English as She Is Spoke
Yesterday I received a copy of Michael Drout’s Beowulf Aloud, a 3-CD set of his dramatic reading of the epic poem in its original language. I added the whole thing to my iTunes/iPod collection this morning, and hope to have some time to listen to it this weekend.
This morning I sampled the lecture and a few tracks of the poem. Although I can’t speak or read Anglo-Saxon, I’ve dabbled in it from time to time and have tried to pick up some sense of it by reading the poem itself. After listening to Beowulf in Old English for even just a few minutes, I’ve gotten some feeling for the original rhyme and rhythm, which even the best translations can’t recreate completely. Maybe I’ll post a few more comments on Beowulf Aloud after I’ve heard the whole thing.