I love to be told a story in a bar by a very drunk old guy, so to me, this feeling is good. A new translation finds Beowulf comfortably at home in the 21st century. It’s basically a scene from Road House. The first, interjectionary word, “hwæt,” had previously been a more formal call to “listen” or “hark” to the tale that follows. He bombed his own bases, denied his Danes damages, kept entrenched in combat.” I agree with you there. Headley certainly warps the line between translation and “retelling” — her 2018 novel The Mere Wife moved the saga to the modern American suburbs, turning its medieval protagonist into a police officer, which tells you what lens she’s working with. The latest 'Beowulf' translation begins with the word "bro." Reviewed by Thelma Trujillo. She gives a brief primer on the history of the epic poem and it is mysterious and complicated. The translation is a reimagining of what Beowulf means, consciously locating its possibilities in our recent political history as Americans and in the last thousand years of violence. My thanks to Erin Horáková and Sean… In her lively and vigorous new translation of Beowulf, the novelist Maria Dahvana Headley translates hwæt as “Bro!” “Bro! ", "Lo! In the introduction to his 1952 translation of Beowulf, the Scottish poet … Beowulf the Bro - Flipboard Now it is the end of the month, so let’s get to it. Headley is already well-known as a feminist interpreter of the epic. “Bro” also gives her some ironic detachment from the Toxic Masculinity enshrined in the text. Sorry to them.) The first was the contemporary language, but the second was, to quote the jacket copy, a “fresh eye toward gender.”. But yeah, “hashtag: blessed” was tough, and “unexpectedly stanned for” felt slightly misused, in context. GN: Yeah, they should have been saying “swole” back then. Retired academic and Carpe Librum guest reviewer Neil Béchervaise decided to take on this classic, and shares his thoughts on the translation below. KM: Yes, some of these lines are corny as hell but also, absolutely slap? ... New York is a city of five boroughs. GN: I also think Headley kind of anticipated, and leaned into, the transient nature of the slang she was tapping into. Her often anachronistic approach is, if not entirely convincing to some critics, a lot of fun to examine and debate, simply because it pulls Beowulf into the fraught discourse on masculinity in the 21st century. I don’t teach or presume to know how to teach, but I can imagine looking at a bunch of 15-year-olds and pointing to that and saying, “Doesn’t this already seem outdated? Hook'em etc. Beowulf: A New Translation By Maria Dahvana Headley Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020 ISBN: 9780374110031. "Maria Dahvana Headley's decision to make Beoulf a bro puts his macho bluster in a whole new light." MA: That’s in the story of King Heremod: “His heart was not a hawk but a drone. Her Beowulf: A New Translation (FSG, 2020) is billed in the publisher’s publicity materials as a “radical new verse translation” of the Old English poem and as a natural successor to Seamus Heaney’s popular but now 20-year-old version. And yeah, he was just giving Beowulf a sword. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not much one for reading poetry. Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley. I read the whole thing in like three sittings. KM: It also is, for all the slang and intentionality around that, addictively readable. Given my ignorance, I found the introduction to this new translation by Maria Dahvana Headley fascinating. Kelsey is a staff writer for Defector.com. KM: I don’t know anything about Old English except for what I read in the introductions to this translation and Heaney’s but I too loved the alliterations! References Sources. It’s address to “Bro” certainly flags the beginning of a story but it also screams that the audience is male – and all thoughts of what feminism has come to mean fly out the window. In the introduction she describes using slang “thrown up by new cultural contexts … and already fading into, if not obscurity, uncertain status. At the core of this project, we have a question about heroic narrative: Are legendary warriors a bunch of stupid jocks? Mine was in 11th grade British Literature, and I remember being totally baffled and irritated by it. I doubt that was the case for anyone else who has taken on the challenge of translating Beowulf. A new, feminist translation of Beowulf by the author of The Mere Wife Nearly twenty years after Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf — and fifty years after the translation that continues to torment high-school students around the world — there is a radical new verse interpretation of the epic poem by Maria Dahvana Headley, which brings to light elements never before translated