OSR and Beowulf under mist and moorland


To re-start the TenKeep blog, I'm keeping things simple. Here's just one 'place' in Seamus Heaney's verse translation of Beowulf, near line 1345, a "no good" place,
 
"...among wolves on the hills, on windswept crags 
and treacherous keshes, where cold streams 
pour down the mountain and disappear 
under mist and moorland." 
 
Here, country people say they've seen "creatures / prowling the moors, huge marauders / from some other world." Word has it,
 
                              ...A few miles from here
a frost-stiffened wood waits and keeps watch
above a mere; the overhanging bank
is a maze of tree-roots mirrored in its surface."
 
People say "the mere bottom" was never "sounded." They say,
 
"On its bank, the heather stepper halts:
the hart in flight from pursuing hounds
will turn to face them with firm-set horns
and die in the wood rather than dive
beneath its surface."
 
Like that "heorot hornum trum," that hart with "firm-set horns," I'm not going one step closer to a "no good" place that even fights heaven: 
 
"When wind blows up and stormy weather
makes clouds scud and the skies weep,
out of its depths a dirty surge 
is pitched towards the heavens."

I loved how only country people knew about the place, a few miles from here, and as you'll learn reading on, how only one man would go there! Beowulf. This misty landscape is a dungeon master's dream. Thanks for reading.  
 
[I moderate comments on this site. If you leave a comment, I'll post it in a couple days.]
 
 
[Beowulf, by J.R. Skelton]
 
 
 
 




 

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 12, 2023 at 2:46 PM

    I love the image of the misty landscape!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousNovember 25, 2023 at 4:05 PM

      Thanks - the settings in the poem blew me away - you had the feeling of being near the firelight, watching out for things out in the darkness.

      Delete

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