Iain Coleman
Zach WeinersmithWorking on an abridged Beowulf and the explainer introduction is solid gold
Given the surprising popularity of this, some of y'all might like to see our currently fundraising abridgment of all of cosmology: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/weiner/the-universe-abridged-beyond-the-point-of-usefulness?ref=6vghse
Bill Barnes@ZachWeinersmith I didn’t read carefully and thought I was funding the actual universe. Can I get a refund?
@billba Not in this timeline :/
Gary E. Walker@ZachWeinersmith You dropped an "as" in that last sentence of the first paragraph" Otherwise, dominant performance.
Chris Bohn@ZachWeinersmith I like it, in the same vein as this actual headline:
"Storm could bring heavy snow, rain or nothing at all"
A Soil-Tilling Sergal 🌱@ZachWeinersmith did this guy write it
Erik Ableson@ZachWeinersmith I can’t wait to see your introduction for abridged version of the story of Enki.
« Occasionally things make sense, probably by accidents of translation »
Landsil
Arriad-Alfihar@ZachWeinersmith that's the most beautiful and elaborate "What's the history of this? Shrug emoji" I've ever seen.
o Viri é un robochi de Jujuy@ZachWeinersmith The explainer introduction for the Zack Weinersmith's abridged version of Beowulf, alttexted for those who care:
Nick@ZachWeinersmith I absolutely approve. As someone who was an English lit major, I would have appreciated it if my professors presented the material like this first. Quite engaging :D
Jeff Gilmour 🚀@ZachWeinersmith Best explanation of Beowulf that I've heard!
Joël Franušić
Jer Warren@ZachWeinersmith alt-text:
"In the 8th, 9th, 10th, or maybe 11th century, a minimum of two people of unknown age or gender, set down to transcribe a poem at least as old as the 8th century but maybe older, which may or may not have been part of an earlier oral tradition. It was written down for a popular, or maybe monastic, audience, who may or may not have liked it, in order to maybe express heroic ideals or to commemorate the dead, or possibly inculcate Christian values, or maybe celebrate a lineage of kings, or something else. It's either a Germanic hero tale with Christian elements or a Christian tale drawing on Germanic her elements, but either way should be understoot being written down during a time of transition or maybe not.
Many parts of it make sense."
(Feel free to steal this and edit it into your post!)
"In the 8th, 9th, 10th, or maybe 11th century, a minimum of two people of unknown age or gender, set down to transcribe a poem at least as old as the 8th century but maybe older, which may or may not have been part of an earlier oral tradition. It was written down for a popular, or maybe monastic, audience, who may or may not have liked it, in order to maybe express heroic ideals or to commemorate the dead, or possibly inculcate Christian values, or maybe celebrate a lineage of kings, or something else. It's either a Germanic hero tale with Christian elements or a Christian tale drawing on Germanic her elements, but either way should be understoot being written down during a time of transition or maybe not.
Many parts of it make sense."
(Feel free to steal this and edit it into your post!)
Allen Shull 
@ZachWeinersmith As someone who had a graduate seminar in Beowulf, yup, that’s pretty much it. It’s a great tale of heroism / critique of heroism. But it’s also a story where the hero says, “This sword has never failed me since that one day when I strangled that guy to death unarmed.” And then it fails him.
@ZachWeinersmith (Don’t get me started on the weird scribal change)
potpie@allenshull @ZachWeinersmith I, for one, would love to get you started on the weird scribal change. Haven't heard of it before.
@potpie Okay, here we go…
First, Zach says that there are at least two authors because there are at least two people's handwriting ("hands") in the version. (there can't logically be only one author because of the two hands—or it was oral-formulaic, or what does "author" even mean?). 1/5
@potpie Of these 2 hands, they basically divide thematically—the 1st hand covers Grendel and his Mother, the 2nd covers the Dragon. As of this moment, we are done with the easy stuff. Turns out™ the scribal divide happens before the dragon-fight, before the 50-year gap, right in the middle of Hygelac's welcome home to Beowulf after he left Hrothgar, 3 lines into a page (on the back side of a page from the 1st hand), in the middle of a sentence clause—but breaking from line to line. 2/5
@potpie The second hand, by most paleographic accounts, is the more old-fashioned of the two, which may (or may not) indicate that the second scribe was older than the first scribe. And the second hand occasionally emends the first hand's language. At the same time, the second hand is less consistent with the spelling of names (but remember, spelling was as often "just how it sounds" than not). 3/5
@potpie Beowulf is included in a whole codex of other works; the works that come before Beowulf (Life of St. Christopher, The Wonders of the East, The Letter from Alexander to Aristotle) are all written down by the first hand, and the work that comes after Beowulf (Judith) is written down by the second hand. There may have been a work between Beowulf and Judith that's now lost. Also, Judith doesn't begin or end cleanly. 4/5
@potpie Basically, that's the weirdness—which led Kevin Kiernan (1981) to even speculate that the second scribe may be the actual real author, which would make the manuscript is the holograph (original-original). That's a bit too far for most people. Still, Kiernan's work on the manuscript itself is widely praised as invaluable. For anything else, [ask Mr. Owl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBwJHXqryh0). 5/5
Tootsie Roll Pop TV Commercial HD
@potpie (Also, I’m twenty years out of date on Beowulf scholarship, so take everything with that grain of salt) 6/5
0xC0DEC0DE07EA@ZachWeinersmith I feel like it should be followed with some variant of the Douglas Adams’ bit:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/852503-in-the-beginning-the-universe-was-created-this-had-made
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/852503-in-the-beginning-the-universe-was-created-this-had-made
Kenneth@ZachWeinersmith True Neutral.
Irina