I'm a big nerd!
Feb. 10th, 2004 12:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annundrielI love my English class. I am such a big nerd. We've just begun on the Renaissance/Modern Period and I'm really looking forward to it. Looking back at the first section we covered, it really was quite a lot of fun. I got to read Chaucer in Middle English! My professor can read Old and Middle English. It's great to listen to her when she reads it out for us.
What's really been fun, though, is all of the Tolkien-like connections I can draw between all of the Old English readings. Not that it should be unexpected. I mean, that was Tolkien's thing, wasn't it? Mythology and Old English and things like that. Anyway, one of the things that stuck out to me was a mention of an Eomer in Beowulf. But the biggest similarity that struck me actually came from The Wanderer.
Where has the horse gone? Where the man? Where the giver of gold?
Where is the feasting-place? And where the pleasures of the hall?
I mourn the gleaming cup, the warrior in his corselet,
the glory of the prince. How that time has passed away,
darkened under the shadow of night as if it had never been.
Which reminds me greatly of
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gater the smoke of the dead wood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?
It may just be the repetitive questioning at the beginning that makes me want to compare them. Either way, they're both beautifully written.
And speaking of Theoden...Does anyone else think Bernard Hill deserved a little bit of recognition for his work in LotR, or is that just me?
What's really been fun, though, is all of the Tolkien-like connections I can draw between all of the Old English readings. Not that it should be unexpected. I mean, that was Tolkien's thing, wasn't it? Mythology and Old English and things like that. Anyway, one of the things that stuck out to me was a mention of an Eomer in Beowulf. But the biggest similarity that struck me actually came from The Wanderer.
Where is the feasting-place? And where the pleasures of the hall?
I mourn the gleaming cup, the warrior in his corselet,
the glory of the prince. How that time has passed away,
darkened under the shadow of night as if it had never been.
Which reminds me greatly of
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gater the smoke of the dead wood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?
It may just be the repetitive questioning at the beginning that makes me want to compare them. Either way, they're both beautifully written.
And speaking of Theoden...Does anyone else think Bernard Hill deserved a little bit of recognition for his work in LotR, or is that just me?
