Beowulf One - Original Text

Hwæt! We Gar-Dena   in gear-dagum

þeod-cyninga,   þrym gefrunon,

hu ða æþelingas   ellen fremedon!

Oft Scyld Scefing   sceaþena þreatum

monegum mægþum   meodo-setla ofteah;

egsode eorl[as]   syððan ærest wearð

feasceaft funden;   he þæs frofre gebad,

weox under wolcnum,   weorð-myndum þah,

oðæt him æghwylc   þara ymb-sittendra

ofer hron-rade   hyran scolde,

gomban gyldan.   Þæt wæs god cyning!

What were we War-Danes in our yore-days?

Tribal-Kings! Truly cast that glory past,

how the counts had courage vast!

Oft Scyld Scefing shed Eotens'

many sons of mead-seats often.

Awesome Earl; since erst a whelp

fund-shorn found, was offered help.

Waxed under welkin, won worth-prestige

until all areas we edged with were besieged

over the whale-road, wide wealth did they bring:

gave up their gold. That was a good king! (Cheryl Hazama, 2007)

Me and Jordan used these lines for our devised piece. We placed the class in a circle on the floor, hands joined. We asked them to close their eyes, and relax. My thoughts were along the lines of a circle of villagers or warriors camped around a fire or perhaps some sort of council. Perhaps in a Brechtian style, 

I played this piece of music (Unsupported source type (SoundRecording) for source Dav121.):

And reduced the sound at the point when the singing came in so it would not interrupt our piece. We chose this piece because:

A. It sounds mysterious, just like the words we spoke. And it’s melancholic and soothing. Also humming was used in our earlier work, and it would be accessible by the Anglo-Saxon storytellers. 

B. Because I knew that Tolkien had known about Beowulf and written about it (more on this in an another blog post)

Then, we tried different methods of delivery:

·      Delivery normal (as in no special delivery)

·      Me being quiet, Jordan loud

·      Jordan doing a stilly muppet voice and me a serious Cersei Lannister voice

We were told to think about making our piece humourful yet dark, which needs some reflection on.

Works Cited

Unsupported source type (SoundRecording) for source Dav121.

Cheryl Hazama, P.K., 2007. BEOWULF. [Online] Available at: http://www.csun.edu/~ceh24682/beowulf.html [Accessed 14 January 2013].