Hwaet!

What have I been doing with my time? Oh, nothing really. Got a retail job. Did some embroidery on my jean jacket. Came up with what I think is an excellent reading project and my roommates think is a strange choice--I'm reading three different translations of Beowulf.

This came about because of the podcast Lingthusiasm really. (Side note: what an incredible little podcast, just charming and incredibly well-done linguistics education, highly recommend.) They had an episode about translation, and highlighted both Emily Wilson's Odyssey and Maria Headley's Beowulf. I'd heard about Wilson's work, but hadn't heard about Headley's and her translation sounded fascinating. But I didn't want to just read hers--I hadn't read Beowulf in a while, and it was the beautiful Seamus Heaney verse translation. So I found myself a suitably dry and academic Beowulf translation to start off with--J.R.R. Tolkien's translation and commentary.

( Opinions about Beowulf #1 under the cut )

Outside of my Beowulf project, I'm just floundering. I like my small projects, but I think I need some bigger challenge; my brain feels a bit like an under-stimulated bird of prey that just sits in its enclosure. Gah.