/lit/ - Literature

Anyone here into Old English literature and translation? I studied it in college years ago and have been getting back into it in the past few years after a relative found me that an edition of the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records at a used book sale. As an edgy college student I disliked the Christian content of most OE poetry but I've since chilled out and now appreciate it. My favorite poem besides Beowulf is probably The Dream of the Rood.

I'm lucky cause one of my friends is a professor who publishes on medieval English and we get together for a weekly translation club where I come prepared with a dozen lines or so prepared and we sight read from there. We usually get through about 80 or 90 lines in a 1.5 hour session. Currently reading through the Exeter Book and we just finished Guthlac A. I wouldn't call myself an expert cause i still have to look up a lot of stuff but my grammar is good enough to keep up with a pro. I always feel very proud when I get the meaning of a difficult passage before my friend figures it out.

Pic is my stack of OE texts and translations. I have the Cambridge OE reader coming in the mail. About the Beowulf translations, my view is that Liuzza's is the best for actually understanding the text. Heaney's is gorgeous in its way but too free to support close reading.