Beowulf survives ionly in a single manuscript, dating from about the year 1000 and now in the British Museum. In 1731, parts of this manuscript were damaged by fire, and in later years sections crumbled away. Fortunately, however, an Icelandic scholar by the name of Thorkelin had copied the poem in 1786. When most of it could still be made out, and this copy exists undamaged.
No exact date can be given for the composition of Beowulf, but scholars agree that it was composed considerably earlier than the date of the manuscript in the British Museum. The mention of the death of Hygelac- an actual person whose death date (around 521) is known from reliable histories of the time- gives us an early limit. But other historical evidence suggests that the earliest date is after 680, when Germanic alternative verse began to be used for Christian purposes. Some have argued that, since the poem glorifies the Danes, it is unlikely to have been written after 835, when the Danish raids on Anglo Saxon England began in grim earnest. Examination of the language of the poem can do little more than confirm the possibility that it was composed between 680 and 800 (or perhaps later).
Don't forget this for the next exam!!!
Undoubtedly ‘Beowulf’, the Old English heroic epic poem, is one of the most remarkable English Language works since it includes detailed descriptions about a specific age when courageous people used to live with honor, and profound beliefs and ideologies had been being developed -including the gallantry sense and myths related to the Dane culture.
ResponderEliminarDespite the valuable amount of information, further practice opportunities and recreation provided by this poem, explicit messages are not contained and implicit ones imply intricate linguistic features - such as metaphors. Therefore, I dare to affirm that due to the type of language used in this poem it seems to be rather complex.
Furthermore, referring to the movie, it is crucial to express that films just reproduce personal interpretations of a whole reality; consequently, films depend on relative perspectives rather than on facts, they demand less effort to comprehend and create a coherent picture in our mind -and it has been witnessed.
In conclusion, the movie is as important as the poem because both of them comprise a story which is definitely well-worthy in terms of history and literature.
BEWOLF
ResponderEliminarThe most important difference that I could find between the original Beowulf and the translating Beowulf is the grammatical structure of Old English, the vocabulary and the language in which the poem was writing. Also the translation must makes changes in word order according the way that we write now and the way in which the original manuscript was writing.
Modern translation style is very different, because it uses contemporary language and sentence structures to make the poem relevant and meaningful to modern readers, using colloquial language and sentence style makes the story easy to understand and according the movie I can found that the sounds of the words and the pronunciation had some changes.
The main differences that i can foun between the Book of Beowulf and Beowulf´s movie aas follow:
ResponderEliminar-The book was wrote with with old english and is very difficult that you can understand the main idea.
-The movie is more superficial becauseit didn´t project all the message of the book.
-When you read the book you can discover the esence of the book and the meaning.
-Other difference is that the movie only represent the idea in general and in the book you can interprete the meaning of the different forms.
Por: Sandra Camacho Salinas
COMMENT ABOUT POEM AND MOVIE OF BEWOLF
ResponderEliminarI think that the poem is more authentic than the movie, because the movie adds other things that the real poem doesn’t have. Also the real poem is more specific; it gives us more details than the movie. However for us easier to understand the movie than the poem, because the poem has antique words that we don’t know and the movie was adapted to our common language. But for me was more interesting the poem because it let me to imagine the history and add many things that I wanted to add it. Well I consider that the poem has move advantages but the movie involve few working.
IRENE SANCHEZ
Definitely, the old English text of Beowulf is an astonishing literature treasure because of its authentic lyric style. It extols the ancient mythology in the most beautiful sense of the written expression. A long the time it have been traduced in many languages around the world as a matter of a fact the translation have been changed in written style due to the difference of grammar and syntax in each language. Besides that the esthetic resources such as metaphors and linguistic figures have been switched into a close form in order to remark the sense of the text even though those are not in the same linguistic way. However it preserves the main plot of the story and the descriptive details.
ResponderEliminarLikewise, in terms of publicity the film industry has brought the story of Beowulf into a film production. It has given life to the characters moreover it has unfolded into the greatest real and fantastic scenery.
Both have their own characteristics. The complete text contains all the details of the story in a complex description, meanwhile the movie just shows the most important events taking into account details related with the setting, the characterization of the staff, the scrip of the movie and the performance. It tries to represent the original text into real images. Hence the existence of the ancient literary text has given the opportunity to know the story through a film. Actually both are magnificent art productions of the human thought.
***JOosse kOrrea***
Obviously, the translation of Beowulf in modern words gives us a better idea of the story of this poem. The fact of make it meaningful, make it more interesting for the readers but the advantage of read this poem in the old English, is that it remounts us to the age it was written. It means we can learn not only the way people wrote in thet moment, also we can give meaning to the traditions or activities they had in their cultures, as the way of thougth.
