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Beowulf translated by seamus heaney
Beowulf translated by seamus heaney
Analysis of Beowulf
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Seamus Heaney and Burton Raffel’s translations of Beowulf serve their purpose of enthralling and engaging the audience with a suspenseful story. Heaney appeals to a mature audience with his descriptive and poetic style of writing, but Burton Raffle captivates a younger audience with his short worded and concise writing style. Heaney’s use of descriptive detail is best portrayed in line 26 when he describes the death of the old king Shild. “Shild was still thriving when his time cam and he crossed over into the lord’s keeping.” Heaney uses words such as when his time came and he crossed over into the lords keeping to mean death. On the other hand Raffel describes Shild’s death in a more direct fashion on line 26. “When his time was come the old king died, still strong but called to the lord's hands.” Raffel’s writing style is evident when he says the old king died. Unlike Heaney Raffel gets straight …show more content…
to the point and reveals that the king has died. Although Raffel and Heaney have their differences they both depict the idea of Christianity that Shild’s fate after death is in the hands of God. Having a poetic background gives Heaney a deeper understanding of writing, and allows him to translate Beowulf from a poet’s point of view.
This explains why Heany uses more literary devices than Raffel. In line 28 Heaney uses alliteration to describe the obedience of Shild’s men. “His warrior band did what he bade them when he laid down the law among the Danes.” Heaney’s repetition of the letter “b” allows him to get the point across that Shild’s people were obedient. Although Heaney does a better job of applying literary terms to his writing Raffle still attempts to use them in his writing. In line 28 Raffel uses alliteration to show that Shild’s friends cared about him. “His comrades carried him down to the shore, bore him as their leader had asked, their lord and companion, while words could move on his tongue.” Raffle use of similar words such as bore and shore allow him to get his point of companionship across in a creative fashion. Even though Heaney has more experience with alliteration both of these writers apply the term to describe similar
concepts. Heaney appeals to a mature audience with his descriptive and poetic style of writing, but Burton Raffle captivates a younger audience with his short worded and concise writing style. Heaney seems like the type of write who would write adult books, since he goes in depth with his writing. Raffel would be better off writing children’s books because he uses concise and direct words. In line 26 Raffle and Heaney describe the same scene in different ways. Raffle uses direct words such as the old king died. This style of writing can be understood by anyone. Heaney uses a deeper and poetic words such as when his time came. Poetic and death in writing is mostly meant to be comprehended by a mature writers. Heaney’s poetic style of writing allows him to bring the characters to life, but at the same time Raffel’s direct and concise descriptions enthrall the reader. Overall Heaney is more of a poetic and detail oriented writer because of his poetic background, and raffle is the exact opposite. Raffel’s diction show that he appeals to a younger audience, and Heaney’s deep style of writing captivates a mature audience. There have been many translations of Beowulf, but Raffel and Heaney’s translation best portray the magnificent story Beowulf.
Is the sword mentioned only in Beowulf or is it a common element in all Anglo-Saxon
8. Based on Beowulfs opening address to Hrothgar my first impression is that he is very confident and perhaps even self obsessed. He brags about his success and his strength. He says “of my youth have been filled with glory” and also states “my people have said, the wisest, most knowing, and best of them, that was duty was to the Danes’ Great king. They have seen my strength for themselves, have watched me rise from the darkness of war, dripping with my enemies blood. I drove five great giants into chains, chased all of that race from the earth.” And also to continues to list all of his world changing achievements that he accomplished all on his own. To me personally, he comes off as self conceded and feels as if he is untouchable.
Hanning, Robert W. “Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon Poetry.” Prudentius to Medieval Drama. Ed. William H. Jackson. New York: Scribner’s, 1983. Vol. 1 of European Writers. George Stade, ed. in chief. 14 vols. 60-62.
Heaney, Seamus. “Beowulf: The Poem” Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. New York: W.W. Norton &Company Ltd. 2001. ix-xxx. Print.
