Beowulf in performance

[starlady]

Beowulf in performance by Benjamin Bagby

A month ago I went to see Benjamin Bagby, the noted early music specialist, perform the first section of the epic of Beowulf in the original Old English. Rather than just a straight recitation, which is pretty damn boring, Bagby does a full performance in the style of an ancient scop (rhapsode), and he's really damn good at it--between the surtitles and the performance itself he managed to have the audience laughing, and in suspense, at multiple points, which is damn hard to do even when the audience understands the performance language.

It was really cool to hear the text performed; old English, amusingly enough, still has a very few words exactly the same as our modern English, and it sounds a lot like both German and the Scandinavian languages--every so often there came a line I could understand without the surtitles, which definitely gave a thrill. Hearing the entirety of the first section actually also made me aware of the linkages between all three parts; specifically, the long digression towards the end of the first part, after Beowulf has defeated Grendel (spoilers! Grendel dies!), foreshadows the manner of Beowulf's death in the third part. The poem "Beowulf" by Richard Wilbur has also stuck with me in that context, and came back to me. (Yes; I hold to the more modern tripartite structure interpretation, as opposed to the two-part structure championed by J.R.R. Tolkien in "The Monsters and the Critics." The essay is eminently readable and worth reading, however; it's available here.)

I also tend to agree with placing the date of the poem's composition towards the earlier end of the accepted range: i.e. closer to the 8thC CE than the 11th. It's interesting hearing the poem and hearing the new religion, Christianity, coexisting within it with the Viking culture it overlays; the elements aren't in tension, but they remain heterogeneous. I wound up thinking of Tom Palaima's Phi Beta Kappa lecture, in which he argued that the Greek epics and drama represent the culture's attempt to teach people what war is really like, and that with the advent of Christianity it became more difficult to convince people to kill their fellow men, necessitating the obfuscation of lying about the true nature of war. It's an interesting argument, and I think it could be adopted to Beowulf too; certainly one hears a lot about the aspects of Christianity that fit in the warrior-honor culture of the Geats and the Danes, and very little about the more radical peace and compassion ideology that also is part of the religion, or at least its texts. Like I said, interesting.

The Roman road also really does stick out in the poem. How is it still paved? Seriously, how?

Comments

[holyschist]

The Romans made really good roads?

I wish I could see Beowulf performed in Old English.

[ellen_fremedon]

I have wanted to see Bagby's Beowulf for years.

[via_ostiense]

Roman roads were very well made; there's still original paving on a section of Via Appia. Assuming there were no horrendous earthquakes and local farmers didn't prise up the paving stones to build walls, it's not unexpected that the road would still be usable after four centuries.

[lnhammer]

*envy*

[seekingferret]

That Tolkien piece is a fascinating read, if unsurprising: I'm pretty sure all of my objections to LotR are the same as my objections to Beowulf.

[starlady]

That essay is the single reason the poem enjoys the status it does today; before Tolkien the general scholarly opinion was that it was basically crap, especially compared to other oral epics.

And yeah, it's funny reading/hearing Beowulf, because a lot of the Rohirrim names are just straight old English words, and every so often you just say to yourself, OMG Smaug!!

[recessional]

I saw that a few years ago. It really is an amazing evening.

[oracne]

That sounds like it was WAY cool.

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

Ooooh! I saw Bagby perform this about 14 years ago, and it was magnificent. I'm jealous--I wish I could hear him again!

Have much more to say, but no time. Hope to be back later!

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

I'll be here! From the program notes, it sounds like what he performed 14 years ago was about 1/3 shorter than what he does now. Apparently he also has about half of the second part in preparation, but he'd need a grant to bring the rest of it up to performance level.

[kaeyko.livejournal.com]

I remember taking a course on translating Old English (the West Anglo-Saxon dialect) - it's essentially another language and it's actually easier if you're somewhat familiar with German. And the syntax is almost incomprehensible unless you can figure out the declenations of all the nouns involved... O_o

But Beowulf is pretty amazing thematically, especially as the point of time it was composed. One of the things about it though, that's a bit strange, is how it can be divided into three parts: Beowulf vs. Grendel, Beowulf vs. Grendel's mother, and Beowulf vs. the dragon; and there's very little (in the original Old English) that expresses how these events might even be causally connected, particularly how Beowulf's last battle is even related to the battles between him and Grendel, and then Grendel's mother.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

It's fascinating how much languages can change over time--I suspect Old English is a rather extreme case, because Middle English imported so much French and Latinate vocabulary.

And yes, the thematic divide is so striking! I do think that the lay of what's his face at the end of the first part foreshadows Beowulf's fate in the third part, but it's extremely subtle. I wonder if other scop made the connections more explicit.