510. Classics never die away


Here is a comment by Eugenio M. O., whose interesting blog is at the right column links. Thank you, Eugenio. I did know you would like this post about Beowulf. Also thanks for the information you give us about this jewel of early English literature. If you don’t mind, I publish your comment as a new entry, as well because I receive hardly any comments... - this blog is followed though.


Well, Fernando, you might very well expect my comment on this lovely entry. Oh yes, Beowulf is one of the very first text from the Old English period, and probably the jewell of Anglo-Saxon literature. But did you know that it was about to be lost, devoured by fire? You can see the borders of the manuscript are charred. It was kept at Sir Robert Cotton's library, which was almost destroyed by fire on 23 October 1731. Many of the manuscripts were lost; fortunately, other were thrown out through the windows to be saved. This reminds me of an episode in El Quijote in which many text also jumped through the windows, this time to be burnt in a huge bonfire. Greetings from Utopia.


/ Photo from: North by Northwest (1959). Interesting thing that the tiltle of this film was translated as Con la muerte en los talones in Spanish. Stars: Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. Director: great Alfred Hitchcock; source web-site: html rincondelvago com

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