The first decades of the twenty-first century have seen an unprecedented level of creative engagement with early medieval culture, and a succession of high-profile translations of poetry from the Old English, Old Norse and Medieval Irish traditions. This collection brings together leading experts in these three fields in order to take stock of this extraordinary proliferation of translation activity and to critically assess the ways in which the landscape of translation has changed in recent years.
Contributions focusing on individual poets, texts and spheres of translation activity – ranging from Tolkien’s Beowulf to the re-mediation of Old Norse poetry on screen – reflect on how we arrived at this particularly productive juncture in the on-going discourse between history and translation, and consider the impact new translations are having on the study of early medieval poetry. The contributions are united by their attention to the dynamic contact zone between scholarly and creative approaches to the text, and by their commitment to addressing the challenge of translating poetry for twenty-first century audiences. Collectively, they represent a rich and multifaceted exploration of early medieval poetry and its modern iterations, and make a lasting contribution to our understanding of how the old is continually made anew.