Medieval History
I suppose this post is really a little off topic. But I found it so odd and striking that I had to share.
I'm reading an article by Gale Owen-Crocker titled "Horror in Beowulf: Mutilation, Decapitation, and the Unburied Dead" published in a festschrift for Don Scragg. In the midst of this article, making a point that having a decapitated head paraded around the hall would be a bit of a shocker for the audience within and without the poem, the author remarks on modern audiences' desensitization to such extreme violence. She then illustrates this point by citing the parody of such extreme violence and our immunization to it by referring to South Park and Kenny's frequent deaths by often horrific means. "Oh my God, they killed Kenny" and Grendel in the same sentence...if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it.
- Beowulf Meets The 20th Century
Dr Catherine Clarke, a specialist in medieval culture at Swansea University's department of English has been given a grant to explore representations of masculinity in modern re-workings of the Beowulf story. In particular she has been looking at...
- Back To School (virginia Tech)
Classes start up again here on Monday. This blog, in some ways, was created as a reaction to the events of 4/16, when, in conversations with colleagues, I began to see eerie similarities between Seung Cho's violent rhetoric and the violent rhetoric...
- On Heroes
Via Unlocked Wordhoard, Old English in NY has a meditation on modern heroism (inspired by the recent spate of films on Beowulf). There are some interesting things here, including the discussion that continues in the comments and a link to the artist Martin...
- Atherton On Tolkien (trans.) & Tolkien (ed.), Beowulf
J.R.R. Tolkien (trans.) and Christopher Tolkien (ed). Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell. London: HarperCollins, 2014. 448pp. Reviewed by Mark Atherton Beowulf is "the major piece of Old English verse...
- More Medieval News
U of C boasts medieval bestseller Beowulf: A hero for our times U. South Carolina: Beowulf at U. South Carolina exhibit coincides with new movie Young Vikings help to make their vessel shipshape Archeologists Discovered a 10th Century Tomb in Pskov 15th-century...
Medieval History
South Park and Beowulf
I suppose this post is really a little off topic. But I found it so odd and striking that I had to share.
I'm reading an article by Gale Owen-Crocker titled "Horror in Beowulf: Mutilation, Decapitation, and the Unburied Dead" published in a festschrift for Don Scragg. In the midst of this article, making a point that having a decapitated head paraded around the hall would be a bit of a shocker for the audience within and without the poem, the author remarks on modern audiences' desensitization to such extreme violence. She then illustrates this point by citing the parody of such extreme violence and our immunization to it by referring to South Park and Kenny's frequent deaths by often horrific means. "Oh my God, they killed Kenny" and Grendel in the same sentence...if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it.
- Beowulf Meets The 20th Century
Dr Catherine Clarke, a specialist in medieval culture at Swansea University's department of English has been given a grant to explore representations of masculinity in modern re-workings of the Beowulf story. In particular she has been looking at...
- Back To School (virginia Tech)
Classes start up again here on Monday. This blog, in some ways, was created as a reaction to the events of 4/16, when, in conversations with colleagues, I began to see eerie similarities between Seung Cho's violent rhetoric and the violent rhetoric...
- On Heroes
Via Unlocked Wordhoard, Old English in NY has a meditation on modern heroism (inspired by the recent spate of films on Beowulf). There are some interesting things here, including the discussion that continues in the comments and a link to the artist Martin...
- Atherton On Tolkien (trans.) & Tolkien (ed.), Beowulf
J.R.R. Tolkien (trans.) and Christopher Tolkien (ed). Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell. London: HarperCollins, 2014. 448pp. Reviewed by Mark Atherton Beowulf is "the major piece of Old English verse...
- More Medieval News
U of C boasts medieval bestseller Beowulf: A hero for our times U. South Carolina: Beowulf at U. South Carolina exhibit coincides with new movie Young Vikings help to make their vessel shipshape Archeologists Discovered a 10th Century Tomb in Pskov 15th-century...