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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Tue, 25 Dec 2001 19:37:36 GMT
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Viewed:
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566 times
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Yes, it is the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf. I started reading it in
the airport. In the foreword he makes clear his intentions to use old words
current only among his Irish relatives, and English words clearly inherited
from Irish, such as 'bawn' (British garrison of occupation), from 'bhodun'
(cattle fort), for Hrothgar's embattled hall. There is a great deal about
his personal grappling with multiple languages and traditions, the Irish
nationalist upbringing, with an epiphany that the author of Beowulf lived in
an era no less mingled. I suppose the poem was also handed down through
Norman times when Anglo-Saxon language was being exterminated.
I didn't see where he was making a claim for revision, just a claim about
the appropriateness of using his Irish slang, whether it derives from
Anglo-Saxon or not. After all, many of the English words in his translation
are Greek.
I guess there are two issues here with the translator's choices. One is the
evidence for some historical connection of a word chosen. The other is the
political (or maybe only personal) connection. I suppose if Beowulf were
translated into a really foreign language like, say, Maori, the second type
of issue would cause all the controversy!
In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Dave Schuler writes:
> 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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