Beowulf Book Club: A New Translation, Part 1 of 3 [VIRTUAL PROGRAM]

Beowulf, the epic poem, exists as a single manuscript written in Old English, and is about a thousand years old. Before that, it was sung as oral poetry for about five hundred years. Now we have a brand new translation of its 3000+ lines by fantasy-writer Maria Dahvana Headley, who gives it a contemporary, cool, punk, and most especially feminist spin, redressing a tradition of translation with a 19th & 20th century masculine bias that has arguably distorted the intentions of the original Old English in its portrayal of female characters. Headley’s is a translation for the 21st century--join us to read and discuss this exciting new interpretation as it truly comes alive for us today!

Dr. Marsha Dutton, a scholar of Medieval English Literature, will be our discussion leader.