The Beowulf Poet

Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry.

How to write specific forms:
Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka.
Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát.
Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poets: Adam Zagajewski. Aleda Shirley. The Beowulf Poet. Billy Collins. Billy Collins exercise.
Snorri's Edda. Carl Dennis. Charles Atkinson. Corey Marks. Franz Wright. Galway Kinnell. Gary Young. The Gawain Poet.
Jack Gilbert. Jane Hirshfield. Jorie Graham. Karen Braucher. Kay Ryan.
Laureate Poets: Britain; USA.
Louise Glück. Len Anderson. Li-Young Lee. Linda Pastan. Nordic Skalds. Pulitzer Poetry Prize (U.S.A).
Richard Hugo. Robert Bly. Sara Teasdale. Snorri's Edda. Stephen Dunn. Ted Kooser. W.S. Merwin.

On the Beowulf Poet
by J. Zimmerman

The Beowulf manuscript. Time line. Translation comparisons.
Beowulf by Seamus Heaney. Beowulf text, introduction, and glossary by Michael Alexander.
Characters and Names. Links. Books.

The Beowulf manuscript

Epic poem of heros, monsters, and dragons.
Composed between middle of 7th century and end of 10th century.
The longest poem composed in Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon).
3182 lines; Michael Alexander reports that it's over 10% of the Anglo-Saxon verse remaining.
Heroic story set in Scandinavia (today's Denmark and southern Sweden).
Tell the heroic story of Beowulf, a legendary but not historical childless Scandinavian warrior prince, "an archetype not an ancestor" Michael Alexander.
"a tribal encyclopaedia, and ... a lexicon of the warnings offered by history to healers and rulers" Michael Alexander.
J.R.R. Tolkien (in his "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics") assumed [according to Seamus Heaney] "that the Beowulf poet was an imaginative writer rather than some kind of back-formation derived from nineteenth century folklore and philology", which resulted in greater appreciation of the poem.
Many synonyms, compound words, and kennings.

Time line

449 C.E.	Hengest came to Kent; quite possibly the Hengest named in Beowulf.
Early 6th century, about 520.	Death in history of Hygelac.
Late 6th century.	Start of action in Beowulf.
7th century	Anglo-Saxons adopted Christianity.
7th century	Approximate date of the Hoard.
793.	In Northumbria, flying dragons were seen flying through the air.
899.	Death of Anglo-Saxon King Alfred. By this time, likely a written version of Beowulf likely existed "in a written version substantially similar to the text we have" [Michael Alexander].
about 1000 C.E.	Beowulf copied into the single existing manuscript, now in the British Library.
1066.	Norman conquest of Britain. Interest in Anglo-Saxon is squashed.
1833.	First English edition published by Kemble (friend of Tennyson).
2010.	Staffordshire Hoard of garnet-encrusted gold weaponry from approximately 700 A.D. Mercia. Possibly the cache shows actual armor worn by leaders.

Beowulf: A new verse translation (2000)
(bilingual edition)
by Seamus Heaney.

Beowulf: A new verse translation (bilingual edition) by Seamus Heaney:

Printed with the corresponding Anglo-Saxon original on the opposite page to each page of translation.
Written in an approximation of the Anglo-Saxon four stresses.
Sometimes alliterates, sometimes only in half of the line.
Aims for "a narrative line that sounded as if it meant business"
Sacrifices some specifics (misses the yellow color of a shield, uses 'retainer' and 'attendant' for words that have more authority (earl, thane) in the Old English original.
Sometimes uses odd expressions, such as (l.497) "head-clearing voice" for 'said clearly' in the Old English original.
Sometimes uses cliché modern expressions, such as (l.520) "beer that was doing the talking" for 'drunk with beer' in the Old English original.
On the whole, not my favorite version.

Beowulf (1995)
text, introduction, and glossary
by Michael Alexander.

Beowulf text, introduction, and glossary by Michael Alexander.

The Anglo-Saxon original is printed, with the necessary glossary on each opposite page. Thus, one reads the original, translating as one goes. Astonishing in its power to give a sense of the meaning as well as the sound of the original poem.
Excellent Introduction that includes the 5th and 6th century dynastic Scandinavian cultures on the Baltic and the North Sea coasts. From those tribes, the "English" came to Britain, according to the 937 C.E.-entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
... from the east came Angles and Saxons up to these shores, Seeking Britain across the broad seas
Mentions the appearance in English West-Saxon genealogies of the names Scyld, Shef, and Beow, which appear near the start of Beowulf.

Main Characters and Names

Beowulf.: Warrior prince of the Geats, son of Ecgtheow, maternal grandson of Hrethel, and maternal nephew of Hygelac.
Vanquishes Grendel and Grendel's mother before returning home to rule for 50 years and then slay a dragon.
Danes (or Shieldings).: Led by Hrothgar, great grandson of Shield Sheafson.
Ecgtheow. [edge (and hence (by synecdoche) sword) servant]: Warrior the Geats and father of Beowulf.
Geats.: Led by Hygelac, brother of Beowulf's mother (i.e. his maternal uncle). They occupy an area of what is called Southern Sweden in the 21st century.
Grendel.: A man-eating monster that terrorizes the Danes until defeated by Beowulf.
Hrethel.: Leader of the Geats; maternal grandfather of Beowulf, who was sent as a child to live with Hrethel.
Hrothgar. [Glory spear]: Leader of the Danes. Great grandson of Scyld Scefing
Hygelac.: Leader of the Geats and maternal uncle of Beowulf.
Scyld Scefing: Founder of the Danes.; Written "Shield Sheafson" in Heaney's version.
Swedes.: Hrothgar leads them.

Translation comparisons

Also see excellent translation comparison and commentaries by V. Poulakis of nvcc.edu.

Opening lines, lines 1-3.

Heaney

So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by / and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness. / We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns.

Grendel appears, lines 710-711.

Heaney

In off the moors, down through the mist bands / God-cursed Grendel came greedily loping.

Beowulf kills Grendel's mother, lines 1565-1569.

Heaney

[and swung /]
the blade in an arc, a resolute blow / that bit deep into her neck-bone / and severed it entirely, toppling the doomed / house of her flesh; she fell to the floor. / The sword dripped blood, the swordsman was elated.

The dragon burns the land of the Geats, lines 2312-2315.

Heaney

The dragon began to belch out flames / and burn bright homesteads; there was a hot glow / that scared everyone, for the vile sky-winger / would leave nothing alive in his wake.

Beowulf and the dragon begin to fight, lines 2555-2559.

Heaney

the time was over / for peace and parleying. Pouring forth / in a hot battle-fume, the breath of the monster / burst from the rock. There was a rumble under ground.

Last lines, lines 3180-3182.

Heaney

They said that of all the kings upon the earth / he was the man most gracious and fair-minded, / kindest to his people and keenest to win fame.

Links

Books

Other Books of Poetry Form.
Beowulf: A new verse translation (2000) by Seamus Heaney (bilingual edition).

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