Beowulf

performed by Julian Glover and Jamie Glover

seen at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on 24 May 2015

Julian Glover has been reciting a performing version of 'Beowulf' for some years. It is abridged from Michael Alexander's 1973 translation for Penguin Classics, with some material from Edwin Morgan's 1952 translation and occasional lines from the original Old English text. On this occasion (the evening recitation) he was performing it for the last time and 'handing on' the oral tradition to his son Jamie.

The candlelit playhouse was an appropriate venue even though its decorative style is far removed from ancient or even mediaeval English architecture; and there was in fact some discreet spotlighting of the stage too. Julian Glover began by chatting to members of the audience in the pit, in order (he said) to get the recognition chatter over and done with before the recitation started. He was casually dressed, but wearing an Anglo-Saxon style cross pendant.

Once started he moved from easy geniality to firm assurance and commanding speech according to the demands of the poem. With only a table, two chairs, a drinking tankard and a sword for props, he evoked the story with consummate ease, and demonstrated the enormous power of the poem in recitation (as opposed to book reading), despite the use of the translation. The Old English text, when spoken, added an emphatic air of mystery and age; often a translation followed (or had immediately preceded) these lines, demonstrating how extremely distant the original is from common understanding, but at the same time contributing strongly to the atmosphere of the evening.

The poem has three major movements - the scene setting and Beowulf's struggle with Grendel, which occupied the first part, the struggle with Grendel's mother which began the second part, and Beowulf's struggle with the dragon fifty years later which concludes the work. The fights of Beowulf's youth are full of proud endevour and triumphant celebration, while the final struggle leads to his death, and to the passing of the flame, so to speak, to his young kinsman Wiglaf. Thus it was entirely appropriate that on this occasion Julian should stop speaking at the moment of Beowulf's death, and that Jamie should come onto the stage from the pit to conclude the account of his funeral. The shape of the performance thus matched the narrative of the poem and lent an extra authenticity to the whole experience of the oral tradition.