NationStates Jolt Archive

Is anyone else here interested in it?

Stuff like Beowulf or The Wanderer

Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago?
Where is the horse gone? Where the rider?
Hwær cwom maþþumgyfa?
Where the giver of treasure?
Hwær cwom symbla gesetu?
Where are the seats at the feast?
Hwær sindon seledreamas?
Where are the revels in the hall?
Eala beorht bune!
Alas for the bright cup!
Eala byrnwiga!
Alas for the mailed warrior!
Eala þeodnes þrym!
Alas for the splendour of the prince!
Hu seo þrag gewat,
How that time has passed away,
genap under nihthelm,
dark under the cover of night,
swa heo no wære!
as if it had never been!
- excerpt from 'The Wanderer'
http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet?do=get&type=text&id=Wdr

I always liked Beowulf.

Yes Beowulf rocks indeed.

have you read Seamus Heany's translation?

Yes Beowulf rocks indeed.

have you read Seamus Heany's translation?

Not unless that's the standard high school edition.

Seamus Heany's translation was excellent, though its quite ironic the best to-date translation of Saxon texts should be by an Irish poet. I love all that type of stuff but cant seem to find resources to learn the language; any ideas?

Seamus Heany's translation was excellent, though its quite ironic the best to-date translation of Saxon texts should be by an Irish poet. I love all that type of stuff but cant seem to find resources to learn the language; any ideas?

The translation was excellent but in some places I think his paraphrases and use of Irish idiom detract from the grandeur of the original text although thats just my nitpicking I guess.

Original:
Hie dygel lond
warigeað, wulfhleoþu, windige næssas,
frecne fengelad, ðær fyrgenstream
under næssa genipu niþer gewiteð,
flod under foldan. Nis þæt feor heonon
milgemearces þæt se mere standeð;
ofer þæm hongiað hrinde bearwas,
wudu wyrtum fæst wæter oferhelmað.
þær mæg nihta gehwæm niðwundor seon,
fyr on flode.

Beowulf e-text translation:

Untrod is their home;
by wolf-cliffs haunt they and windy headlands,
fenways fearful, where flows the stream
from mountains gliding to gloom of the rocks,
underground flood. Not far is it hence
in measure of miles that the mere expands,
and o'er it the frost-bound forest hanging,
sturdily rooted, shadows the wave.
By night is a wonder weird to see,
fire on the waters.

Heaney:

They dwell apart
among wolves on the hills, on windswept crags
and treacherous keshes, where cold streams
pour down the mountain and disappear
under mist and moorland. A few miles from here
a frost-stiffened wood waits and keeps watch
above a mere; the overhanging bank
In a maze of tree-roots mirrored in its surface
At night there something uncanny happens
The water burns.


For resources online try http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/main.html for the Beowulf e-text in both Old English and a Modern translation
and
http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet for general Anglo-Saxon resources. I urge you to try The Wanderer- it's an amazing poem.