The Welcome to Denmark
-
- Genre/Type Descriptor(s)
-
Poem or Poetry
Translation from Old English - Language(s)
- English
-
- Author
- Heaney, Seamus
- Compiling Editor
- Westarp, Karl-Heinz
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- Contained in
- The Literary Man: Essays Presented to Donald W. Hannah, ed. Karl-Heinz Westarp
- Location Details
- Pages 7-8
- City
- Aarhus
- Publisher
- Aarhus University Press
- Date
- 1996
-
- Relationships
-
(Downstream) Revised and incorporated into -> Beowulf, Heaney, Seamus (1999)
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- Identifying Numbers
- ISBN: 8772885408
- Descriptive Notes
The book The Literary Man: Essays Presented to Donald W. Hannah, edited by Karl-Heinz Westarp, is 228 pp. "The Welcome to Denmark," inscribed by Heaney "For Donald Hannah," is a translation of Beowulf, lines 286-319, presented as a lyric poem. Heaney later made considerable revisions to this version as he incorporated it into his full 1999 Beowulf translation.
The poem begins:
Undaunted, sitting astride his horse,
the coast-guard answered, "Anyone with gumption
and a clear head has to consider
two things: what's said and what's done.["] (7)And ends:
"It is time for me to go. May the Almighty
Father defend you and in His goodness
watch over your exploits. I'm away to the sea,
back on alert against enemy forces." (8)- Notes on Prior Documentation
Not mentioned specifically in MO2, but MO2 1987(c) references Heaney's "many other fragmentary translations" in advance of his 1999 full translation.
- Authentication
BAM.
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- Last Updated
- 03/30/2022