#nowell codex

[oddlyspecifichistorymemes]

pls don't tell the british museum i said that!

[uwmspeccoll]

STAFF PICK OF THE WEEK

My Staff pick for the week is our Limited Editions Club printing of Beowulf, with illustrations by Lynd Ward. My previous staff pick, Idylls of the King printed by Limited Editions Club, was also illustrated by Lynd Ward and I was interested in finding more of his work! This edition of Beowulf, with a verse translation by Wisconsin scholar and author William Ellery Leonard, was designed by Eugene M. Ettenberg in Janson, Bembo italic, and Libra types and printed on specially-made Ticonderoga Text paper in 1952 at The Gallery Press in New York in an edition of 1500 copies. Ward drew the lithographs on the plates himself, and they were printed in three colors by the Duenewald Printing Corporation. Also shown here is the book’s quarter binding with gold and silver stamped buckram and a patterned paper over boards handmade by Ingeborg Börjeson in Stockholm

Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon poetic epic, written in Old English, that began it’s life as an oral ballad. Scholars argue over when it was composed and written, and some have tried to claim that it was never part of the oral tradition but instead composed directly to text. J.R.R. Tolkein, a familiar name, was the scholar who dated the work, as part of the oral tradition, to just after the Christian conversion of England, 700 CE.

The first surviving Beowulf manuscript is called the Nowell Codex and is held at the British Library. It has been paleographically dated to the 10th to 11th centuries. Our edition is a reprinting of the epic translated by William Ellery Leonard into modern verse, he also wrote the preface and the pre-chapter summaries. Professor Leonard was a transplant to Wisconsin in 1906, where he taught English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Beowulf is one of my favorite texts because just after I read it in high school I was fortunate to see it performed in Old English in the Ballad style. This experience gave me an appreciation for oral tradition, and how it is the beginning of almost all book histories. So, I leave you with this Beowulf performance in Old English with a modern version of an Anglo-Saxon lyre, done by Benjamin Bagby.

Go here to see more Limited Editions Club posts

Go here to see more Lynd Ward posts

Go here to see other Staff Picks!

-Claire, Special Collections Graduate Student Intern

[mostly-history]

The first page of Beowulf in the Nowell Codex.

[atelier-aria]

Some of you might remember her from a while back but I got sidetracked after drawing her sketch...HOWEVER! I finished painting her so now let me introduce you, she is-

The NOWELL CODEX(-chan)

Yes, that’s right. It’s a moe book. Did anyone ask for this? No. Did anyone want this? Probably not. Am I going to steadily moe-ify every ancient codex, manuscript, book and written tablet throughout time and space? Yes. At least anything up to the 18th century. I call it the Grand Codex Project.

So I’m starting with some books close to my heart: the Anglo-Saxon codices. The Nowell Codex is also known as the Beowulf Manuscript, you can learn more about her here!.  >w<

[skeleton-richard]

Um, my eyes are down here,

[earlymedievalhistory]

Then the Creator's maiden, with her braided locks, took a sharp sword, a hard weapon in the storms of battle, and drew it from the sheath with her right hand. She began to call the Guardian of heaven by name, the Saviour of all the inhabitants of earth, and said these words: "God of creation, Spirit of comfort, Son of the Almighty, I want to beseech you for your mercy on me in my time of need, glorious Trinity. My heart is intensely inflamed within me now, and my mind is troubled, greatly afflicted with sorrows. Give me, Lord of heaven, victory and true belief so I might cut down this bestower of torment with this sword. Grant me my salvation, mighty Lord of men: I have never had more need of your mercy than now. Avenge now, mighty Lord, eminent Bestower of glory, that which is so grievous in my mind, so fervent in my heart." Then the highest Judge inspired her immediately with great zeal, as he does to each of the dwellers on earth who seek help from him with reason and with true faith. Then she felt relief in her mind, hope was renewed for the holy woman. She seized the heathen man securely by his hair, pulled him shamefully towards her with her hands, and skilfully placed the wicked and loathsome man so that she could most easily manage the miserable one well. Then, the woman with braided locks struck the enemy, that hostile one, with the shining sword, so that she cut through half of his neck, such that he lay unconscious, drunk and wounded. He was not dead yet, not entirely lifeless. The courageous woman struck the heathen hound energetically another time so that his head rolled forwards on the floor. The foul body lay behind, dead; the spirit departed elsewhere under the deep earth and was oppressed there and fettered in torment forever after, wound round with serpents, bound with punishments, cruelly imprisoned in hell-fire after his departure. Enveloped in darkness, he had no need at all to hope that he should get out from that serpent-hall, but there he must remain always and forever, henceforth without end, in that dark home deprived of the joy of hope. Judith had won illustrious glory in the battle as God, the Lord of heaven, granted it so when he gave her her victory.

Judith, Anglo-Saxon poetric translation of the Book of Judith, found in the Nowell Codex, 10th century (trans. Elaine Treharne)

[writing-system]

Old English Beowulf (700 – 1000)

Source