Subject:
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Re: LoTR # 1 on IMDB, Beowulf on NYTimes bestseller list
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Mon, 24 Dec 2001 04:22:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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651 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Erik Olson writes:
> Maybe I am overstating this, but I just looked in the new Beowulf that was on
> the NY Times bestseller list recently (it's in train stations and airport
> shops) and it credits Tolkien's 'groundbreaking paper' with making the poem
> relevant again. I've never seen this paper (out of print) only the comments
> on it in biographies and such.
I wonder if you're referring to the recent Seamus Heaney translation, the one
that features a chainmail hood in embossed silver on a black hardcover. I
haven't read much of that version, but it's stirred up a little controversy
among the English lit community. Seems Heaney's translation makes certain
linguistic choices that align Beowulf (written, of course, in Old English) with
the heritiage of Irish poetry. Prior to Heaney, this hadn't really been done,
although Ireland certainly has a very old literary tradition of its own. In
creating a link between Old English and Old Irish, Heaney, it has been
suggested, sought to "legitimize" Irish literary heritage, or at least connect
it to the main canonical body of English lit. Whether it has done so, or
whether it was even necessary to do so, remains to be seen.
I had no idea that Beowulf in any form had been on the Times' bestseller list
though. That's super-cool!
Dave!
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