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Candice I'm glad you're assured that Beowulf was an oral composition, to my eyea and ears it bears all the marks of a literary creation, there's a diffrence. Best Dave 2008/11/24 MC Ward <[log in to unmask]>: > Hi Susan, > > In response to your request to expand on the deficiencies of Heany's translation, I'll tell you frankly that I read only the first few pages before discovering that he'd changed the names of peoples and individuals. An oral composition such as *Beowulf* served as much more than entertainment on festive occasions, but also as the only possible historical record of peoples and individuals that these <<singers of tales>> could leave behind. The A-S audience would know how to discriminate between the fantasy-entertainments of the monsters and the factual, historical parts such as the <<fight at Finnsburg>>. By changing those names, Heany demonstrated that he did not understand the poem or what it was *for*--and that's what I meant by his <<travesty>>. > > I would be interested to know more about your background in OE and what American grad school(s) you attended. (My own training came at the hands of Robert P. Creed and John Miles Foley at UMASS, Amherst, so I share most of their conclusions and prejudices, if such they are.) > > Cheers, > Candice > > > > -- David Bircumshaw Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/ The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk