Beowulf: A New Translation
us.macmillan.com
Beowulf: A New Translation
1–10 of 75 posts
Re: Beowulf: A New Translation
#2Bought it on Kindle based on the strength of the passages she quotes in the article. It is not as strong as I hoped, but it’s definitely entertaining. She verbizes nouns more than I would like, and doesn’t really use guy slang the way guys do. I feel a little condescended to in the translation, but it’s still good strong reading. Easily worth $10, that’s for sure.
Re: Beowulf: A New Translation
#3> Back I come, for that reason, to hwæt. It’s been translated many ways. “Listen.” “Hark.” “Lo.” Seamus Heaney translated it as “So,” an attention-getting intonation, taken from the memory of his Irish uncle telling tales at the table. I come equipped with my own memories of sitting at the bar’s end listening to men navigate darts, trivia, and women, and so, in this book, I translate it as “Bro.”
That's pretty funny. I'm surprised that she modernized the language and avoided preserving the original meter, but still kept the line-oriented format instead of using regular paragraphs.
Re: Beowulf: A New Translation
#4Chickering’s translation is very good if you’re into kennings and prosodic structure. Despite how popular Heaney’s is, it’s not for me.
roughly speaking if you like the fansubs that lean towards the literal and away from the trying to help, that’s the translation for you.
It was a long time until i really realized why Beowulf is so profoundly tragic. If this translation preserves that, then that sounds good to me.
Re: Beowulf: A New Translation
#5My favorite is Tim Romano's alliterative translation: http://www.aimsdata.com/tim/beowulf_trans.htm
Re: Beowulf: A New Translation
#6I figure this is a good place for some discussion of the topic of translations. I always read an old translation and reference it with a new translation. People in all eras like to insert their own biases into their translation. This video sums up a good example:
Re: Beowulf: A New Translation
#7Bought it on Kindle based on the strength of the passages she quotes in the article. It is not as strong as I hoped, but it’s definitely entertaining. She verbizes nouns more than I would like, and doesn’t really use guy slang the way guys do. I feel a little condescended to in the translation, but it’s still good strong reading. Easily worth $10, that’s for sure.
> Verbizes
Is there a name for words like this, which are themselves examples of what they denote?
Re: Beowulf: A New Translation
#8Bought it on Kindle based on the strength of the passages she quotes in the article. It is not as strong as I hoped, but it’s definitely entertaining. She verbizes nouns more than I would like, and doesn’t really use guy slang the way guys do. I feel a little condescended to in the translation, but it’s still good strong reading. Easily worth $10, that’s for sure.
> Verbizes Is there a name for words like this, which are themselves examples of what they denote?
Autological words, like pentasyllabic.
Re: Beowulf: A New Translation
#9This New Yorker feature got me interested in this book, provides a few colorful excerpts. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/31/a-beowulf-for-...
Although contemporary styling is often comical and overwrought, maybe drawing a little too much attention to itself, keep in mind that the original authors and audiences were not dusty elbow-patched-tweed college professors. This was raucous and rowdy stuff, more akin to a dumb action movie than philosophy.
Re: Beowulf: A New Translation
#10This New Yorker feature got me interested in this book, provides a few colorful excerpts. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/31/a-beowulf-for-... Although contemporary styling is often comical and overwrought, maybe drawing a little too much attention to itself, keep in mind that the original authors and audiences were not dusty elbow-patched-tweed college professors. This was raucous and rowdy stuff, more ak…
Eh no. It is generally agreed the language of Beowulf was already archaic when it was written down. Tolkien argues this point strongly in On Translating Beowulf.