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Unread 08-02-2015, 01:44 AM
Janice D. Soderling's Avatar
Janice D. Soderling Janice D. Soderling is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Sweden
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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).

Quote:
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.
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.
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