I think it's in what I call The Lament of the Old Man, that the speaker's son is crucified and the hrefn pecks out his eyes, one of the truly great passages in Beowulf. That's me, not Alan, by the way. Not that anyone can tell the difference. Unlike Heaney, we are invisible as translators.
If anyone wants to read our Wulf, I'd recommend the Longman Anthology of World Literature, vol II, The Middle Ages. It has Dick Davis' Conference of the Birds, Bill Merwin's El Cid, lots of Vikram Seth's T'ang Dynesty translations, truly a great book.
I think the poet just made a mistake calling the raven's croak joyful. As everyone knows, we all make mistakes! Charlie, the raven is not a crow, but a much bigger bird. I have to go to the Rockies to see them.
Last edited by Tim Murphy; 08-01-2015 at 09:53 AM.
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