Hwaet!

So!

It came at last, this codex of codices

word-wondrous and winding, hiding

still self-contained secrets pointing at

enigmatic mores, murder, past

from the distant dark dream-time ...

Today I got my Electronic Beowulf, which really made time stand still. It was the same kind of feeling as when I found that second-hand Klaeber, way back in the eighties.

Nobody had heard of Kiernan in those days, which is really astonishing. What puzzled me though, while still believing in an early date, was the fact that somebody around the year 1000 AD deliberately spent a substantial amount of vellum on this text.

I vaguely remember seeing the MS in the British museum and me reading it aloud.

I remember my teacher of Old-English having a facsimile - a Zupitza reprint I believe - which seemed totally out of reach for me.
That was nearly thirty years ago.

Today I found this e-version.


http://www.archive.org/stream/beowulfautotypes77zupiuoft



http://www.gafpa.nl

Hair and Beard

Today I completed the first "ring" of hair and beard.




















Last night I started on the beard. It has a very distictive, graphic effect.

No easy job, though since you can't afford any miscuts.


















This is one of my models. Wereldmuseum Rotterdam [Summer 2010]

http://www.gafpa.nl

Sandpapering

Roughing out is nearly done.

This afternoon it almost felt like spring, so I went outdoors. An hour later, we had hail and snow.


http://www.gafpa.nl

Arms

Just the left arm, actually.


http://www.gafpa.nl