ResponderEliminarAlso I observed a big difference between the movie and the text. This is that the movie is not as detailed as the texts, it happens for the necesity of use in few time the main idea of the text. However, nowadays people is more interested in movies than tritten literature, so it is important to create good movies which contein literary stories in order to involve new generations in literature.
Miss Paty I sent my comment in her mail, because I couldn´t publiced it in this blog
ResponderEliminarI hope that you will check it
Beowulf (pr. /ˈbeɪəwʊlf/ o también [ˈbeːo̯wʊɫf]) es un poema épico anglosajón anónimo que fue escrito en inglés antiguo en verso aliterativo. Cuenta con 3.182 versos, y por lo tanto contiene mucho más texto que cualquier obra similar en su mismo idioma, representando alrededor del 10% del corpus existente del verso anglosajón.
ResponderEliminarTanto el autor como la fecha de composición del poema se desconocen, aunque las discusiones académicas suelen proponer fechas que van desde el siglo VIII al XII d. C. La obra se conserva en el códice Nowel o Cotton Vitellius A. xv y dada la fama del poema, a pesar de que convive con otras obras en el mismo manuscrito, este se ha dado en llamar «manuscrito Beowulf». Aunque el poema no tiene título en el manuscrito, se le ha llamado Beowulf desde principios del siglo XIX y se conserva en la Biblioteca Británica.
Tiene dos grandes partes: la primera sucede durante la juventud del héroe gauta o geata (en algunas traducciones, "godo") que da nombre al poema, y narra cómo acude en ayuda de los daneses o jutos, quienes sufrían los ataques de un ogro gigantesco –Grendel–, y tras matar a éste, se enfrenta a su terrible madre; en la segunda parte, Beowulf ya es el rey de los gautas y pelea hasta la muerte con un feroz dragón.
Su importancia como epopeya es equiparable a la del Cantar de los Nibelungos sajón, el Cantar de mío Cid español, la Canción de Roldán francesa o el Lebor Gabála Érenn (Libro de las Conquistas de Irlanda). [cita requerida] Durante el siglo XX, se han realizado incontables estudios y debates en torno a distintos aspectos del poema.
The poem Beowulf
ResponderEliminarThis poem has had many changes in its written because the old English is different at the actual English. In fact this poem have had different translations actually has a movie. The film has the main plot although the film doesn’t have some parts that have the original poem.
Although understand the original poem is a challenge because the vocabulary is not common and the people do not use it but some parts is to easy understand because understand the first part and can deduce the next but sometimes is difficult because the spelling is different so for that reason I think is a challenge understand the poem well the original poem because the actual poem is easier because the English used is actual.
Beowulf was probably composed between 700 A.D. and 900 A.D.The place of its composition was probably Northumbria, an important Anglo-Saxon kingdom between Scotland on the north and the Humber River on the south. Northumbria was home to Roman Catholic monks who excelled in learning and literature. The most famous was the Venerable Bede (672-735), who wrote The Ecclesiastical History of the English People and popularized the use of "A.D." (abbreviation for the Latin Anno Domini, meaning in the year of the Lord) in dating events in relation to the year of the birth of Christ
ResponderEliminarAlso Beowuf is better in the written form because in the movie some parts are missing were the main caracters are
ResponderEliminarBeowulf: Illustrious warrior from the land of the Geats in Sweden. When a monster terrorizes a Danish kingdom, Beowulf sails across the sea to come to the aid of the beleaguered Danes. Beowulf possesses enormous strength and courageously confronts the monster in hand-to-claw combat. According to Webster's New World Dictionary, Beowulf may mean bee-hunter (Beo for bee and wulf for hunter). A bear, of course, hunts bees and, therefore, Beowulf translates loosely as bear.
Hrothgar: King of a Danish realm terrorized by a monster. He presides at Heorot, a great mead hall. Heorot
Wealhtheow: Hrothgar's wife and queen.
Grendel: Monster that terrorizes Heorot.
Grendel's Mother: Monster that retaliates after Beowulf defeats Grendel.
Dragon: Monster that goes on a rampage in the land of the Geats.
Wiglaf: Warrior who helps Beowulf fight the dragon.
Hygelac: King of the Geats in Sweden. He is Beowulf's uncle.
Hygd: Hygelac's wife and queen.
Heardred: Son of Hygelac.
Ecgtheow: Beowulf's father.
Unferth: Danish warrior who envies Beowulf.
Breca: Childhood friend of Beowulf.
Aeschere: Counselor to Hrothgar.
Freawaru: daughter of Hrothgar and Wealhtheow
Scyld Scefing: Onetime King of Denmark and great-grandfather of Hrothgar. He is mentioned in the epic but does not take part in the action.