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“There be Dragons: Seamus Heaney’s stirring translation of Beowulf makes waves on both

shores of the Atlantic."

Anglo-Saxon old English is distinct from contemporary English. Old English contains

numerous vocabulary that does not exist in modern English alphabets. Even without

comprehending Anglo-Saxon, it is possible to see a few things about an Old English Poem.

The poet breaks each line into two half-lines. The author separates the lines using a caesura.

The poem focuses on alliteration and metre. Heaney’s translation retains the gravitas tone

present in the old English despite her knowledge of Anglo-Saxon.

The problem with translating the Anglo-Saxon poem to contemporary English is that

Heaney had to translate the original rhetorical figures to model the figures to fit his

contemporary translation as much as possible. Also, Heaney admits to using some of his

wording when he translated Beowulf, meaning he omitted some important elements of the

original poem.

The irony about an Irish poet translating foundational English test emanated from the

fact that both regions have a poor history. Beowulf is a historical poem that gives

contemporary readers insight into the customs and lives of ancient Germanic and Christian

norms. Also, the Irish and English languages are adversarial tongues. The adversarial nature
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of Irish and English tongues hampered the potential development of a creative way of dealing

with a whole vexed question.

The question about the relationship between history, language, nationality, and

literary tradition in Ireland. Heaney's works navigate the linguistic differences. He is inspired

by the unusual relationship between the English word "Whiskey," which is the same word as

Scots, and the Irish word "uisce" meaning water. Heaney's philological prowess brings a

unique translation choice that commanded him to use his native Irish vernacular in translating

some Anglo-Saxon phrases and words. His illumination by philology gives him the power to

produce an archaic poem, hyper-modern crosslinguistic and multicultural experiences allow

him to give a poem a beautiful line of verses.

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Works cited.

Gray, Paul. "There be Dragons: Seamus Heaney’s stirring translation of Beowulf makes

waves on both shores of the Atlantic." Rev. of Beowulf, by Seamus Heaney. Time 20 (2000).