Beowulf

Do you remember reading Beowulf in high school? If so…you would have known the answer on Final Jeopardy last night. What literary character was the son of Ecgtheow, grandson of Hrethel? I still have memories of struggling through the Olde English words and trying to follow the narrative and figure out what it was all about. What I don’t remember is whose class I was in. Miss McClellan? Miss Schroer? Mrs. Flory? I had four years of English so one teacher is completely missing from the memory bank. ???

Do high school students still read Beowulf? I hear it is going to be a movie. I suppose there are Cliff Notes and a comic book. I guess we mispronounced it. Now it is no longer three syllables “Bay-o-wulf” but two syllables “Bay-wulf.” It’s hard to keep up.

On impulse I thought I might check out a copy of the poem and see if I could get through it lo these fifty plus years later. Imagine my surprise when page after page of various volumes of translations came up on the library website. Well…hard to choose. Too many options. Maybe next year.

On this brisk windy (but sunny) Saturday I’ll opt for a Dennis Lehane. Still in the throes of the Evil Cold, but the symptoms are subsiding. I think I will make it to the Vegetarian Thanksgiving celebration at Mt. Hood Community College this afternoon. A little early but we will come home with recipes to use for the real event.