[Aztlan] Beowulf and First Nations stories

[ECOLING at aol.com]

You will see below why I think the poem Beowulf,
in the oldest English we have, is highly relevant to all those
involved in any way with pre-Columbian cultures.

Beowulf is an interesting story.  It was written in Old English
probably sometime between about 700 and 1000 CE,
and the events referred to are from earlier than that, 
including one ruler's death probably around 520.
It is apparently the oldest text in any European language after Latin and 
Greek. 

It is the story of the Danes, and of the Geats, who lived somewhere in what
is now southern Sweden, who sent a hero Beowulf with retainers
to help the Danes get rid of a monster which was attacking them. 
It is from the era of the Great Halls,
where feasting in large wooden-pillared halls was prominent. 
Frisians and Swedes also play marginal roles.

The latest translation is by Seamus Heaney, who had a revelatory experience
when he realized that some of the old words from the time of Beowulf
were still in use by his grandmother, or in Ireland, or by John Crowe 
Ransome.
This made connections for him and made him feel that this was one of
his own heritages (Irish and English otherwise). 

Reading the book, and sensing that Hrafnswude or Hrafnsholt
are the old names for Ravenswood, can indeed give one a sense of roots.
Andrew Weeks tells me that "holt" is still used in England to refer to
a woods on someone's property (compare the related German Holz ~ Holtz),
though I don't think I've ever heard it in a placename in the USA. 
Does anyone know of such a placename?

There is now an "Illustrated Edition" of Beowulf with a 2008 copyright, 
with images of boats, weapons, glassware, ornaments of the time, landscapes, 
reconstructed Halls.   The translation is by poet Seamus Heaney.
Only once or twice was I startled by an oddly modern colloquial wording,
otherwise it was a very easy and comfortable read.

There is also "Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Bilingual Edition)",
though I have not attempted yet to penetrate the Old English.  Will do that 
later.
Among the reviews on Amazon.com for the illustrated edition, there is a 
mention
of an edition by Frederick Rebsamen (a verse translation) as very good,
and I would second that (but am not qualified to suggest a "best" one). 
I happened already to have that one.
Rebsamen attempts to give some feel for the Old English word and sentence
structure, but in modern English, with alliteration (same initial consonants)
instead of the rhyming which modern English uses. Quite an experience.

And there is Benjamin Bagby's rendering of the Old English spoken poem
together with a traditional lute, available on DVD with English subtitles,
which has gotten some rave reviews.  I've got that on order.

The story focuses on the hero Beowulf, who has loyal retainers 
but who fights mostly alone.
With superhuman feats, he conquers two beasts, and the Danes are
left to enjoy prosperity as he and his warriors sail home.
Later he is promoted to king (or "shield") of his people, and rules well,
until finally a 3rd creature, a fire-breathing dragon, comes into the story.
As before, he attempts to cure the land of this scourge alone,
and this time both he and the dragon die. A single warrior is brave enough
to come to assist him.   His people, without a leader,
expect to be attacked by their neighbors, and presumably that fate
was a part of the real history which this poem recalled.

The story involves a number of themes, heroism, loyalty, pride, fame,
lust, the advantages and disadvantages of attempting to be a lone hero,
etc.  It comes from a time when bands of people depended on their
warrior males to defend them, and wrong was returned for wrong.
The greatest center of Denmark at the time, the great hall around which 
most of the story focuses, may very well have been at Lejre,
near Roskilde on the Danish island Seeland (the post holes of several
Great Halls have been discovered there, and there is a historical
park / museum to explore the ancient ways).  During a later period,
from just before 1000 onwards, after Christianity fully took hold,
Roskilde was the capital, until later it was transferred to Copenhagen.
So there is probably a strong continuity here from the events of the poem 
through the entire time that Roskilde was the Danish capital.

***

Now on to the movie "Beowulf".  This is an animated movie
using motion-capture technology, and facial expressions
are still a bit lacking, but special effects can be produced cheaply
by computer.  The movie like the book focuses on the hero Beowulf,
but in a world in which the fantasy and supernatural element
plays a greater role than in the original poem.  The Frisians are
barely a footnote, and the third monster, the fire-breathing dragon,
instead of being in Sweden, is rather collapsed with the first and second,
all from the same cave in Denmark.  The Swedes are absent.
There is thus less history in the movie, and almost no geographical sense.
For geography, it could have benefited from some Google Earth
images, zeroing in on the area of the story through mist.
And it could have benefited from seeing some pictures of the very
unusual landscape around Lejre (pictured in the Illustrated book
mentioned above), an eerie landscape where retreating glaciers
left hills and puddles and ice and mists where strange spirits really belong.
(To be fair, the movie does attempt this with some icy trees,
but they do not to me equal what one can imagine, extending from the photos 
of real landscapes in Illustrated edition and translation referred to above.)

The drama in the movie focuses more on Beowulf's interactions with the
supernatural monsters, and because of the way it changes the plot, the 
bravest of his retainers does not figure as importantly.  
There are of course fight scenes.
The movie does explore to some extent Beowulf's pride, 
perhaps his tragic trait. 

But a gigantic change from the book is that the dilemmas of human choices 
are no longer really human ones. 
This is a great loss, especially in times like ours today when we badly need
moral stories to help people feel in their guts that they do have meaningful
choices to make, and that they must make them, that they may make
a really significant difference, even though there are no guarantees
of successful outcomes.  That is real life.

In the book, many things are left to the imagination.  The choice of
images in the illustrated edition mentioned is quite nice, and does
not attempt to tell us for example what the monsters looked like
(they are not described in any detail in the original poem),
or exactly how the Great Hall was arranged.  It is as a well-written
story should be.  Readers must use their imaginations,
and the story is told so well that they are encouraged to.

For that matter like much of the Mayan Popol Vuh,
or like stories of origin from many First Nations of the Americas.

Best wishes,
Lloyd Anderson
Ecological Linguistics
PO Box 15156
Washington DC 20003
ecoling at aol.com
202-547-7683



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