Gorgeous! I also found this recording of the poem being recited in Old English. (What does it say about English that the Old English phrase for rainy weather remains perfectly recognisable to modern English ears?) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eeSOVodxUWg
I’ve just found this article and I’m currently an undergraduate doing a model in Old English, I was just wondering if you had any recommendations for critical/secondary reading to accompany this piece. I love your translation! 🌱
this is such a cool and thought provoking comment! tbh my notes from my undergraduate degree are probably very out of date now but I’ve been sent a few cool things recently and I can have a comb through and put some stuff together
I love this, and your scrappy translation leaves room for us to play. It’s funny, I read the final lines as a lament for the child that never was, the one that would have bound them together but was never to be.
Thank you Emily! It was great fun comparing the two translations (yours and Glenn’s) and I’m tickled by the similar yet distict atmospheres in the two readings. I like your “it’s different for us” and your description of the “island bound up by fens”.
The whelp / puppy born off into the woods reminded me of an excellent anima which has absolutely nothing to do with Wulf and Eadwacer and yet…. sorta?
I’m curious if there are any interpretations of the narrator as a man. I don’t know how homosexuality was viewed then, but if negatively—I can totally see narrator as a man lamenting his unlawful queer relationship, borne of sin.
At the time I was researching this at undergrad, that wasn’t anywhere in the critical literature at all. A friend sent me a link to a book that finds some queerness here earlier today (after I’d finished writing this) and I’m super excited to read it. The tone of the lamenting puts this firmly in line with other poems that definitely describe women (e.g. the wife’s lament), which is most easily read as a female speaker, but i’m interested to read more about the possibility of it being a man performing ‘feminine’ lamenting.
This has been one of my favourite poems since I studied it as an undergrad - I find it amazing how relatable the ‘rainy weather’ part is despite the age of the poem. My interpretation was that Eadwacer is the man the speaker consoles herself with while Wulf is gone - the reason that ‘it was pleasure to me, it was pain also’ is that she finds comfort with him physically but is still in love with someone else. I love the way everyone reads it differently!
I absolutely love your translation, it’s beautiful. I’m looking for articles and other translations to read about that poem now, and I found extracts of this soon-to-be-published adaptation. I find this sort of work so interesting, so I wondered if you’d heard of it:
Thank you Emily! It was great fun comparing the two translations (yours and Glenn’s) and I’m tickled by the similar yet distict atmospheres in the two readings. I like your “it’s different for us” and your description of the “island bound up by fens”.
The whelp / puppy born off into the woods reminded me of an excellent anima which has absolutely nothing to do with Wulf and Eadwacer and yet…. sorta?
Thank you for sharing your translation! I enjoyed reading it and comparing it with the one you shared from Poetry Foundation. I’m fascinated by the lore. Here’s a theory that’s backed by nothing at all haha: What if the speaker is the village’s dog who has had a child with a wolf, a wolf-dog pup?
Gorgeous! I also found this recording of the poem being recited in Old English. (What does it say about English that the Old English phrase for rainy weather remains perfectly recognisable to modern English ears?) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eeSOVodxUWg
ooooooh thank you so much for linking that! rainy weather is the foundation of the fundamental british isles experience. this we know to be true.
I’ve just found this article and I’m currently an undergraduate doing a model in Old English, I was just wondering if you had any recommendations for critical/secondary reading to accompany this piece. I love your translation! 🌱
this is such a cool and thought provoking comment! tbh my notes from my undergraduate degree are probably very out of date now but I’ve been sent a few cool things recently and I can have a comb through and put some stuff together
I love this, and your scrappy translation leaves room for us to play. It’s funny, I read the final lines as a lament for the child that never was, the one that would have bound them together but was never to be.
Love this, love work in translation, love work in translation across language and time
Thank you Emily! It was great fun comparing the two translations (yours and Glenn’s) and I’m tickled by the similar yet distict atmospheres in the two readings. I like your “it’s different for us” and your description of the “island bound up by fens”.
The whelp / puppy born off into the woods reminded me of an excellent anima which has absolutely nothing to do with Wulf and Eadwacer and yet…. sorta?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140203/
I’m curious if there are any interpretations of the narrator as a man. I don’t know how homosexuality was viewed then, but if negatively—I can totally see narrator as a man lamenting his unlawful queer relationship, borne of sin.
At the time I was researching this at undergrad, that wasn’t anywhere in the critical literature at all. A friend sent me a link to a book that finds some queerness here earlier today (after I’d finished writing this) and I’m super excited to read it. The tone of the lamenting puts this firmly in line with other poems that definitely describe women (e.g. the wife’s lament), which is most easily read as a female speaker, but i’m interested to read more about the possibility of it being a man performing ‘feminine’ lamenting.
This has been one of my favourite poems since I studied it as an undergrad - I find it amazing how relatable the ‘rainy weather’ part is despite the age of the poem. My interpretation was that Eadwacer is the man the speaker consoles herself with while Wulf is gone - the reason that ‘it was pleasure to me, it was pain also’ is that she finds comfort with him physically but is still in love with someone else. I love the way everyone reads it differently!
I absolutely love your translation, it’s beautiful. I’m looking for articles and other translations to read about that poem now, and I found extracts of this soon-to-be-published adaptation. I find this sort of work so interesting, so I wondered if you’d heard of it:
• https://waxwingmag.org/items/issue13/44_Wulf-ond-Eadwacer.php
• http://intranslation.brooklynrail.org/old-english/selections-from-wulf-ond-eadwacer/
• https://www.columbiajournal.org/articles/2019-wulf-amp-eadwacer-translated-from-old-english?rq=wulf
Thank you Emily! It was great fun comparing the two translations (yours and Glenn’s) and I’m tickled by the similar yet distict atmospheres in the two readings. I like your “it’s different for us” and your description of the “island bound up by fens”.
The whelp / puppy born off into the woods reminded me of an excellent anima which has absolutely nothing to do with Wulf and Eadwacer and yet…. sorta?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140203/
Thank you for this! I'm excited to have found your writing!
Thank you for sharing your translation! I enjoyed reading it and comparing it with the one you shared from Poetry Foundation. I’m fascinated by the lore. Here’s a theory that’s backed by nothing at all haha: What if the speaker is the village’s dog who has had a child with a wolf, a wolf-dog pup?
This is really beautiful. Thank you for taking the time to share this with us!!!