Guthlac A nearly completed

Goodness gracious it feels good to get something finished! I have updated the Guthlac page so that all but the very last section of the first poem is complete. Notes on the new lines will be filled in sometime in the next few days.

Is it such a good thing to be utterly enthralled by the qualities of the poem you're translating? I feel like Guthlac A is the greatest poem ever, although I know realistically that this is far from so. At first, I felt a bit embarrassed by the poem's clunky relative clauses, its aggravating habit of modifying a singular noun in the dative by an adjective in plural (see the quote below), its limited and very repetitive vocabulary, and its cyclical structure based on a recurrence of a single scenario of demonic temptation. But as the lines turned into full sections, the sections built up momentum, and the voice became familiar I have a new respect for the poet's work.

Guthlac A is a haunting expression of the banality of evil, of temptations that do not blitzkreig so much as besiege endlessly. Guthlac requires patient endurance against the mind-numbing stagnancy of the demons' world-view. The demons emphasize the perils of conformity by repeating the same attack over and over again, demanding that Guthlac maintain their status quo. The emphasis consistently lies in the fact that because they have suffered for pride Guthlac must necessarily do so as well. Guthlac, on the other hand, embodies a possibility of change, of changing his way of life and demeanor, even as his name ("war-play") as the terms of that battle are transformed as he devotes himself to spiritual labor: "Ac ic minum Criste cweman þence/ leofran lace" [but I think to satisfy my lord Christ with a dearer sort of play] (306-7). By contrast the devils' focus on battle-play can never be materialized, they menace and grab, but cannot harm the saint. For all their intentions their belligerence is not more substantial than the air, and at one point, they are even described as "lyft-lacende" (bouncing like the air or upon the air) (146), a kenning whose assonance chimes with Guthlac's name, relating and dividing them at the same time.

(On second look at this post, I realize that my reading of Guthlac A must be influenced by my own personal tribulations in trying to get my Sir Gowther chapter done the way it should be, to advance the stakes and really get the argument to say something important.)

Guthlac A IV

The fifth installment of Guthlac A is now complete. I have been experimenting with ways to organize the vocabulary in a database, so that had slowed progress for a few days.

I know that there are a lot of computer people amongst you Anglo-Saxonists, so any suggestions of how to manipulate data in MS Excel would be greatly appreciated: I want to create a wordlist that preserves each form a word takes, but that swiftly eliminates duplicates and extremely common words, so I don't have to wade through them when I need to look for a word. For Guthlac, I can just use Roberts's glossary, but I'm looking ahead to a bigger poem like Genesis.

Update to Elene

I've added about thirty lines to the Elene translation that were lying about. I don't really mean to do two poems at the same time--and Lord knows I have enough to do without it--but I did want to get everything I have out on the table.

I have not been satisfied with the sound of Elene so far, and so I have pushed it aside until I can digest a few more translations. There is something very different about the voice of the poem--Andreas and Guthlac A just don't have it-- and I need to get my mind around expressing it that voice.

Updates to Guthlac

The first four sections of Guthlac A are now complete, so please come and visit to check things out. I recently stumbled across Jane Roberts's 1979 edition and remembered that Bernard Muir's edition of the Exeter Book existed, so I now have a much more up-to-date edition to use in the translation. A relief, but one that will necessitate some revisiting of the notes so far, I fear.

Consequently a bibliographic list of editions and translations has been added to the start of the Notes section, just to help you all play along at home.

More Guthlac

The first three parts of Guthlac A are posted, and the notes sections is struggling along behind it. I feel that I am starting to get a feel for the poem's unique qualities: its heavily periodic structure that depends on very dense repetition, its unusual meter (Sievers types don't really help very much in many of the lines), and the poem's obsession with state and condition (as evidenced by the constant use of had, and the frequent use of legal terminology).

I hope you are enjoying the evolution of the translation as much as I am.

On another note, ASNPP just broke a minor landmark today. The page has had 1,005 hits, with 756 unique visitors. I still have a long way to go to catch up with In The Middle, and the guinea pig cartoon page has still had 8 times as many hits, but I am very proud this project has received so much interest. Thank you all!

I'm back

Hello, gentle readers --

I am finally back from my summer travels (wedding, honeymoon, and moving into a new apartment) and thought that there should be some kind of new activity here.

So I will officially announce the creation of the Guthlac translation page, a poem that is often in my thought while carving through my current chapter on Sir Gowther. Format will follow the Andreas and Elene pages, and there will be (sporadic) activity on all three pages.

I thought I would urge you over to my first attempt to render the breathtaking, heart-rending beauty of the opening of Guthlac, a start of a poem that feels utterly unlike any other of the narrative poems. It seems inverted, as if the homiletic payoff is delivered right up front, one of the "lænan dreamas" (loaned pleasures) alluded to at the start of the poem, which the reader's continued attention for the rest of the poem (or poems) will repay.

So I promise your attention will be repaid in the near future. As usual, I humbly beseech your input, so please send along your comments and critiques.

Hello again!

I have been negligent in updating lately. My apologies.

The first bit of news is that the Elene translation page is now receiving updates. The first 18 lines are already there. I'm trying to discover the voice of the poem, and get the hang of Cynewulf's style. I absolutely do not want this poem to sound like it was written by the Andreas-poet. Guthlac is also floating around in the mix, and will probably start getting some action as well (page to come).

The second item is the ASF2 panel went really well. I have notes to provide a more fleshed-out account which I will be working on.

And, third, the Andreas translation is receiving frequent edits as I start to hone the language and style. One thing that has been pointed out to me is that there are way too many commas -- so that's being fixed. Also, there are attempts at preserving kennings that need a lot of work to sound interesting, rather than just awkward.