As Hal Duncan (no mean fantasist himself) put it, the first instance
of music criticism ever recorded...! I've seen the novel but haven't
read it. Thanks for the tip, it sounds like some good Christmas
reading.
If nobody minds, I might post a fitt every couple of days. There's
rather a lot of them, even in its unfinished state. I'd like to finish
it, or at least get through the second third, and it might be a way of
diving into the poem again.
I can't pretend to any deep knowledge of AS, I fear. I only know what
I've gleaned from reading the standard texts. One thing has made me
curious - I can't work out any formal reason for the fitts (which I am
preserving because, like all the poem's lumpiness, I kind of like
them). They're not any standard length, and can break abruptly, almost
in the middle of a sentence. Can you throw any light on what the
formal organisation, if any, might have been?
xA
On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 6:09 AM, MC Ward <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi Alison,
>
> You mentioned the lack of a modern-day equivalent of *Beowulf", and I wanted to recommend John Gardner's novel *Grendel* (if you don't already know it). Not only is it frequently hilarious, but is also very insightful about the culture, Gardner himself having been a medievalist, though far better known as a novelist. His overiding insight into Grendel himself is that what drove him mad and caused him to breakfast on a couple of Danish every day was the *singing*, especially as it emanated from a place of light and <<gladness>>, as you put it so well in your second fitt, from which he was forever barred.
>
> Candice
>
>
>
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
|