Ping for perusal, languished until later!
Thank you. I went to a reading by Seamus Heaney, must be 25 or 30 years ago, held at Swarthmore College. Lovely man and lovely work.
I love that translation!
Thanks for posting!
Really?
“...my wife who passed in September 2016...”
Perhaps I am greatly mistaken, but is this not the month of April in 2016? Am I off by that much and did several months pass by in the blink of an eye?
I must have slept longer than I had intended...
Thank you for posting !! That is an awesome story. Yes. Reading aloud can be a very valuable and memorable experience. You reminded me of one of my fondest memories with my daughter: reading The Hobbit to her, cover to cover, in preparation to see the movies.
You have inspired me to make an attempt to read stories aloud to her more often - before she gets too old to want to spend any time with dad :)
Again, thank you for sharing. And I am sorry to hear about your wife’s passing. I will keep you in my prayers.
Also, I am going to pick up a copy of that version of Beowolf !!!
If you want to read Beowulf aloud, there’s a translation especially for that. . . and I can’t remember the translator’s name! Ugh! Getting old.
Well, there’s always Benjamin Bagby doing it in Old English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzmmPRG4smU
Sorry about your wife. When did she pass into heaven?
This may seem unappreciative of great literature BUT I loved the British series which just ended: “Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands”.
Best TV I’ve seen in a long time!
Here it is:
Beowulf: A New Translation for Oral Delivery (Hackett Classics)
by Dick Ringler
Thank you for the recommendation. I love Heaney’s poetry, and had the good fortune of having him as a professor at UC Berkeley in 1970.
What a nice write up!
I recall first reading Beowulf in Junior High. Then again later at my University, this time as part of the curriculum.
But I didn’t have the experience of it being read aloud. Bravo.
Another great classic is Gilgamesh, if you haven’t read it I think you would enjoy it.
I read it in the old English and in translation when I was in college.
I now have the most incredible, strongest, meanest son of a bitch snow blower ever. It chugs through two feet of snow and laughs (growls and howls).
I call it Grendel. After the job is done, it’s my friend Grendy.
It’s the most incredible, strongest, meanest winter friend ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaB0trCztM0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsxxg5P-DnY
Seamus Heaney’s version on youtube.
terrific translation.
Used it in homeschooling the kids.
IMHO the gold standard in Beowulf
My high school English teacher read Beowulf in Middle English. While incomprehensible, the inflections conveyed the emotions of the tale.