full title: "Secrets of Beowulf revealed: Relics discovered at Danish feasting hall which featured in Britain's oldest epic poem".
Manuscript: The one surviving copy of the poem is contained on badly burnt parchment in the British Library
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 ...
Manuscript: The one surviving copy of the poem is contained on badly burnt parchment in the British Library
Manuscript: The one surviving copy of the poem is contained on badly burnt parchment in the British Library
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And archived just the way someones mom might do it ,, scotch taped to another piece of cheap paper.
there was a great video clip someone made from the beowulf & grendal fight with warcraft effects overlayed. it was very funny for anyone familiar with wow
it was titled: “2 GM’s fight on Deathwing durning Wintergrasp”
unfortunately, it’s been flushed down the copyright hole by youtube and i cannot find it on any other video sources.
"...and the Lord didst grin and people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orang-utans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and..."
“The Thirteenth Warrior” with Antonio Bandaras and “Eaters of the Dead” by Michael Chrichton are both pretty good retelling of the Beowulf story.
i find it more than odd in the movie that the mooslum was “appalled” at the westerners on their habits when in real life, it should be the other way around
;’)
The “westerners” were pagan Norse, who had some remarkably appalling customs of their own. Notably including human sacrifice.
Westerner usually refers to members of western civilization, which the Norse weren’t, at the time. For 200+ years people all over western Europe, who were members of that civilization, prayed every day, “Lord, save us from the Northmen and their awful ships.”
A few years ago, I met with my father's uncle to interview him about family history and he brought a photo album with him. He had been with General Patton when he crossed the Rhine and the book was full of precious photographs from that time and you guessed it, they were all Scotch-taped into one of those dimestore magnetic albums with the sticky stuff all over the pages, acetate turning the photos orange. I was horrified. I asked him if I could take the album to scan the photos and he let me, and I took everything out and replaced all the pictures in an archival album with photo corners and labeled everything for him. He was so thrilled.
þeod-cyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon!
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum
monegum mægþum meodo-setla ofteah;
egsode eorl[as] syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden; he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum, weorð-myndum þah,
oðæt him æghwylc þara ymb-sittendra
ofer hron-rade hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan. Þæt wæs god cyning!
What were we War-Danes in our yore-days?Tribal-Kings! Truly cast that glory past,
how the counts had courage vast!
Oft Scyld Scefing shed Eotens'
many sons of mead-seats often.
Awesome Earl; since erst a whelp
fund-shorn found, was offered help.
Waxed under welkin, won worth-prestige
until all areas we edged with were beseiged
over the whale-road, wide wealth did they bring:
gave up their gold. That was a good king!
I'm pretty sure I got a translated e-version from Gutenberg, as well as an audio.
If not Gutenberg, then LibriVox.org.
Eater of the Dead? by Michael Chrichton, eh?
A "Geat warrior" (time traveler? from modern-day Scandinavia)? Wowsers!
I’ve watched it twice. Very well done, and the Beau (who dislikes animation) liked it, too. Of course, I think it was Angie Jolie who doth hooked him, LOL!
The fight scenes were excellent, and once you’re into the story, you’d think them cartoons was real peoples! ;)
The story is that Crichton had a friend who taught English at a university. The proof asserted that no one read Beowulf unless it was assigned. Crichton said it was great story that, if written readable English, would be popular. A bet was made and Crichton wrote “Eaters of the Dead” which sold well and, I believe, was made into a movie. Crichton won the bet.
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