#text: beowulf

[mariggu]

Long way from history to anime and then back again. Thorfinn and Canute in some early medieval manuscript

[lavenderfables]

Those classics you have yet to read, not necessarily because they intimidate you, but because you know they're going to destroy and consume you on a level only shipwrecks understand.

[tanadrin]

I would express the whole industry in yet another allegory. A man inherited a field in which was an accumulation of old stone, part of an older hall. Of the old stone some had already been used in building the house in which he actually lived, not far from the old house of his fathers. Of the rest he took some and built a tower. But his friends coming perceived at once (without troubling to climb the steps) that these stones had formerly belonged to a more ancient building. So they pushed the tower over, with no little labor, in order to look for hidden carvings and inscriptions, or to discover whence the man’s distant forefathers had obtained their building material. Some suspecting a deposit of coal under the soil began to dig for it, and forgot even the stones. They all said: ‘This tower is most interesting.’ But they also said (after pushing it over): ‘What a muddle it is in!’ And even the man’s own descendants, who might have been expected to consider what he had been about, were heard to murmur, ‘He is such an odd fellow! Imagine using these old stones just to build a nonsensical tower! Why did he not restore the old house? He had no sense of proportion.’ But from the top of that tower the man had been able to look out upon the sea. --J.R.R. Tolkien, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics"

[gennsoup]

My own experiences as a woman tell me it's very possible to be mistaken for monstrous when one is only doing as men do: providing for and defending oneself.

Maria Dahvana Headley (trans.), Beowulf (Introduction)

[ilovedthestars]

re: the Epic of Gilgamesh: it’s absolutely worth reading! And not too dense. I would 1000% recommend finding a twenty-first century translation, though—archaeologists find new tablets and fragments every once in a while, so anything older than the 2000s won’t be complete to what we know now. Something significant was discovered in 2016 iirc, so, if you can find a version that takes that into account, I think that would be ideal. I read Maureen Kovacs’s translation from the 1980s which was definitely composed for an academic audience rather than a popular one, which I did like but also I know it’s out of date and I’m also looking for a more modern translation… I hear good things about Stephen Mitchell’s 2004 translation, tho it takes liberties. Benjamin Foster’s (2019) and Sophus Helle (2022) both sound promising.

Oooh, thank you! Good to know that i should look for something recent. In looking up the ones you mentioned I found an interview with Benjamin Foster where he says his intended audience is a college literature class and he prioritized an engaging reading experience over including a lot of academic detail, so that sounds like a pretty good fit for my level of knowledge & what I'm looking for (I am no Assyriologist lol, just interested in the story and wanting to experience a relatively-close-to-original version of it). Sophus Helle's also looks interesting, I'd be curious to read the essays that are included in it. Alas, it looks like my library has neither, so I'll have to look farther afield. Thanks for the recs!

[serenescribe]

For the 3 sentence prompt; Silver has been kidnapped (teen or child) and Lilia is furious and ready to go papa wolf to get his child back.

[✐] ficlet frenzy

When Lilia returns home from his trip, there is a ransom note pinned to the front door with a knife — messy, scrawling ink on thick parchment, equal parts elegant and brusque. The letter reads: We have the human boy.

The demands are simple, really. Silver's kidnappers, whoever they are, have only one thing in mind — money. Lilia feels his lips curl as he reads their egregious demands; had they somehow tricked the boy into coming with them? Silver was still rather young, and Lilia had yet to properly instill any serious training regiments outside of some simple routines. He had assumed they lived far enough away that none would ever bother them save for Malleus and Sebek, but clearly that was not the case.

Well, it's no matter. Crumpling up the parchment, Lilia ignites it with a blaze of magical fire, the surge of flames turning it to dust. He watches the smoke waft upwards as the flames die out — the thick smog remains, moving in the direction of whoever it was that had left the note on the door. It is a simple tracking spell, one that shall take him straight to wherever they have taken his human child.

With a merry smile, Lilia heads for the shed, emerging with his trusty old cleaver in hand, the blade no less dull than it was centuries ago. Really, who do these kidnappers think they are, challenging the General Vanrouge like this?

It's about time for him to go retrieve Silver and bring him home.

[queenwendy]

I will NEVER get over Hector, prince of Troy, naming two of his horses the objectively awesome Swiftfoot and Flame while the other two are Blondie and fucking SPARKLE, who is apparently the best of the horses. And he just called Diomedes (master of the war cry) womanlike. Never change, Hector. Never change.

The names are listed in Book 8 Line 244 of Emily Wilson’s english verse translation. Somewhere between lines 180 and 190 in the original.

[Image ID: picture of a passage from the Iliad reading “With this he called his horses, saying to them,/‘Now Swiftfoot, Blondie, Flame, and godlike Sparkle,/repay me for the food Andromache”]

[britneyshakespeare]

He's a 10 but he doesn't foam at the mouth when reading alliterative Old and Middle English literature

[primrose-graveyard]

boy it's been a long while, huh? I've been thinking about Beo/Taliesin a lot if you cannot tell.

headcanon under the cut!

