Beowulf, Revisted

If I had hesitated one moment before signing up for an English literature class, it was because of him, Beowulf. During the past several hundreds of years, Mr. Beowulf has become a staple in English literature of the Middle Ages. Having no access to the syllabus of the course, it was a chance I had to take. I do have a keen interest in literature, particularly of Europe, and particularly during the late middle ages and renaissance, and even post-renaissance and modern literature. Being able to get a glimpse of Shakespeare would be reason enough to take the course -- he makes me giggle with joy like a teenager in the presence of Orlando Bloom. Sure, one could read it all on their own and discuss it ad nauseum, but there is a difference in reading it with a class. The class moves as a cohort through the literature, and each reader sheds a new light on an old text. It is a fabulous experience.

But I did cringe for a moment before registering for this class, despite the fact that it was such a fabulous class! And that is all because of said Mr. Beowulf. He is almost always the first thing to be covered in such an English class, and at least for me, always the most displeasurable. The epic is lengthy, and while pagan, it is scattered with words such as the Almighty, and Lord, and has odd-ball names like Hrothgar. The plot hardly interests me -- watching old paint crack off the corners of the ceiling poses more excitement. Something about Beowulf killing some monster called Grendal, then Grendal's mom gets upset (I mean, what mom wouldn't be??) and Beowulf kills her too. Big whoop.

I am not too fond of the way it is written either. When you read, you have to start imagining a picture from the words you are reading. However, with just the simple words, it is hard to imagine the full picture. Sometimes reading between the lines, or picking up on connotations of words/phrases also aid in the imagination. So when I see the name Beowulf -- I always see this half-wolf half-man (actually it is more like a furry man with a grey wolf's head). He's carrying some sort of medieval weapon -- one of those sticks with a spiky metal ball attached to it. A tattering strip of leather is carelessly strewn about his nether regions, and his feet are as hairy as the feet of the hobbits in LOTR. Grendal, of course, is green. He's a large monster, not too unlike the Hulk, only not so incredible. The name Grendal just screams green, doesn't it? Well, his mother, looks just as dim-witted as her son, but has green hair, which is adorned with a pink ribbon. I could probably draw you a picture.

Of course, since this isn't even written in real English, the supposed hero Beowulf speaks like a true barbarian -- his vocabulary is mostly monosyllabic with sounds like "ooh" "eeh" "ah-ah" and so on. I just want to yell out to the instructor: "Come on, when do we get to the good stuff?" Thankfully, Beowulf should be over in two weeks time (it is a once a week class) and perhaps we'll move on to Chaucer. Chaucer, thankfully, has a great sense of humor, which I understand.

Just FYI, for the class, the required text book cost over 60 bucks, and the text is actually separated into three volumes, A,B, and (surprise!) C: The Middle Ages, The Sixtheenth and Early Seventeenth Century, and finally, The Restoration and Eighteenth Century. I'd be pissed if we did not read through all three volumes, as it did cost me an arm to buy it. Well, it is getting very late. I need to get to bed and prepare for a long day at school tomorrow -- I know it is very unbecoming (thus exacerbating my uber-geek image) but I am just so excited about tomorrow's classes. I'm not sure I'd be able to sleep! Perhaps I should attempt reading Beowulf -- that should do the trick!