Beowulf - A new treasure.

[Wayland]

OK, this isn't exactly "Bushy" but it is "Crafty" and I know some of you lot like to see what I'm up to.

A couple of years ago I commissioned Alex Summers of Red Swan Books to make me a new manuscript of Beowulf. I took delivery in spring of this year at TORM.

As I expected it was a magnificent copy, in modern English for usefulness today and using a very convincing velum substitute.

It is entirely hand finished with period pigments, including gold, and properly bound by Alex as well.

The intention has always been to decorate the cover in the style of the great treasure books of the period and for that I had been collecting bronze mounts in the intervening period.

When the book arrived I was able to start preparations for the work to follow.

The mounts are to be set onto a plate of brass which will then be attached to the book cover. Drilling and punching the necessary holes was done in the workshop ahead of taking it to the Heysham Viking Festival where I would be working on it as part of my living history display.

Unsurprisingly I did not get a huge amount of work done at the show while interacting with the public but I did get the Silver intaglios done and the basic layout marked up.

I

I also managed to pick up an award for the best individual living history display so I'm not complaining.

 

[Wander]

Great stuff.
Who did the translation?

 

[oldtimer]

Absolutely beautiful. Many years ago, my wife was commissioned to make a number of drawings to illustrate a proposed new translation of Beowulf. The project fell through but the hours of research gave us a deep appreciation of the complexity and beauty of the artefacts of the culture. We still have the drawings which continue to give enormous pleasure.

 

[Wayland]

Great stuff.
Who did the translation?

That is a good question which I should know the answer to.

Alex had to get permission to use the translation and he did tell me back in Spring but I can't for the life of me remember. Doh..

He doesn't do technology very much so I'll have to ask him in November when I see him again. ( I've got a list of stuff to ask him about the pigments so I'll add it to that.)

 

[Wayland]

Absolutely beautiful. Many years ago, my wife was commissioned to make a number of drawings to illustrate a proposed new translation of Beowulf. The project fell through but the hours of research gave us a deep appreciation of the complexity and beauty of the artefacts of the culture. We still have the drawings which continue to give enormous pleasure.

I would be very interested to see those.

 

[crosslandkelly]

That it beautiful Gary, an heirloom piece.

 

[John Fenna]

Fantastic stuff all round!

 

[Mesquite]

I saw the book at TORM and was amazed at its beauty without the embelishments.

With them it's stunning

I hope you're bringing it to the Moot as I'd love to see the finished item

 

[Wayne]

Wonderful treasure. Sometimes you see something that is close to perfection, this book reflects that ideal.

Well done to all.

 

[Janne]

Fantastic.
Not only the book, but the 'decorations' too.

Family heirloom for sure!

 

[Tengu]

Its really impressive.

The Beowulf scribe is helping me with research so I am familiar with the story.

 

[Wayland]

I saw the book at TORM and was amazed at its beauty without the embelishments.

With them it's stunning

I hope you're bringing it to the Moot as I'd love to see the finished item

I will bring it to the moot although it won't be complete by then.

I dId a bit more work yesterday, filling out the divisions properly. I'll post another shot tomorrow when I'm a bit further on with it.

 

[Billy-o]

Great stuff.
Who did the translation?

I t looks like the Francis Gummere one. 1910. It is on Gutenberg. I thought it was the William Morris one initially ... mainly because I just wanted it to be. That really is quite the illustrated text Publishers Red and Black in Florida seem to have copyright. Funny that, I'd have thought it was out of that by now ... unless of course it is someone elses translation altogether

You know every word of it is true, right

 

[Wayland]

You know every word of it is true, right

It must be true, it was written a long time ago by pious people, just like the Bible and the Koran...

 

[Wander]

It must be true, it was written a long time ago by pious people, just like the Bible and the Koran...

That's actually very true.
There's a good reason why the story of Beowulf survived and was written down and why many unknown others did not.
Although we may think of it as being typically anglo-saxon - with dragons, and halls, and gift giving - and whilst it most certainly does have pagan origins, it is also a very Christian story - Beowulf is a Christlike figure who sacrifices himself for his people and he is escorted by 12 retainers/disciples.
And much more besides.
How much those elements are part of the original, oral, story and how much was added later and what was taken out will have to remain conjecture.
But the story as it survives is a Christian story and that is almost certainly why it was written down and preserved.

I remember at university writing an essay on Beowulf and as I wrote the essay I found myself backing myself into a corner and to prove my point I had to teach myself anglo-saxon to translate a small section of the text. It was a surprisingly easy language to learn. That was a long time ago now though...

 

[Wayland]

It is also how the Icelandic Eddas were saved as well, Snorri Sturlusson was a Christian and when he recorded the old "heathen" stories of gods and giants in order to preserve their poetic references, it is quite clear he Chistianised them a bit.

This is one of the reasons we end up with Óðinn described as some kind of leader of the gods which is not supported by some of the poetic sources.

Looking at other sources suggests he was originally a psychopomp, responsible for dealing with the dead.

 

[Wayland]

Another update:

Top and bottom margins filled with square knotwork. Spine inscribed with Anglo Saxon runes:

Beowulf / I am called

Alex Summers / wrote me

Gary Waidson / had me made

As Wayland / he wrought me​

 

[sunndog]

Manuscript....so it's all hand written then?
Wow, how many hundreds of hours total must have gone into this book when it's done?

 

[Wayland]

Alex uses the term "Hand finished".

The base text is printed but many of the letters and all the illuminations are hand painted.

He is capable of hand writing the entire document but unfortunately I am not capable of affording that.

I chose the word manuscript ( perhaps inaccurately ) because I still feel it most closely represents what he has produced.

The strict definition does not quite fit but I'm not sure how better to describe it.

 

[tombear]

It's a thing of beauty anyroad!

We were there on Saturday and admired your pitch but you were deep in explaining something about it so didn't like to disturb you.

It's possibly too early to ask but have you a book bag designed for it or a box or perhaps both?

For those of you perhaps not so much into the period here's a couple of links about book bags so you know what I'm waffling about

http://www.palaeographia.org/glm/glm.htm?art=clarke

http://www.europa.org.au/index.php/articles/21-bags

When I've some leather i'd like to make one to use as a general purpose satchel.

ATB

Tom