Just Finished Reading..Beowulf, Translated by Maria Dahvana Headley

 

I first read this poem when I was studying English at university. The one I read was a Penguin prose translation. It was old even then. I also have a copy of Tolkien’s translation. 

Beowulf was written in Old English,  some time in the eighth century.  Old English is like German - I did a semester of it, and my knowledge of Yiddish helped! 

This latest translation, published recently, is in verse. It has been the subject of a lot of enthusiastic discussion on line, for its modern language, so I bought it earlier this year, but hadn’t got around to finishing it when it appeared on this year’s Hugo Award shortlist. I decided I’d better finish reading it, for that reason. 

I have now read it and have to say I’m impressed. 

You may know the story. King Hrothgar builds a mead hall for himself and his warriors. Night after night they party until a creature called Grendel comes calling from the fens where he lives, and helps himself to Hrothgar’s men, including a dear friend of the king’s. 

A party of Geatish warriors, led by the hero, Beowulf, arrives to help. That night, Beowulf stays awake and fights the invader, ripping off his arm and sending him running, dying, back to his home in the fens. 

Grendel has a mother, just as scary as her son, even more so. She comes to avenge her son and Beowulf chases her back to her underwater hall where she too dies at his hands. 

But there is a second part to the story. Years later, when Beowulf is old and a king himself, a dragon comes ravaging the land after a cup is stolen from its hoard. Beowulf fights it, knowing that he can’t win, even if he kills it. 

He is right. 

The poem has a famous beginning, “Hwaet! We Gardena in geardagum…” Well, after that you need an Old English keyboard. But that first word has been the subject of much discussion over the years, usually translated as “Listen!” Tolkien translated it as “Lo!” 

However it is translated, Hwaet! definitely sounds intended to shut up party goers in a noisy hall. 

Maria Headley begins with “Bro!” a word she uses quite often in the rest of the text, but it absolutely works as a beginning. 

She uses many contemporary words, quite deliberately, including  a cheeky line including “piles of preciouses”. 

All the same, the verse is alliterative like the original. Despite the modern words, I felt as if I was reading the real thing; it can be read aloud to a noisy room full of warriors. 

The translator admires Grendel’s mother, a warrior woman rather than just a monstrous creature like her son, and it shows. Headley didn’t just translate the poem, she made it a work of art in its own right, so I understand why it is up for an award for writing. 

If you haven’t read this version, I do recommend it. It’s easily available in ebook if you want to buy and download it right away - or get your library to buy a copy. I bought mine in Apple Books, but you can get a print copy in all the usual places.