School Book: The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrun

I was a bit leery of reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrun. I've read The Lord of the Rings several years ago and found it a bit dry, so I was sort of expecting the same type of writing. Luckily I was pleasantly surprised. First of all, I wasn't really expecting Norse poetry, but was sort of expecting prose (like Ackroyd's Canterbury Tales). But even in the explanatory stuff that his son, Christopher Tolkien, included, there was no dry anything; I genuinely enjoyed what pieces of Tolkien's lecture notes were included.

I read The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrun out of order. I started with the poems, then went back to the introduction and later the commentaries on the poems. This is how I normally read school books, specifically Shakespeare and the like. I want to enjoy the work without anyone else's comments first, and then I'll go back and read whatever the editor/translator/whomever has to say.

The poems themselves were rather entertaining, but a bit hard to figure out at first. The style in which they were written is just so foreign to a modern English speaker. But once I got over that, I just enjoyed the story. Of course, the introduction and commentaries did help a bit. Once I'd read the poems I went back to these areas and some of the points I'd had trouble with started making more sense.

In the end I read the entire book from cover to cover, and I really enjoyed all of it. Tolkien's lectures were quite interesting and well-written, and I liked how his son explained how the poems came to be the way they are.

Reread: Beowulf

This was, I think, my third time reading Beowulf. The first two times I read it were both the year before I started this blog (when I was finishing up my first degree). I remember talking to a friend who said he absolutely hated reading it. But I really enjoyed it. Right off the bat I realized it was a viking story, which was a lot of fun. I watched Beowulf and Grendel that year, before rereading it a second time in preparation for the exam. And now I got to read it a third time for my "Translating the Middle Ages" class. I even lucked out: we're reading the Seamus Heany version, which is the version I have.

Going back to Beowulf was like going back to an old friend. Sure, I didn't remember the specifics, but I still remembered the just of the story. I also still remembered the ways in which the CGI Beowulf differs from the poem. (In case you're wondering, read the poem; it's better!)

Beowulf tells the hero's story, from his coming to help the Danes defeat Grendel to his downfall fifty years later saving his people from a dragon. It has a lot of battle and adventure in it. But more than that, it also gives you a glimpse of what life was like during the end of the 1st millenia AD. Now I know there weren't dragons and Grendels running around, but you can at least see some of what life was like in the halls of the vikings.

I don't want to say much more about it, other than to restate how much I like it. Sure, it isn't for everyone. But give it a try - you just might be entertained!

School Book: The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables

Today I read Robert Henryson's The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables, translated by Seamus Heaney. It was a really easy and quick read. I was really interested in the first part of the book, which was The Testament of Cresseid. Having studied Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida last year, I was interested in a different take on the material. And this was an extremely different take!

After abandoning Troilus, Cresseid was herself abandoned by Diomedes. She returns to her father's house and curses both Venus and Cupid for her plight. Cupid takes exception to this and asks the other gods to intervene on their behalf. And so the other gods curse Cresseid to become a leper. Cresseid passes the rest of her days in a leper house, but encounters Troilus one day (although neither recognizes the other). It is an extremely sad tale, especially at the end when they realize who each other was.

Included in this book are also seven Fables. The Fables were pretty entertaining to read. All in all, this was a quick but enjoyable read.

School Book: The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling

It's taken me a bit, but I finally finished the prose retelling of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. I have never read The Canterbury Tales in their entirety, so this was a great opportunity for me. (Previously I have read both the General Prologue and the Miller's tale twice).

But right off the bat, things seemed a bit off. The big problem is that Peter Ackroyd's version is a prose retelling; the original Canterbury Tales is a Middle English poem. Yes, it can be a bit hard to understand for us modern audiences, but a lot is lost in translation. Both the General Prologue and the Miller's Tale seemed quite cut and rather dry compared to the original; they were missing both the clever use of language and the multiple meanings inherent within the original. I was also kind of bothered by the use of swears throughout the prose retelling. They often seemed out of place, particularly in the Miller's tale.

But otherwise this was an enjoyable read. As long as you keep in mind that this is a retelling which is rather different from the original, Peter Ackroyd's version will keep you quite entertained!

School Book: The Tain

After reading A Gate at the Stairs I was in need of something completely different. So I decided to read The Tain from my other class, Translating the Middle Ages.

The Tain is an old Irish epic. In some ways it reminded me of Beowulf. There was lots of fighting, with a superman who was just better than everyone else. I really enjoyed reading it (except for a few parts where it goes on and on listing people).

One day Medb, the Queen of Connacht, starts comparing her wealth to that of her husband's. Their fortunes are perfectly matched except that her husband, Ailill, has one of the finest bulls in the land. And so she starts a war with Ulster for their bull, the only one in all the land which can match her husband's.

But the men of Ulster are all afflicted by a curse. And so it falls to Cu Chulainn, an extraordinary young man, to fend off the advancing army until his countrymen recover. Cu Chulainn uses everything from single combat to guerilla warfare to fend off the Irish army.

The Tain is really entertaining to read. I really enjoyed it, especially because it was so different from A Gate at the Stairs. I think I prefer Beowulf overall, but it was still really good.