Kirjahaku

The two great epic-theme poems Beowulf and Judith, paired in the Beowulf Manuscript preserved in the British Museum, are here presented in a translation with a unique fidelity that restores the true Anglo-Saxon rhythmical line of five subtypes of four beat stress adhering scrupulously to the alliterative strictures of Anglo-Saxon verse and exploiting its epithetical style. This is a ground breaking piece of work in that it recreates the indispensable stylistic and esthetic effects of the original while attaining a natural modern idiom, something that had been thought impossible to achieve. The key insight in this book is the stated and demonstrated philosophy that alliteration and imagistic compound metaphors are a living, breathing part of our linguistic heritage and practice in Modern English today; but rendering the poems requires an intricate sensibility to Old English style in order to recreate the force that they had. The Old English text is included interlinearly with the translation to facilitate comparison and acquaintance with the original poems. Introductory essays discuss 1) the living tradition of alliteration and epithetical phrasing common to Anglo-Saxon poetry and Modern English idiom, and 2) the literary tradition and merit of the two poems. The book as a whole is a scholarly accomplishment which revivifies these two great works for the entire modern public.

The book title "A Telling Experience" has a double meaning: 1) something curious that you were part of, and 2) the sharing of your particular story. An experience becomes even more meaningful by being told. The thing may be familiar, or it may be as strange as The Twilight Zone (but true). The idea of this book is that everybody's life is somehow a Tall Tale. This book is my Tall Tale; my ordinary, strange, telling experience: A bewildered youth, a bumbling smitten young adult, a middle-age striver, finally a would-be philosopher. It's a wild ride. You'll laugh your head off and cry your eyes out, I promise It's a bizarre collection, every chapter a story of its own, and every story a very Tall Tale Each story is somehow like your own story, and like everybody else's too. We're all in the same boat, all on the same train. That's a comforting thought. Misery loves company, and so does joy.Richard M. Trask, Ph.D., University of Illinois (Old and Middle English), is author of "The Complete Writer's Guide: Questions of Language," and "Beowulf and Judith: Two Heroes." He taught courses in writing, History of the English Language, and Chaucer for thirty years in the University System of Maryland, then took up coastal living in Southport, North Carolina. Fuller details at https: //richardmtrask.com

The book title "A Telling Experience" has a double meaning: 1) something curious that you were part of, and 2) the sharing of your particular story. An experience becomes even more meaningful by being told. The thing may be familiar, or it may be as strange as The Twilight Zone (but true). The idea of this book is that everybody's life is somehow a Tall Tale. This book is my Tall Tale; my ordinary, strange, telling experience: A bewildered youth, a bumbling smitten young adult, a middle-age striver, finally a would-be philosopher. It's a wild ride. You'll laugh your head off and cry your eyes out, I promise It's a bizarre collection, every chapter a story of its own, and every story a very Tall Tale Each story is somehow like your own story, and like everybody else's too. We're all in the same boat, all on the same train. That's a comforting thought. Misery loves company, and so does joy.Richard M. Trask, Ph.D., University of Illinois (Old and Middle English), is author of "The Complete Writer's Guide: Questions of Language," and "Beowulf and Judith: Two Heroes." He taught courses in writing, History of the English Language, and Chaucer for thirty years in the University System of Maryland, then took up coastal living in Southport, North Carolina. Fuller details at https: //richardmtrask.com