There has been some refering to Beowulf, by way of Seamus Heaney's new
translation, which I haven't seen.
So here's another (somewhat peculiar) path in the Beowulf forrest.
I live on Gotland, in the middle of The Baltic, and here, as in other
places, we have proud, local historians, that want their place to be the
origin of almost all that is possible.
So, one historian here, has proclaimed Beowulf the national epos of
Gotland.
And why?
Well, we know (at least we think we know - I guess that's the level to be
on) that Beowulf is about some Danish people, in a Danish court, but there
is also in the poem a people, in Swedish, called geater, (I think in
English "the geatae" I don't have an English translation here) and that,
of course. for the local historian, is almost synonymous with gutar, the
old people of Gotland. Furthermore, he can recognise several places.
mentioned in Beowulf, as actual places on Gotland, which is a marvellous
achievement.
So what did this historian do?
Well, he takes the official Swedish translation of Beowulf (a magnificent
work by professor Björn Collinder) and changes all the names geater to
gutar and publishes the book as"Beowulf, the National Epos of Gotland.
I think it could be of some interest to you British poets to know that
there exists other claims on that old epic.
Yours
Håkan A
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