Or of Mike Juster! :)

Consider it ordered! Thanks.

Indeed Matt, I would love to read that pdf. I've PMed you. Many thanks.

Obviously I will never convince anyone who is determined not to be convinced, and please note that I am not here for a holmgang. On my part this remains conjecture, but here are some further thoughts.

It is a commonplace that a blackbird sings a joyful (blithe) song while it is still dark.

It is unusual that an uncitified Corvus will make a racket in the dead of night (even more unusual that it "sings") and when something unusual occurs in a poem it has significance. Like the scholar quoted in Post #4 and the one Matt mentioned in #28, I would expect an unusual occurrence in an epic work of this kind to be interpreted as an omen, although in my reasoning it would be not be a good omen but a bad omen. Unlike them I do not think it is literary or logical that the raven cry "reinforces the edwenden in the condition of the Danes". This is pretzel-like reasoning; surely a turn for the better would be symbolized by a bird or animal known to represent good fortune. (Note, I haven't yet read the full line of reasoning of either.)

If the bard intended a bad omen, I would expect him to exploit it further with a line or two to set up some suspense for the listener. (On such tricks is poetry built.) Something like:

That great heart rested. The hall towered,
gold-shingled and gabled, and the guest slept in it
until the black raven with raucous glee
shattered the joy and his hurry of darkness
reined in the bright globe's rising.

or

Beneath golden gables the great-hearted guest
dozed until dawn in the high-roofed hall,
when the black raven blithely foretold
how Daeghrefn haggled for Hygelac's dark fate.
Hell lies under heaven.

Or something more poetic, but you get my drift.

Ravens do call at night but only just before dawn, and then very rarely. I listen closely to raven calls and the long mournful sound is used to make the call carry, when crows ( sorry, we call them crows never ravens ) are close together their calls are much crisper, and more complex. While the overall sound is sombre, once you listen carefully to the changes in tone and duration, you can discern gleeful calls, excited calls etc.
I also recall but have no citation that the raven in Egyptian mythology was sacred to the sun God Ra because being a scavenger the raven cleaned up the world's left-over debris, the sun drying up and destroying in the same way.
I don't have a problem with the raven being a bringer of good tidings, they are the most intelligent of birds and easy to tame and really quite timid.

Probably mentioned, but as I recall from grad school, ravens in OE poetry are called the “beasts of battle,” along with wolves and eagles—eaters of carrion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_raven and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torresian_crow

Ross, no matter what anyone calls them—owls, pussycats or general nuisances—even in Australia, crows (Corvus orru) and ravens (Corvus coronoides) are two different species, though in common parlance the words might be used interchangeably—in Oz, as in the scholarly work referenced below. But that is moot, it falls outside the question under discussion.

I shouldn't have to say this, or maybe I should, but it is a well-known fact that fowl of divers species call just before dawn. Yes, they do. I have not claimed otherwise. Yes, ravens, crows, all the species of Corvus are intelligent. I have not claimed otherwise.

I am willing to concede that the bird in question may have woke Beowulf and his men just before dawn and not in the middle of the night.

That said, what my original question was about is whether it makes more sense to say that the term "blithehearted" blíðheort as in gæst inne swæf oþ þæt hrefn blaca heofones wynne blíðheort bododea , is more likely to be applied to the sound of a raucous raven or melodious blackbird.

Even if it is obvious that some words such as blíðheort (blithehearted) and ecge (modern Swedish ägg, pronounced "egg" = English edge as in "sword edge", the cutting blade) have retained their meaning down the centuries, the meaning of other words may have, or certainly have, shifted.

I do not claim to be proficient in Old English or Old Norse though I can hear/see parts of the text that correspond to contemporary Swedish. Note that I am not trying to sail under the false flag of a scholar, or expert in Old English. I'm just asking the question I always ask as a translator: DOES THAT SOLUTION MAKE SENSE.

