Beowulf & the Anglo-Saxons (Part 8)

Miraculously preserved over the centuries, its artistic importance was unrecognized until an essay by J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) revealed its unity and multi-dimensional structure. Beowulf is now regarded as the most important manuscript the Anglo-Saxons have handed down to us, of immense linguistic as well as poetic value.

This program sets out to trace the origins of the tribes that brought this epic into being, the war-like Northmen from Sweden, Denmark and Germany who were to conquer and settle regions of a more clement and fertile island that would become known as England, named after the tribe of the Angles. Using 3-D animation, location footage, archive materials and interviews, the Beowulf epic is examined in the light of the civilization that created it. It investigates their religious beliefs as well as their everyday life, and suggests that, old as the poem is, it may have roots in an even more ancient fertility cult.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Beowulf
• Old
• English
• Poem
• Angles
• Saxons
• Jutes
• Frisians
• Documentary
• England
• JRR
• Tolkien
• Myths
• Legends
• Folklore
• Archaeology

[ElvenDane]

Excelent - thank you.

[KaiserKarnage]

Excellent documentary, thanks for the upload.

[PoetryETrain]

Wonderful posts, thank you for all of them,,,,

[kingsonone]

A very interesting and educational documentary. Diolch, Stwff Da !

@Schwarzkald : They should make a modern version of Shakespeare,

call it Shake-ye-bacon

There are more parallels between Beowulf and the Arthurian stories or Mabinogion as they should be called, there's Bran the Blessed who's severed head kept on talking and was eventually also buried in a sacred place. In Brans case, as he was a British king he was buried under what is now the Tower of London. Bran means crow or raven.

[Schwarzkald]

Beowulf was a Goth of southern Sweden, not an Anglo-Saxon, like always the Anglos like to co-opt other peoples history and try to make it their own. The only reason English is able to be spoken is because 64% is base on Latin and 36% base on Germanic and the grammar, otherwise English will be unbearable to the ears and hard to be spoken, thanks to Francis Bacon, whom created an alter ego called William Shakespear in order to fix the English language. Their goes your foolish pride.

[remindbender]

@NielsEbbesen laug h n ate? to beat or not to beat a hungry heart?? eat or be heathen ;-)

[solomonkain]

Great documentary, thanks very much!

[tioedong]

thanks for the film

[26blanco]

before writing there must have been a time when people passed stories by word of mouth,and these stories passed from century to century.

[nitfiend]

Thanks for posting this. As a retiree, I can afford basic cable service only. In order to get more shows like this I would have to pay a ridiculously high subscription fee for a "package" of specialty channels, only one or two of which I would ever watch. Thanks again. Chris

[twango70]

excellent documentary thankyou very much for posting

[NielsEbbesen]

Superb documentary, enjoyed very much.

I must say though that like baracine it's a bit odd to hear the narrator say that the English language is much more rich than any other. I think the narrator is getting a bit carried away with romantic nationalism.

This myth about the unique richness of the English language, is one that I have come across several times. Speaking both languages, I don't think theres much to it.

F.ex. in Danish we have two words for love, in English only one.