The Nowell Codex Isn't Just a Codex Anymore

If, like me, you're awaiting the arrival of the film Beowulf & Grendel, it looks like our wait continues. The film appears to be playing in Canada but neither its webpage nor IMDB gives any indication of a wide release here in the States. The trailer looks fun as A) it's great tale and B) it stars Stellan Skarsgård, a god among men. So what's a gal or guy to do if he/she wants her/his fill of Scandanavian epic bloodshed goodness?

For starters you can listen to some music.



Yes, the friendly chaps in Marillion committed "Grendel" to vinyl back in 1982. Seventeen minutes of progressive rock with the band sounding a bit too much like Genesis as the blood flows. You can also watch them perform the song live on their Recital of the Script DVD and watch as Onkel Fish lays the Grendely smackdown on a punter from the audience.



One can also read a new translation of the venerable epic by Dick Rengler, Emeritus Professor of English and Scandanavian Studies here at the UW. You can read and hear it read at this section of the UW Libraries website. From the introduction:

Beowulf has been translated into Modern English many times, so in translating it yet again I am hardly breaking new ground. This version differs from its predecessors in attempting to provide a somewhat stricter imitation of the meter of the original Old English text than is usually the case. The translation is intended to be as accurate as possible within the metrical constraints I have set myself and within the limits of colloquial Modern English. What I have striven for is a relatively transparent, neutral style, supple and flexible enough to imitate the various textures, modes and tones of the original, which range from fast-paced narrative through hymnic and moralizing to reflective and elegiac. The translation is designed to be read aloud and if this is done at a moderate speed the reading takes about three hours.

But wait - there's more!

The friendly folks at NEMO Productions have taken Ringler's translation and made it into an audio drama!



A fully dramatized - but otherwise unmodified - version of the translation, narrated by the translator and with other speaking parts performed by professional actors from the American Players Theatre and the Guthrie Theatre. With appropriate music and sound effects. Produced by Norman Gilliland of Wisconsin Public Radio.

It's going to be a 3-CD affair and will be available on 4 May for the low, low price of $29.95.

One may also be inclined to read Grendel by John Gardner. It's a retelling of Beowulf but from Grendel's point of view and it provided the basis for the Marillion song above.