I've found the original text in yet another translation copyright 2002-12, Benjamin Slade here http://www.heorot.dk/beowulf-rede-text.html

Although in this text, "hrefn blaca" is translated as raven, the notes [1804-5] colloquially refer to a crow: "the crow caws at the sun-rise" ('joy of the sky'). [Note that the line numbers in each translation are unique and only approximate where the text can be found in other translations. One must always go by the line number of the original text. ]

Here is Benjamin Slade's translation of the text in question. If you are nerdy, go to the link above to read the Old English and modern rendition side by side.

sé for andrysnum ealle beweotede
who for courtesy looked after everything

þegnes þearfe swylce þý dógore
1797
of the hero's needs, such as in those days

heaþolíðende habban scoldon·
warrior-sailors were obliged to have;

reste hine þá rúmheort· reced hlíuade
rested him then, the large-hearted man; the hall towered

géap ond goldfáh· gæst inne swæf
vaulted and gold-adorned; the guest slept inside

oþ þæt hrefn blaca heofones wynne
until the black raven, the joy of the sky

blíðheort bodode. Ðá cóm beorht scacan
1802
declared glad-heartedly. Then came bright hurrying,

scaþan ónetton·
fighters hastening;

waéron æþelingas eft tó léodum
the nobles were back to their people

fúse tó farenne· wolde feor þanon
eager to fare; he wished far thence,

cuma collenferhð céoles néosan.
the high-spirited visitor, to seek his ship.

At the risk of seeming OCD, I'm adding a couple of thoughts.

One might argue that the "raven's joyous song" was meant as irony. But irony in Old Norse is usually laconic as in "It was his last swim" (Heaney's translation, no equivalent in the Tim&Alan ditto) to describe that the water monster had been killed—this is in the section just before Beowulf goes underwater to kill Grendel. (I do think that this text originated in Scandinavia as an oral epic and then was Christianized in England by some zealous monk but the Brits are famously masters of understatement).

Tim, are you referring to lines 1259-1261? I don't see any reference to the crucifixion or to eyes of a hung corpse being pecked out. So maybe you mean some other lament?

If anyone following along is trying to sort out who and where with help of a modern map, I'd like to clarify the geography which might seem confusing. The English translations "Sweden" and "Swedes" refers to that part of Sweden called (still) Svealand, that is the area around modern Stockholm which however did not exist then, rather the nearby island Birka was a trading center the site of the earliest documented town. It was the target of the earliest attempt to spread Christianity to this heathen land, by Asgar. Uppsala (the old religious seat of the Asa gods) are located and was the seat of one of the early royal dynasties. The area called "Geat" refers to Götaland which in earlier times was not as extensive as today. Today it includes Scania, the southernmost part, formerly Danish territory. But in ancient times Götaland/Geat (and other spellings exist) referred to the lands around the lake Vättern, east and west, but earliest to the east. This is where I live, a history-rich area from the stone age to iron age to medieval to industrial revolution and beyond.

The earliest king documented by name in "Sweden" was Erik (around 970), but an earlier presence of Viking chieftains and small kings is indicated by artifacts found in archeological digs.

OK, I'll give everybody a break and stop.

Martin Puhvel, in ‘The Blithe-Hearted Morning Raven in Beowulf,’ gives the example of Sigrun’s joy/happiness (fegin/fain) being likened to that of Odin’s Ravens ‘when they learn of slaughter, warm flesh, or dewy-feathered, they see the brow of day.’ Helgaqvioa Hundingsbana onnor(HHII) 43).
ELN 10 (1973): 243-7 : quoted in Old English and Early Medieval Latin Studies in Honour of Thomas D. Hill

Please don't, Janice. I'm enjoying it, as I think others are. It's all the more interesting that the question involves the place that you live in and know so well.

That is interesting, Steve, and I'll certainly put it in the compost heap from which thought grows. However in the text in question, there is no hint of slaughter. Beowulf and his men are departing for home and encountered no slaughter on the voyage or when they arrive.

It is as if all these scholars are determined to get that square peg into a round hole, even if they have to take a sledgehammer to it.

Andrew, it must be similar for you, living in Italy, with literary and historic reminders around you all day.

Slightly off-topic, but it seems an opportunity to mention that last year I received the gift of the FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry (Editor Geoffrey Brock) in which I was delighted to find several poems translated by you.

The ravens I grew up with in the Mojave Desert (heh! and you all thought I was raised by wolves) weren't "raucous," Janice. Unlike the crows I knew, they had a much broader repertoire than just cawing. For example, they often made a sound that was sort of like a cross between dripping water and rolling dice, and I thought it was beautifully musical. It wasn't exactly like the one in this video, but close.