(Translation) Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley

[James Nicoll]

Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley

Noisy neighbours and an unresponsive HOA force Grendel to take
matters into his own hands.

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/great-balls-of-fire

[Cryptoengineer]

Post by James Nicoll
Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley
Noisy neighbours and an unresponsive HOA force Grendel to take
matters into his own hands.
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/great-balls-of-fire

Though I certainly knew of the poem earlier, my first
exposure to the story was John Gardner's 'Grendel', which
tells the first part of the story from the monster's POV.

I've seen it suggested that The Hobbit started off as
Tolkien retelling the second part (stealing from a dragons
horde) to this children, embellishing and extending the
story.

pt

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

Post by Cryptoengineer

Post by James Nicoll
Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley
Noisy neighbours and an unresponsive HOA force Grendel to take
matters into his own hands.
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/great-balls-of-fire

Though I certainly knew of the poem earlier, my first
exposure to the story was John Gardner's 'Grendel', which
tells the first part of the story from the monster's POV.
I've seen it suggested that The Hobbit started off as
Tolkien retelling the second part (stealing from a dragons
horde) to this children, embellishing and extending the
story.

My father could read it in Old English and did his Phd on Beowulf,
however it never made it into our bedtime stories (not that we ever
fell asleep drunk in a meadhall). I gave him a copy of Anderson's
version of Hrolf Kraki's Saga once, but I don't recall what he
thought about it.

[Garrett Wollman]

Post by James Nicoll
Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley
Noisy neighbours and an unresponsive HOA force Grendel to take
matters into his own hands.
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/great-balls-of-fire

So back in the, ummm, somewhat better days of social media, the
translator was all over Book Twitter, and I figured I probably ought
to read it one day. As it turns out, I was a member of the 2021
Worldcon so I actually have an epub of it from the 2021 Hugo voter's
packet. Perhaps I'll get around to reading it some day. (I'm doing
badly enough on this year's nominees -- I blew through the artist
categories because they're easy and don't require a lot of focus, but
the I have not been able to get into the prose at all, let alone the
zines and fan writing, and there are very few days left to vote.)

-GAWollman

[Michael F. Stemper]

Post by James Nicoll
Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley
Noisy neighbours and an unresponsive HOA force Grendel to take
matters into his own hands.
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/great-balls-of-fire

Now I understand the background of a certain Known Space story a little
better. Maybe I should read the original (in translation, of course)
some time.

[John Savard]

Post by James Nicoll
Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley
Noisy neighbours and an unresponsive HOA force Grendel to take
matters into his own hands.
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/great-balls-of-fire

An occurrence is _fortunate_ when it brings good in its wake.

An occurrence is _fortuitous_ when, in addition to being fortunate, it
is a great stroke of luck, as it was highly improbable.

While the apparent error in usage may have been intentional, since it
_sort of_ goes along with the arch, ironic tone of the beginning of
your essay, it is not entirely clear that this was the case, as the
additional exageration it brings is not really needed for the ironic
effect, and, instead, seems to mitigate against the suspension of
disbelief needed for the irony to succeed.

John Savard