Lo, So Bro

     You probably have heard about Beowulf, an epic poem about a mighty warrior king who fights monsters. It was written in Old English and has been translated many, many times. All the translators have been obliged to work with a single manuscript, which is about a thousand years old and looks like this:

       Every translator has tried to render the epic in a style and form s/he found appropriate. This is a tricky job, since Beowulf is full of words that have no modern English equivalent and was written in an alliterative style that has rarely been employed by English poets. 

     Therefore, the translations vary wildly. J.R.R. Tolkien, whose writings owe a lot to Beowulf, served up the story's opening lines in this way: 

     Lo! the glory of the kings of the people of the Spear-Danes in the days of old we have heard tell, how those princes did deeds of valor. 

Tolkien

         Tolkien was a classicist -- I mean, look at him --  who thought the poem ought to sound "literary and traditional." Seamus Heaney, a 20th century poet who combined musical language with conversational tone, opened his Beowulf  like this: 

     So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by

    and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness. 

     We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns.  

 

Heaney

 

    He sounds like one of the fellers down at the pub, telling a long-rehearsed tale over a pint (or twelve) of Guinness (it's a long poem). 

     Now it's the 21st century, and thanks to the internet, you don't have to teach at Oxford to have access to the original Beowulf and put your spin on it. Thus we have a new translation by a feminist sci-fi/fantasy novelist named Maria Dahvana Headley. It begins:

     Bro! Tell me we still know how to speak of kings! In the old

    days,

    everyone knew what men were: brave, bold, glory-bound. Only

    stories now, but I'll sound the Spear-Danes song, hoarded for 

     hungry times. 

Headley

 

 

     Headley's version sounds like a monologue by a chain-mail-clad jock who's dropping knowledge in the latest lingo ("Hashtag blessed") and possesses serious poetic powers. Here's how he describes Beowulf vs. a dragon:

      Fire walked first, dragon's breath surging

     out of the stones. Earth quaked as she rose 

     and roared in return. The challenging mortal 

     raised his shield as she emerged, a whipping wraith, 

     a coil convulsing overhead, fangs, claws, and scales

     railing against robbery, ready for war.  

 

     Bam! Headley jolts the poem with energy, makes it feel immediate. And note, O ye pearl-clutching classicists out there, how she employs plenty of old-school alliteration. This is the Beowulf that college professors should give their students right now. It's as vivid as Game of Thrones and has a much more satisfying ending.