One of the most confusing aspects of Beowulf, to me, is the conflict between the events in the poem and era in which the copy from the Nowell Codex was written.
To answer the second of your closing questions, I think it's rather impossible to untether the content of Beowulf from its copier, insofar that the copier themself was immersed in (or at least familiar with) the Scandinavian tradition to which you refer. Nonetheless, I absolutely love your post, especially your contextualization of Beowulf (the hero) in, like Thor, a both mythological and post-modern light. Your marriage of musical history and ecology is also well-placed and is certainly a lens I had failed to consider at such length before. Interestingly, I think such an approach invites the modern reader to appreciate Beowulf (the poem) for its original purposes: to inspire, to entertain, and to move its audience (all aspects I associate with "true" music). By contrast, I believe modern literary analysis often orients us, the readers, toward more technical, more semantic interpretations. I think this technical conflict is perhaps, in part, the source of such "disjunct," as you put it — by hyper-fixating on and resolving one aspect of the poem's framework, we necessarily distance ourselves from and obscure another.
Through the years, I believe all factors you talked about (mythology, music, and christianity) have been blended in different ways to create literature as we know it today. In almost everything you read and analyze, if you go deep enough you can find a tie to, most of the time, two out of the three. I think that Beowulf can be used to enforce this point as it has ties to all three depending on how you interpret it. Yet to understand what the true meaning of the poem is, you have to delve into the history of each to really grasp the points that are attempting to be made.
Hello, Emma! I thoroughly enjoyed this first entry to your newsletter! You draw some very engaging juxtapositions worth pondering. Particularly, the notion that the symbols and rhetoric we are habitually surrounded by can influence our perceptions of these iconic characters. As humans, we are inherently driven to the things most comfortable to us. It is no wonder the poet includes some prominent aspects of Christianity to these Pagan individuals. I also loved your insight on both Beowulf and Thor’s hubris. One might say said hubris acts as a poison in and of itself, as wyrd leads us all to our eventual demise. Of course, I cannot forget your very engaging commentary on music and how it shapes the world of the poem. A poet is, in essence, the vessel of perception. If bards and poets are the ones entrusted with relaying history, then who is to say they don’t add their own insight here and there; thus, shifting and altering our own perceptions of the same events. We all subconsciously view the world through our own idiosyncratic lenses, so your juxtaposition of Beowulf to such a popular character is all the more insightful.
Hi Emma! As a fellow Marvel movie fanatic(Thor being one of my favorites), the connection Seigfried makes between Beowulf and Thor was incredibly illuminating. This semester is the first time I've ever read Beowulf, and trying to separate the Christian-coded translation of the poem from the traditional Scandinavian context was incredibly challenging. By recontextualizing and diving into Scandinavian history, it was a lot easier to separate the two, and for that, I am immensely grateful. I have always argued that the Old English language has artistic merit, it's very beautiful(even if it is a challenge in our modern era). Much like modal music, these historical forms of art are pivotal steps in the creation of music(or writing, in Beowulf's case) that we know and love today. If anything, I think we should embrace the challenge of finding the beauty in them.
You pose some thought-provoking questions here Emma. Personally, I think that "Beowulf's" lack of what we would understand as "traditional rhythmic patterns" doesn't make it any less of a poem than other works, it just places the piece in a unique genre. In some ways this almost feels more natural to me sometimes, as if some listener had recorded exactly what a skald had said, and the skald was not trying to create rhythm but was more concerned with telling an epic story to his audience.
Very creative juxtaposition... something to "marvel" at!
To answer the second of your closing questions, I think it's rather impossible to untether the content of Beowulf from its copier, insofar that the copier themself was immersed in (or at least familiar with) the Scandinavian tradition to which you refer. Nonetheless, I absolutely love your post, especially your contextualization of Beowulf (the hero) in, like Thor, a both mythological and post-modern light. Your marriage of musical history and ecology is also well-placed and is certainly a lens I had failed to consider at such length before. Interestingly, I think such an approach invites the modern reader to appreciate Beowulf (the poem) for its original purposes: to inspire, to entertain, and to move its audience (all aspects I associate with "true" music). By contrast, I believe modern literary analysis often orients us, the readers, toward more technical, more semantic interpretations. I think this technical conflict is perhaps, in part, the source of such "disjunct," as you put it — by hyper-fixating on and resolving one aspect of the poem's framework, we necessarily distance ourselves from and obscure another.
Through the years, I believe all factors you talked about (mythology, music, and christianity) have been blended in different ways to create literature as we know it today. In almost everything you read and analyze, if you go deep enough you can find a tie to, most of the time, two out of the three. I think that Beowulf can be used to enforce this point as it has ties to all three depending on how you interpret it. Yet to understand what the true meaning of the poem is, you have to delve into the history of each to really grasp the points that are attempting to be made.
Hello, Emma! I thoroughly enjoyed this first entry to your newsletter! You draw some very engaging juxtapositions worth pondering. Particularly, the notion that the symbols and rhetoric we are habitually surrounded by can influence our perceptions of these iconic characters. As humans, we are inherently driven to the things most comfortable to us. It is no wonder the poet includes some prominent aspects of Christianity to these Pagan individuals. I also loved your insight on both Beowulf and Thor’s hubris. One might say said hubris acts as a poison in and of itself, as wyrd leads us all to our eventual demise. Of course, I cannot forget your very engaging commentary on music and how it shapes the world of the poem. A poet is, in essence, the vessel of perception. If bards and poets are the ones entrusted with relaying history, then who is to say they don’t add their own insight here and there; thus, shifting and altering our own perceptions of the same events. We all subconsciously view the world through our own idiosyncratic lenses, so your juxtaposition of Beowulf to such a popular character is all the more insightful.
Hi Emma! As a fellow Marvel movie fanatic(Thor being one of my favorites), the connection Seigfried makes between Beowulf and Thor was incredibly illuminating. This semester is the first time I've ever read Beowulf, and trying to separate the Christian-coded translation of the poem from the traditional Scandinavian context was incredibly challenging. By recontextualizing and diving into Scandinavian history, it was a lot easier to separate the two, and for that, I am immensely grateful. I have always argued that the Old English language has artistic merit, it's very beautiful(even if it is a challenge in our modern era). Much like modal music, these historical forms of art are pivotal steps in the creation of music(or writing, in Beowulf's case) that we know and love today. If anything, I think we should embrace the challenge of finding the beauty in them.
You pose some thought-provoking questions here Emma. Personally, I think that "Beowulf's" lack of what we would understand as "traditional rhythmic patterns" doesn't make it any less of a poem than other works, it just places the piece in a unique genre. In some ways this almost feels more natural to me sometimes, as if some listener had recorded exactly what a skald had said, and the skald was not trying to create rhythm but was more concerned with telling an epic story to his audience.