when I reviewed Michael Alexander's history of eng lit in Quadrant (Sudney) he
wrote and thanked me, and visited us at La Trobe English (Melb) some time after
that. Very bright, very civilized.
Max
Quoting Sally Evans <[log in to unmask]>:
> Michael Alexander also did a penguin called The Earliest English Poems it is
> v good. He lived at St Andrews and I met him there ten years ago, he is
> clever and also had very good Italian. Havent heard of him lately.
> Sally Evans
> http://www.poetryscotland.co.uk
> http://groups.msn.com/desktopsallye
> http://www.myspace.com/poetsallyevans
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Judy Prince" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 4:13 AM
> Subject: Re: A fitt
>
>
> > Robin, my thanks for the Michael Alexander _Beowulf_ URL.
> > I've so far just read the introduction of some 11 pages and find it so
> > telling, so clearly written, and so helpful for this discussion [as well
> > as
> > "eternal" politics] that I'll now type in quoted parts that seem to answer
> > questions I'll pose. First, though, again, the URL for those who'll want
> > to
> > read the intro for themselves, which includes many excellent examples I've
> > omitted for brevity's sake:
> >
> http://books.google.co.uk/books?
id=KFlpxcQftwoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPR5,M1
> >
> > And now parts of Michael Alexander's introduction in 'response' to my
> > questions:
> >
> > 1) Who would've been _Beowulf's_ original audience?
> >
> > The ruling Anglo-Saxon Kingdom's families in the 7th and 8th century.
> > _B's_
> > about "their conquering forefathers and continental grandfathers."
> >
> > 2) Who wrote it, when, and why?
> >
> > "_Beowulf's_ the earliest extant poem in a modern European language. It
> > was
> > composed in England four centuries before the Norman Conquest." .....
> > "No
> > one knows exactly when it was composed, or by whom, or why" ... It
> > reflects
> > a feudal nation new to Christianity.
> >
> > 3) What about its poetic composition and what about its history?
> >
> > "The poetic composition as well as the poem's history is a conglomerate"
> > ...
> > The Anglican component "took place north of the Thames at a court with
> > Scandinavian ancestral interests" ... "...(T)he Hengest of the poem may be
> > the Hengest who came to Kent in 449; and the Offa of the poem was claimed
> > as
> > an ancestor of Offa of Mercia in the 8th century."
> >
> > "The writer of the poem must be presumed to have been a cleric, for whom
> > the
> > heathen [sic] ancestors of his king would have been like Old Testament
> > kings
> > of Israel, such as Saul or David. Some clerics had the same ancestors as
> > their kings."
> >
> > "The knowing way much _B_ alludes to tales of Finn and of Ingeld makes it
> > clear that their stories were in oral circulation before there was a
> > written
> > _B_ , and much of the poem may have been available in oral verse tradition
> > before a monk dipped his quill in ink. In which case, the writer who gave
> > the poem its final shape shares the credit of authorship with the
> > unlettered
> > poets who went before him, unclerical poets like those celebrated in the
> > poem."
> >
> > 4) What's it about?
> >
> > "What _B_ relates of the Danes, Swedes and Geats [the dynastic history of
> > Denmark, Geatland and Sweden over two or three generations], then, has a
> > strong basis in the events of history shaped in legendary patterns." ...
> > "The poem itself deals with legend rather than history, however, and is
> > called after a hero who is more mythical than historical. In no other
> > source do we find the name Beowulf (or Biowulf, as he is called by the
> > second scribe of the manuscript)."
> >
> > "There are two narratives in the poem, the story of the northern dynasties
> > and Beowulf's own story. The dynastic history is also the far-back
> > family's
> > history of those who were the patrons of poetry and of its audience. Then
> > there is the heroic story of Beowulf, an archetype not an ancestor."
> >
> > "The dynastic and the personal narratives compare the life of the heroic
> > age
> > with the life of a hero: what the experience of living in the heroic age
> > had been like, and what the ideal hero could be like. The Anglo-Saxons
> > looked for ethical wisdom in their poems, and their poem is preoccupied
> > with
> > the fate of heroes, of dynasties and of nations."
> >
> > "The portrait of the noble Beowulf is surrounded by portraits of less
> > ideal
> > heroes and kings...."
> >
> > 5) What 'messages' seem to be in the poem?
> >
> > "Heroic obligations were often in conflict in a warrior society of tribal
> > kingdoms: the law of hospitality and the law of vengeance for a lord or
> > a
> > kinsman; the duty to avenge a father and the duty to a wife."
> >
> > "An epic is also a tribal encyclopaedia, and _B_ is a lexicon of the
> > warnings offered by history to heroes and rulers. Many of the allusions
> > and
> > episodes of the poem are lost at first on a modern reader, and some of
> > them
> > will remain lost. It is unlikely that a later Anglo-Saxon audience would
> > have recognised every tragic irony with the clarity of a well-instructed
> > audience of _Oedipus Rex_. But they would have taken the general point of
> > the constant comparisons and caught the tone of the allusions."
> > ____________
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Judy
> >
> > 2008/11/23 Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]>
> >
> >> <<
> >> keep meaning to get a version that has the original alongside the
> >> transcription/interpretation.
> >>
> >>>
> >>>>
> >> Tina,
> >>
> >> You might want to consider:
> >>
> >> Beowulf: A Glossed Text
> >> By Michael Alexander
> >> Published by Penguin Classics, 1995
> >> ISBN 0140433775, 9780140433777
> >> 237 pages
> >>
> >> It's not quite a parallel text, but one *heavily glossed on the right
> >> hand
> >> facing page.
> >>
> >> You can get an idea of what it's like from google books, which allows you
> >> to read as far as about line 20.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> http://books.google.co.uk/books?
id=KFlpxcQftwoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0
> >>
> >> There are, I think, several versions of the original text on the Web as
> >> well as various out-of-copyright translations.
> >>
> >> Best,
> >>
> >> Robin
> >>
>
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