{"id":161,"date":"2004-01-19T12:29:39","date_gmt":"2004-01-19T16:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/desultor\/2004\/01\/19\/beacons\/"},"modified":"2004-01-19T12:29:39","modified_gmt":"2004-01-19T16:29:39","slug":"beacons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/desultor\/2004\/01\/19\/beacons\/","title":{"rendered":"Beacons"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

The “telegraph<\/a>” used by the English naval admiralty (located in Whitehall) in the early nineteenth century to communicate with the coast.<\/p>\n

The series of beacons in Agamemnon<\/i> which alerts the watchman back in Argos that Troy has finally been whupped.<\/p>\n

The beautiful, wide-spirited scene in Return of the King<\/i> when the chain of mountaintop beacons is lit from Gondor to Rohan.<\/p>\n

I remembered The Dream of the Rood<\/i> as referring to the rood as something like “beacna beorhtost”, and I meant to write about how the Gondor thing visually enriched that language for me. But as it turns out I remembered the poem wrong — the relevant section goes like<\/p>\n

\nðuhte me ðæt ic gesawe seldlicre treo
\non lyft lædan leohte bewunden,
\nbeama beorhtost. Eall ðæt beacen wæs
\nbegoten mid golde; gimmas stodon
\nfægere at foldan sceatum, swelce ðær fife wæron
\nuppe on ðam eaxl-gespanne.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If we translate this in the poetically hampered but etymologically interesting Ezra Pound manner, which has the added benefit of being well adapted to a meagre and time-attenuated understanding of Old English, we get something like<\/p>\n

\nMethought I saw a very seldom-like [i.e. rare] tree
\nleading aloft, bewound with light,
\nbrightest of beams. All that beacon was
\nbepoured with gold; gems stood
\nfair on the fold’s sheet [i.e. the ground], likewise there were
\nfive up on that axle-span. [i.e. shoulder-span]\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, well, here we are dusting off our old textbooks for show and tell. No apologies, but readers with any aversion to dust, must, mold, foxing etc. are advised not to continue. Tolkien fans might appreciate this section of The Wanderer<\/i>. It’s an “ubi sunt” passage, which are apparently pretty common in Old English poetry. I think there might be one in Beowulf too? I haven’t read much OE, but the whole vibe of “everything’s going downhill but let’s try to be really strong and noble anyway” certainly pervades most of what I have read, and for sure Tolkien is all over it. Theoden busts out with some shit very similar to this in Return of the King<\/i>, or was it the Two Towers?<\/p>\n

\n“Hwær com mearh? Hwær com magu? Hwær com maðumgiefa?
\nHwær com symbla gesetu? Hwær sindon seledreamas?
\nEa-la beorht bune! Ea-la byrnwiga!
\nEa-la ðeodnes ðrymm! He seo ðrag gewatt,
\ngenað under nihthelm, swa heo na wære!
\nStandeð nu on laste leofre duguðe
\nweall wundrum heah, wyrmlicum fag.
\nEorlas fornamon æsca ðryðe,
\nwæpen wælgifru, wyrd seo mære,
\nand ðas stanhliðu stormas cnyssa&eth,
\nhrið hreosende hrusan bindeð
\nwintres woma, ðonne wann cymeð
\nnipeð nihtscua, norðan onsendeð
\nhreo hæglfære, hæleðum on andan.
\nEall is eorfoðlic eorðan rice,
\nonwendeð wyrda gesceaft weorold under heofunum.
\nHer bið feoh læne, her bið freond læ,
\nher bið mann læne, her bið mæg læne,
\neall ðis eorðan gesteall idel weorðeð\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Learning Old English corrupts, and inclines one entirely too much to archaism. People are so in love with kicking it Pound style that it takes some time to find a translation that is readable. I wonder if, say, Italian translations of Latin works have the same problem? Anyways here’s a decent translation of the above, in a style reminiscent of Tolkien’s High Style:<\/p>\n

\n
\nWhere has the man gone? Where has the horse gone? whence went the treasure giver?
\nwhence went the banquet places? Where are all the hall revelry(s)
\nAlas bright cup! Alas mail-clad warrior!
\nAlas prince’s splendor! How time has passed

\ndarkened under night’s-helm as if it had not been.
\nNow the stone slope outlasts the footstep of beloved one’s army
\nwall wondrously high with serpent images inscribed.
\nWarriors destroyed by the ash-spear troop
\nweapons greedy for slaughter. Fate, that illustrious one,

\nand its stone slope with tempests trouble
\nrapidly falling snow storm the ground binds
\nwinter’s howling then comes darkly
\nthe shadow of night grows dark sends forth from the north
\na fierce hailstorm to the warriors’ vexation.

\nAll is full of hardship in this rich earth
\nfate changes destiny in the world under heaven.
\nHere is wealth transitory here is friend transitory
\nhere is man transitory here is kinsman transitory
\nthe foundation of all this earth becomes vain \n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The above is by Rick McDonald, and the full text is here<\/a>. Mr. McDonald has created an excellent Wanderer<\/i> page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The “telegraph” used by the English naval admiralty (located in Whitehall) in the early nineteenth century to communicate with the coast. The series of beacons in Agamemnon which alerts the watchman back in Argos that Troy has finally been whupped. The beautiful, wide-spirited scene in Return of the King when the chain of mountaintop beacons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/desultor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/desultor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/desultor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/desultor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/desultor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/desultor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/desultor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/desultor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/desultor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}