Moving in!

- since Taliesin needs to perform in the Cirque des Cartes probably once or twice a week, he can move in with Beowulf surely!

his comment on Beo's home is 'nasty' so on the first day he moved in, he decided to clean the whole house (which leads to him sleep like dead at night)

- Beo is very excited to have his bf here, so he tries to cook them dinner. it tasted alright

- Taliesin usually take 2 hours to finish dressing up in the morning while Beowulf takes 5 seconds

- They would watch movies on every Friday or Saturday and Taliesin always pick the worst choice and enjoying it (Beowulf always have nightmares)

The Big Day!

- Beowulf would tries to propose a LOT which mostly get the respond like 'I don't think it's the time' and judging stares

- of course he loves Beo, but due to elf's lifespan he's very afraid he'd have to watch his love dies, He will eventually open up and say yes!

- Beowulf will tell EVERYONE he knows while Taliesin is very secretive and will say stuff like 'we don't need that much people' and 'I don't even know them'

- the Cirque des Cartes crew will find this hilarious until they found out Taliesin wasn't joking. they wouldn't believe it but came to the wedding anyway.

- Beowulf would be the one doing puppy eyes at Taliesin because he wants kids, Taliesin doesn't like kids but still, considering it.

[improbabledreamgirl]

CHRISTIANITY WAS NOT BROUGHT TO GREECE UNTIL 49 AD WHY WOULD CREON KING OF THEBES SAY “GOD IS MY WITNESS” ?!?!? JUST. NO?

[agnesandhilda]

I would like to formally apologize to my professor for putting an em dash inside of parentheses in the essay you told me to write by hand. that's just the throttle I go at when it comes to epic poetry

[doodleferp]

Here’s a list of shit that won’t get out of my head that I’m sure is to come about when the Grendel movie hits theaters

People are going to completely miss the point of it and call it woke or offensive. Nobody’s gonna read the book

LGBT/disabled/POCs identifying with Grendel because of how isolated and lonely he feels

People who only saw Beowulf 2007 bitching and moaning about the movie is woke and not faithful to the legend because Grendel’s Mother is a wicked awesome puppet and not being played by Naked Angelia Jolie™️

As the only other prominent female character, Wealhtheow will be infantalized and despised by the fandom, who will call her sexist, unnecessary, and bland

Grendel will be woobified, vilified or infantilized by people who don’t understand the point of the story

People will want to screw the dragon. I may be one of these people but we’ll see when the trailer drops

Fanon Hrothgar will constantly be reduced to a senile old man

People will ship Grendel with everything BUT Wealhtheow despite him wrestling with a romantic attraction to her. Additionally, Grendel/Wealhtheow shippers will be attacked because the ship is “problematic” while their attackers nut over even MORE problematic ships, such as Grendel/Beowulf or worse Grendel/Hrothulf (Hrothgar’s minor-aged nephew)

Trans Grendel headcanons because he doesn’t have visible male genitalia and is referred to as a “he” (I don’t mind that headcanon at all actually, I would LOVE to see where people take it)

Fanfic and fanart about Grendel interacting with The Shaper and seeing him as a surrogate father

Fanon Grendel will suddenly have a positive relationship with his mother

LOTS of fluffy and adorable child Grendel fanart

So many memes replacing Grendel with The Dude from The Big Lebowski

People suddenly remembering that Grendel Grendel Grendel (1981) exists and decrying that it is MUCH better than the Jim Henson movie

People nutting over Unferth because Aiden Turner (valid)

People nutting over Beowulf because Dave Bautista (also valid)

Fanart of Grendel meeting the other Muppets because they’re all created by Jim Henson. I myself hope to one day see him vibe with Uncle Deadly and Gonzo

So many historically inaccurate OCs

OCs that take note from Norse mythology

So much Unferth/Grendel smut because enemies to lovers I guess

The dragon is Grendel’s father theory

The Shaper is Grendel’s father theory

The dragon is The Shaper theory

People calling Grendel an incel and modern AUs where Grendel IS an incel

Omegaverse fanfics where Grendel is always the omega

Fanfics about Beowulf not killing Grendel and keeping him as a kinky pet

Incels identifying with Grendel and turning it into a major problem

[numbattery]

Can’t find any good fanart (?) of Beowulf. Not the video game character not the video game character not the video game character

[nodudeshutup]

there's a part in beowulf where a minstrel tells a tale, and he sings about the renewal of springtime. I think that if we still talk about spring the way an over a thousand-year-old poem does, you shouldn't have to worry about being trite. it's ok. spring is here, you are happy, and love is very very old.

[mindrat]

They made it harder to read wtf