And Speaking of Beowulf...
My last entry on the glorious and near-eternal Beowulf was... SOCKS. And they are pretty great socks. But I am also thinking in terms of performance. Some performers from the East (I think, correct me if I am wrong) have put on a full reading of Beowulf in home territory, in a mead hall set -- how cool is that? AND they took 2/3 of it on the road to Pennsic. I'm not a producer and am not considering putting on a multi-person Beowulf performance, although that is so amazing that they did that. I AM thinking about performing a selection of the poem and varying my delivery. Case in point: Lady Avicia turned me onto the amazing Benjamin Bagby. I cannot come close to his performance in a million years -- the entire poem told in Old English including varying styles of recitation, song and chant along with harp (lyre?) accompaniment. WOW. I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon. But I absolutely can experiment with adding sung and chanted lines for sure, and harp maybe if I ever get one and learn how to play it. We're talking about a very simple 6-string harp/lyre so it's not exactly hard. But anyway, I can certainly vary my voice even now. I don't have to do it with Beowulf certainly, there is a wealth of Norse and Anglo-Saxon poetry that could take vocal experimental delivery. I'm excited about trying it in the privacy of my own home. If it works out -- and I'm betting it will -- I'll start performing it in a few places.