Beowulf Starts!
21 Dec 2025 09:41![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
karmicdragonflyThe Beowulf class starts first week of the new year. I have already gotten started reading, and of course there were some hard spots that I had to read over and over, looking up words, finally consulting an online translation to see if I was understanding correctly.
I'm at line 56 now, still in the prologue, and it's been pretty easy to read! Contrast this with a few years ago when I sat down with a copy of the text and a grammar, figuring I'd be able to wing it. I mean, I have studied several languages (Latin, Classical Greek, French, Portuguese, American Sign Language, (little bit of) German, and now Old English), so I figured I'd be able to pull it off. But It was EXHAUSTING, and I made very little headway!.
But now, the prologue was pretty easy reading!
I did have one issue during the funeral where I misread "heah ofer heafod, leton holm beran," as "heah ofer heafod, leton folm beran,".
Holm means sign or banner. Folm means hand. So instead of "high overhead, they placed a banner", I had this image of "high overhead, they let hands carry" -- and my image was that the the men were carrying the body over their heads, passing one to the other to get it to the ship. The actual grammar there does not support my translation, but it was what I read on my first pass!
Just received the book to be used in the next few classes -- it's kind of intimidating! Lots of small text -- a larger format would have been easier to read on my, ahem, well used eyes!
I'm at line 56 now, still in the prologue, and it's been pretty easy to read! Contrast this with a few years ago when I sat down with a copy of the text and a grammar, figuring I'd be able to wing it. I mean, I have studied several languages (Latin, Classical Greek, French, Portuguese, American Sign Language, (little bit of) German, and now Old English), so I figured I'd be able to pull it off. But It was EXHAUSTING, and I made very little headway!.
But now, the prologue was pretty easy reading!
I did have one issue during the funeral where I misread "heah ofer heafod, leton holm beran," as "heah ofer heafod, leton folm beran,".
Holm means sign or banner. Folm means hand. So instead of "high overhead, they placed a banner", I had this image of "high overhead, they let hands carry" -- and my image was that the the men were carrying the body over their heads, passing one to the other to get it to the ship. The actual grammar there does not support my translation, but it was what I read on my first pass!
Just received the book to be used in the next few classes -- it's kind of intimidating! Lots of small text -- a larger format would have been easier to read on my, ahem, well used eyes!
