(no subject)

[mamculuna]

Someone posted an excerpt from an Old English poem (The Wanderer) in old_english. And that made me start thinking about the next thing I want to write--something set in that time, working around the hints of a story in Wulf and Eadwacer, a poem that seems to be a woman's lament for her exiled lover--maybe.

Here's Wulf and Eadwacer in OE
And here's the translation

I espcially love the last lines:


þæt mon eaþe tosliteð þætte næfre gesomnad wæs,
uncer giedd geador.


One easily slits what never was joined:
our song together.


I know Tolkien pretty much covered the OE territory with the Riders of Rohan, but I love it so much. I think that's what drew me to Tolkien in the first place--I'd just finished a year of OE and Beowulf and was so taken with the language and atmosphere in the poems.

So: does anyone know if this has already been done, exactly (I mean a historical novel set in OE England, drawing on these poems, with a woman as the central figure)? It'll be a while until I get to it, since I'm still a-revising of the Alice story, but I think that's what I'd love next.

Comments

[c-mantix.livejournal.com]

Reimaginings of the Arthurian mythology aside (Mary Stewart), there is a dearth of pre-Battle of Hastings literature by women, unless you turn to the pure Romance genre (Jo Beverley). I am told the 'Viking' romance is making a comeback;) I'd say a well-written Dark Ages' novel would be a welcome sight! There's a niche there to be occupied, to be sure!

You might find it interesting to know that Laura Kinsale's romance novel For my Lady's Heart (http://www.likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=3871), set much later (14th C.), impressed me in that its dialogues all start out in the original ME and then shift into a modified standard English. It's incredible that her publishers actually agreed to publish the book that way!

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Yeah, even Arthurian is not Anglo-Saxon--the tales at least seem more from the French heritage, even if the original historical stimuli was British.

I've seen The Thrall's Tale, a recent noevl that seemed Viking, and of course grew up on Kristin Lavransdatter, a later Scandinavian, but don't remember anyone but Tolkine fictionalizing the Saxons. John Irving, I think, wrote a Grendel featuring Beowulf, but I'd like to focus more on the women. Not a good life, maybe, but maybe I can imagine it otherwise than Tolkien did, though based on very little evidence!

[c-mantix.livejournal.com]

As you say, there is very little documentary (or other types) of evidence re: this period. Don't know if this (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0268033102/sr=8-7/qid=1147662788/ref=sr_1_7/002-0568551-1864802?%5Fencoding=UTF8) is any good, but it might provide some context...

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Looks marvelous! will acquire soon. Thanks.

[ninerva.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a great idea for a novel! Plus I love historical novels. It's not really set in England but Rhinegold by Stephan Grundy is a real epic, also Bernard Cornwell has written a few series set in Britain in the Dark Ages.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look for Grundy--I'm guessing Rhinegold is related to the story Wagner used in the Ring cycle, which was also a source for Tolkien. Sounds like fun! For some reason, I didn't love Cornwell, but maybe need to try him again. I started the Stonehenge one but it might have been a time when I just wasn't in the mood.