When the singers of Sunset and Aloha high schools in the Portland, Oregon area signed up for choir, they probably didn’t expect to be asked to sing in Anglo-Saxon, the distant ancestor of modern English. I’m guessing the same goes for director Chris Rust when he invited me to write a piece for his students to sing virtually, adding, “Write whatever you want.”
The fool! Little did he know that I’ve long been harboring a desire to set passages from Beowulf, the ancient epic poem that I have loved ever since taking a class in college studying Anglo-Saxon poetry in its original language. In the twenty-plus years that I have been toting around my various Beowulf translations and Anglo-Saxon grammars, I have noted many a wrinkled nose and tart reactions like, “Uh, are you reading that for fun?”
The fool! Little did he know that I’ve long been harboring a desire to set passages from Beowulf, the ancient epic poem that I have loved ever since taking a class in college studying Anglo-Saxon poetry in its original language. In the twenty-plus years that I have been toting around my various Beowulf translations and Anglo-Saxon grammars, I have noted many a wrinkled nose and tart reactions like, “Uh, are you reading that for fun?”
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