Under the leadership of Harvard English Department Fellow Steven Rozenski and Wellesley College English professor Matthew Sergi, scholars, students, and fans of medieval literature will be able to participate in a live reading of the epic poem Beowulf — over drinks, as it was meant to be done. Over a thousand years before Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage, Anglo-Saxon poets (called scops) composed and performed this four-hour epic poem orally, performing it for their lords and friends in mead halls much like Beowulf’s Heorot, in the earliest form of English:
“Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.”
The reading is free and open to the general public. Participants are welcome to attend for as long as they wish, or stay for the whole epic, or, if familiar with Old English, sign up to read a passage. Volunteer guest readers already include an array of accomplished medieval scholars, including Beowulf specialist Dan Donoghue (Harvard). Translations will be made available for newer readers; on breaks, our scholars will field questions about the poem and about the medieval history and culture behind Beowulf. To sign up for your favorite passage in advance, email Matthew Sergi at msergi@wellesley.edu, or sign up at OBERON at the event.
Doors open at 11:45am for the 12pm start, event runs from 12pm to 5pm. Audience should feel free to come and go as needed throughout the event.
Notable dates