not Old English. Beowulf is written in what can be called Old English. Middle English is heavily influenced by the Norman Conquest, contains far more French words, and eth had been removed from the alphabet and thorn was on the way out. Thorn, when written, was similar to “y” by this time, hence “Ye Olde Teashoppe”, the “Y” in “Ye”, being pronounced like the “Th” in “The”.
The Bible was already finished up by the time any of these physical event associated with Beowulf would have happened.
I read “Eaters of the Dead”, and wondered if this could be a slightly historical story of a serious encounter with a remnant Neanderthal group, or Sasquach??
Actually, in that period of history, there were places where urban Muslims were considerably more “civilized” than northern Europeans. Baths for instance.
Most muzzies were not in that category; the rich ruling classes were not, either, because they had the same problem with clerics that King Saul had with the cranky Samuel, and ultimately the rich are different in that they have money. It’s like the old joke about the Middle Ages, that there were two types of people, nobility and impoverished nobility.
Libraries of classic learning, preserved in monasteries (for example in Iran) came to the attention of a small number of intellectually curious wealthy scions of muzzie rulers, and for a brief shining moment they built a little on classic Roman and Greek thought. That didn’t last.
Contact with the old learning and literature did result in the Turks identifying with the classic period Greeks and Romans; the Turkish conqueror of Constantinople knew he’d conquered the new Rome, and pledged to conquer the old Rome as well. Islamic rule of Sicily and a bit of southern Italy happened, but didn’t last long, though muzzie scholars influenced the Viking dynasty that ruled the same area for a few generations.
My guess would be a Cave Bear
Thank you. Takes me back over 40 years, when I had to translate part of “Beowulf” for my senior seminar. Great stuff!
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