Beowulf

Beowulf is one of the oldest poems in the English language. Written sometime between 800 and 1100 AD, it tells the story of Beowulf, a brave warrior who fought many monsters. The British Library holds the only remaining copy of the poem, pictured on the left. This was nearly destroyed in a fire in the 1700s, so it's a good job the library has digitised it!

Beowulf is written in Old English which looks very different to the Modern English which we use today.
If you listen carefully, you can hear some similarities with the English we speak 1,000 years later. The British library has a link to a reading of a passage from Beowulf in the original Old English here. In this passage, reproduced here from the website,

The Danish king speaks to Beowulf, telling him of the terrible place where Grendel's mother lived. He describes the desolate landscape: the wolf-haunted slopes, perilous paths through the marshes, a mountain stream that plunges into the earth, and a lake overhung with trees bound in eternal frost, whose waters burn at night with a dreadful fire. A stag chased by hounds allows itself to be torn apart rather than plunge into those waters. It is a dark, misty and fearful place. Hrothgar offers rich rewards of twisted gold if Beowulf can find and kill the monster and escape with his life.

Can you find any similarities with Modern English?

If you want to read a translation into Modern English, you can find several online. This one is known as the Gummere translation and was done in 1910. It is very poetic and uses a lot of alliteration, just like the oiginal.
Below is a selection from the text, describing Grendel's attack on Beowulf's men

He spied in hall the hero-band,
kin and clansmen clustered asleep,
hardy liegemen. Then laughed his heart;
for the monster was minded, ere morn should dawn,
savage, to sever the soul of each,
life from body, since lusty banquet
waited his will! But Wyrd forbade him
to seize any more of men on earth
after that evening. Eagerly watched
Hygelac's kinsman his cursed foe,
how he would fare in fell attack.
Not that the monster was minded to pause!
Straightway he seized a sleeping warrior
for the first, and tore him fiercely asunder,
the bone-frame bit, drank blood in streams,
swallowed him piecemeal: swiftly thus
the lifeless corse was clear devoured,
e'en feet and hands.