The epic poem, Beowulf, coming from the years of 600 to 700 AD has been translated in many different styles. In these excerpts by Burton Raffel and Lucien Dean Pearson, provides a clear understanding of this epic poem. Reading the two different translations, Raffel tends to provide the reader with a better understanding of the evil nature of Grendel and the heroic characteristics of Beowulf.
...ng, Howell D. "Introduction." Beowulf. Trans. Howell D. Chickering, Jr. New York: Random House, 1989.
Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000. Print.
Donaldson, E. Talbot, trans. Beowulf The Donaldson Translation, edited by Joseph Tuso. New York, W.W.Norton and Co., 1975.
Beowulf. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume A. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2006. 34-100.
Beowulf begins with a history of the Danish kings. Hrothgar is the present king of the Danes. He builds a hall, called Heorot, to house his army. The Danish soldiers gather under its roof to celebrate and have fellowship with each other. Grendel, who lives at the bottom of a nearby swamp, is awakened and disgusted by the singing of Hrothgar's men. He comes to the hall late one night and kills thirty of the warriors in their sleep. For the next twelve years Grendel stalks the mead hall known as Heorot.
“Anyone with gumption/ and a sharp mind will take the measure/ of two things,” states one of the Danish warriors in Beowulf: “what’s said and what’s done” (287-289). Beowulf is, above all, a poem about language, about storytelling: the stories told of the great ones, and the stories the great ones hope will be told about themselves. It is a poem about the importance of boasting and vows, the power of the word made flesh, and the crucial link between worda ond worca, “what’s said and what’s done.” The bulk of the poem's content does not concentrate on what is happening in the present action of the tale, but on the telling what has happened and what will happen. Through language, the Danes and the Geats state their intentions and define themselves as a people; they recall the past exploits that shape the present, and "a battle-scarred veteran, bowed with age,/ would begin to remember the martial deeds/ of his youth and prime and be overcome/ as the past welled up in his wintry heart" (2112-2115). Stories of times gone by and boasts of past accomplishments link the characters to their past; vows of deeds to come and the promise of glory after their deaths help to carry them into the future. As parallels between the past and the present are constantly drawn, the heroes use the example of earlier warriors in hopes of accomplishing the great deeds that will win them similar renown.
Heaney, Seamus, trans. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000.
With this being said Heaney uses similes and denotations throughout his poem to put in a sense of tone in the poem to help the readers get a better understanding of what the people were going through when they would see soldiers walking about. According to Dictionary.com (“Simile”, 2016). “A simile is a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared.” This is being used in line 18 where it says “standing there like youngsters” (Heaney, n.d.). This interprets how men working would pause and observe what was going on and the soldiers marching by just like kids would do when they see something remarkable. Heaney also uses Denotation. Which according to Dictionary.com, “Denotation is the explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it or suggested by it.” This is being showed in the poem throughout various lines. It’s being showed when he writes, “They would have heard the screaming, / Then heard it stop and had a view of us / In our gloves and aprons / coming down the hill” (lines 6-9), this evokes an image showing that what is being told and said is what is truly happening. That the soldiers were so close to them that they could hear the slightest scream of a pig being
...from the war. Heaney depicted the violence as a Nationalist but, yet he was always neutral, and some poems even came from the protestant side of the conflict such as “The Other Side”. By times it was reflected that Heaney was against the British occupying his land but he was against the violence from both sides. Heaney’s progression through life came with the improvement of the situation in the North. This was reflected in his poetry as he gradually stepped away from the conflict, in his life, and in his poetry. Despite his views gaining Heaney a mass of critics, it still can recognised he will be forever the citizens voice on the troubles, along with one of the greatest poets to ever grace our country.
In that line there is a lot of pride on the part of the Grandson. The line also implies that there used to be a lot of turf-cutters in his day. So when Heaney writes, ‘But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.’