Greene Hamlet

New Oxford lecture on Beowulf

Araby Greene — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:44:25 +0000

There’s a new Oxford podcast on Beowulf in the University’s Great Writers Inspire series. By Prof. Francis Leneghan of the English Faculty.

This talk is a little over twelve minutes long and focuses on the transition from oral literature retold by the scops, tellers and shapers of tales, to the manuscript that [...]

Kennings add layers of meaning

Araby Greene — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:30:32 +0000

Kennings are found in Old Norse and Old English poetry. The more you look at them, the more elusive their definition becomes. Kennings aren’t just simple metaphors for this and that. They add layers of meaning to words for things that are well-known to people sharing a way of life or culture.

The word ken [...]

Beowulf meets Chewbacca

Araby Greene — Fri, 20 May 2011 15:55:47 +0000

This creative Beowulf (Claymation) video on YouTube will make you laugh. It’s an AP English project that deserves to be seen beyond the classroom. An FandSproduction, the author, director, producer, and writer is Kenny Tyner.

A legendary warrior from Geatland rises up to defeat a seemingly unbeatable adversary. This claymation version is based [...]

Harvard Launches Medieval Library with Beowulf!

Araby Greene — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 22:21:54 +0000

Harvard University officially inaugurated the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library on March 3, 2011, with the Beowulf manuscript, a volume containing two manuscripts of secular Latin poetry, and St. Jerome’s Latin translation of the Pentateuch paired with the 17th century Douay-Reims translation.

The Medieval Library is meant to fill the gap between the Loeb Classical Library [...]

Irish Fairy Tales

Araby Greene — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 18:45:28 +0000

There’s a new section in the Beowulf-related page, Pre-Christian Epics of Northern Europe on Fiannaidheacht: The Fenian Cycle, which chronologically falls between the Ulster Cycle and the Historical Cycle of Irish Literature. While the Cattle Raid of Cooley from the Ulster Cycle is most similar to Beowulf, if you yearn for a little romance and [...]

What Dark Ages? The Staffordshire Hoard

Araby Greene — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 21:25:42 +0000

In July 2009, an Englishman with a metal detector, named Terry Herbert, found the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered. Treasures of the Staffordshire Hoard are as important as those of the history-making 1939 Sutton Hoo burial mound excavations. A recent reassessment of the find, according to Stoke-on-Trent Musuems, has shown that it contains [...]

The well-dressed Beowulf?

Araby Greene — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 20:25:39 +0000

I found this great Celtic warrior outfit on Fotolia while looking at images of Celtic ruins. It’s very well constructed and would be perfect for skewering dragons, charging into battle and yelling “Gaaaahh!” Perhaps it will inspire you to new heights for October’s Halloween revelries and any future Celtic re-enactments you may attend.

Yes, there [...]

Sir Robert Cotton’s Library

Araby Greene — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:12:07 +0000

Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631), collected manuscripts and antiquities. His private library included the Lindisfarne Gospels, two copies of the Magna Carta, the Beowulf manuscript, and other treasures. Cotton and his former teacher, William Camden, founded the Society of Antiquaries around 1586. He was influential in the antiquarian movement of early Stuart England, which sought to [...]

A very funny parody of Beowulf

Araby Greene — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:02:29 +0000

The Illustrated Beowulf by Jake has been restored to this site. The parody provides a student’s perspective on the poem and the project assignment from hell. The result is way too funny to leave out, even though half the students who view it will be too young to remember the "stars" of the retold story. [...]

Sutton Hoo on flickr

Araby Greene — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:36:01 +0000

The Sutton Hoo burial mound was excavated in 1939. Treasures from the same time period as the Beowulf story were discovered here. Because of their beauty and significance, many photos of the artifacts are available on flickr. Here is a sample using my new toy, Yahoo Pipes. Because the slideshow shows search results for "sutton-hoo," [...]