Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Hwæt! A movie review!

There is a brilliant, er, "translation" of select passages of Beowulf in this review of the Christopher Lambert movie Beowulf. (Note: in the last sentence, the words "Christopher Lambert" convey more information about the movie than the word Beowulf.)

Be sure to keep glancing at the Old English that is being translated; the reviewer plays a little freely in his textual criticism, but given the situation and end result, I think the needs of the interpretive community outweigh the intention of the author--just this once. ;-)

Seriously, read the whole thing, even if you think the poem starts out slow (Dryhten forbid). A dragonhoard of humor shall you find ere the end.

Note how, even in the suspect manuscript used, Beowulf still dies in the end. But not in the movie! After all, there can be only one! (Oh, wrong movie? Eh, it's all the same, really.)

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