Beowulf!
by Melanie Bettinelli on January 15, 2012
This is so cool. This week I stumbled upon these videos of a live performance of Beowulf in the original Old English, accompanied by Anglo Saxon harp! (With subtitles in modern English.) It is so cool. This is the way Beowulf was meant to be experienced. Not a text read in a book but an entertainment. Benjamin Bagby, who does it has a great voice and really acts out the drama. His musical accompaniment is wonderful too.
Opening Lines:
Grendel’s Ambush:
Battle:
An interview with Benjamin Bagby:
The website for the Beowulf performance is here with a lot of background information about the project. Evidently he hasn’t developed a performance of the entire epic to music, only parts of it. At some point he hopes to do an entire 5 hour performance.
You can buy a video of the whole performance for about $30. I’m thinking it will probably be finding its way into our library at some point.
Comments