"Beowulf" and Other Old English Poems

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 2011

"Beowulf" and Other Old English Poems

Edited by: Craig Williamson and Craig Williamson
With contributions by: Tom Shippey

In the series The Middle Ages Series

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812204407

Overview
Contents

About this book

Rarely are these works translated by someone who is both a medieval scholar and a poet, and this combination makes for both fidelity to the complexity of the originals and compelling poetry in a modern idiom.

Author / Editor information

Craig Williamson is the Alfred H. and Peggi Bloom Professor of English Literature at Swarthmore College. He is editor and translator of A Feast of Creatures, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press. Tom Shippey is Professor Emeritus of English at St. Louis University.

Reviews

"The translation of Beowulf is a notoriously difficult task, and Williamson is to be commended for producing a fluent and lively text that recalls the language of the original to the beginning student of Old English literature."—Comitatus

"These are modern renderings with bite and muscle, full of chewy sounds to delight any ear or voice, entering the mute reader's eye and resounding within: at times filling a raucous hall, at times gently whispering into an interior fold of woe, of memory. In these resonant spaces we hear again the scop's voice."—Benjamin Bagby, performer of Beowulf and director of the medieval music ensemble Sequentia

"Craig Williamson's Beowulf is superior, both in truth to the original and in readability, to any other version of the poem now available. Surprisingly many modern poets have tried to recreate the old alliterative poetry in modern English, Auden being only the most prominent of them, and while it is quite easy to write alliterative verse, it is hard indeed to do it well. Williamson's translations are very good and very accurate, which is a difficult combination to achieve."—Tom Shippey

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword Tom Shippey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Note on Editions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xxvii
Guide to Pronouncing Old English Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xxix
On Translating Old English Poetry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
BEOWULF
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Beowulf Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
OTHER OLD ENGLISH POEMS
A Note on Genres Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
Heroic or Historical Poems Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
Elegies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Selected Exeter Book Riddles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Gnomic or Wisdom Poems Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
Religious Poems Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	190
Appendix A. “Digressions”: Battles, Feuds, and Family Strife in Beowulf Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Appendix B. Genealogies in Beowulf Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	220
Appendix C. Two Scandinavian Analogues of Beowulf Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Appendix D. Possible Riddle Solutions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	228
Glossary of Proper Names Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	256

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 288
Illustrations
- Other: 2 illus.
Keywords: Literature; Poetry; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Literature; Cultural Studies

eBook

Published: June 30, 2011
ISBN: 9780812204407