into English. Headley’s translator’s note is nothing if not self-aware. You’re constantly ending a line and waiting to see how those sounds get tumbled and reconfigured in the next line. “Anyone knows how fair it was: / bro, more than fair” is his assessment of Beowulf’s reward. therapist: Headley's beowulf translation isn't real, it can't hurt you, Headley's beowulf translation: pic.twitter.com/Z3GjryKDXF, — Emily Alison Zhou (@emializh) November 11, 2020. The kinds of books I did like back then—Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, for two—had given me a very particular idea of how stories should be plotted. I like to think of some people sitting around the fire, saying, “Bro! Headley incorporates distinctly modern phrasing and slang to make the text more accessible for today’s audience. Only a handful of times did they really call attention to themselves. —Andrea Kannapell, The New York Times "Beowulf is an ancient tale of men battling monsters, but Headley has made it wholly modern, with language as piercing and relevant as Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer Prize-winning album 'DAMN.' Language evolves! A line about Beowulf nearly being “recategorized as MIA” had the same effect on me. A truly epic rumble, reading Beowulf: A New Translation feels, in the end, like watching Icarus soar a second before he falls. It’s hard to think of many other instances where that could work. The opening lines of Beowulf in the only known medieval manuscript … Picked for Loyalty Books’ Holiday List. Not on Beowulf’s watch! ... New York is a city of five boroughs. She read us the Burton Raffel translation (just like you, Giri) aloud, and we were all thrilled because we didn’t have to do real work. Nevertheless, as the story progresses, the author’s style begins to imprint itself on the narrative. Author’s note: Warnings on this review for discussions of gendered violence, transphobic language, and racism. And everything Beowulf does is for his male comrades; the poem concludes on a tragic note, since in his 50 years as a king, he never sired an heir to the throne. GN: “War-weeds” was also cool. He insists on attacking the fire-breathing menace alone, as if still an invulnerable young stud. KM: Kennings are when two words are connected by a lil’ dash right? Published Mar 4, 2021 in Catholic Writing, Fantasy, Fantasy Fiction & Faith, Fiction, Pop Culture ~ Approx 4 mins. —Andrea Kannapell, The New York Times "Beowulf is an ancient tale of men battling monsters, but Headley has made it wholly modern, with language as piercing and relevant as Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer Prize-winning album 'DAMN.' MA: And that taking for granted that translations by men are normal and therefore Headley’s is radical is inherently wrong, right? We have all been dazzled, tormented, or utterly unmoved by the Old English epic poem, Beowulf.Composed between the seventh and tenth century CE, the poem was transcribed in a single manuscript, now known as “The Nowell Codex,” and bound to … January 9, 2021 by LittlePlat 6 Comments. Beowulf, translated by Maria Dahwana Headley. A lot of good kennings about spears and swords. Bro! MA: Yes, let’s talk about our experiences with this Beowulf, which translates the Old English exclamation “hwæt” as “bro!” I did read nearly all of Headley’s version aloud, and I think that was the best way to absorb what is a great strength of her version; it’s translated with a poet’s ear and a keen awareness of what Beowulf is: a story passed down orally. It’s like an amazing time capsule! Scribe, $27.99. Drake and LeBron ran pop-rap and basketball for a decade-plus and are corny to their bones and I love them more for it. How perfect it is that, seeking greater renown, he shows up with his crew (or “thanes”) from afar to defend a king’s mead-hall from a demonic being. Yes, Headley has delivered a Beowulf for the frat boys, replete with dudely quips and boasts. MA: There’s a book review and publisher marketing ecosystem that must be fueled and fed, but I felt a number of the reviews—even the rave ones!—did this translation a disservice by focusing so closely on the more shocking anachronisms. A Compound word to make a metaphor? When a dragon does finally strike a fatal wound against him (don’t worry, he still kills it first), it’s down to his stubborn pride despite old age. This story is so old! Okay, there’s dispute as to whether Beowulf took on his nemesis in the nude — the poem only says he takes off his armor — but it’s the attitude that he brings to his preparation for battle that makes him the ultimate bro. Discussion. And I agree—I don’t remember engaging with it in pure literary terms, more as a historical document full of names and places to understand.
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