If you read Haney's translation, which somehow gets lionized, I don't blame you. Frederick Rebsamen's translation is pretty literal, and since I knew some of th

If you read Haney's translation, which somehow gets lionized, I don't blame you. Frederick Rebsamen's translation is pretty literal, and since I knew some of the kennings, and the alliterative aspect of Anglo-Saxon poetry (Beowulf doesn't rhyme in the old language), it worked quite well for me. It was one of the great literary experiences of my life, along with Brothers Karamazov, Goethe's Faust, the Iliad and Moby Dick. I taught myself a good chunk of Anglo-Saxon about 5 years ago specifically to read the elegiac poems in the books mentioned in this article, and Beowulf (which has escaped me so far; need more vocab). It sounds like a big lift, but it really isn't. FWIIW my parents, baby boomers who went to ordinary high school, read Beowulf in Anglo Saxon, so it used to be a fairly common thing. I need to get back to it to the point where I can read Beowulf. After that, Icelandic is pretty close (I could read menus and such on my visit, despite my faded vocab). Edit add Bagby's recitation is super great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROghKY1jmuE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROghKY1jmuE