#maria dahvana headley

[gennsoup]

My own experiences as a woman tell me it's very possible to be mistaken for monstrous when one is only doing as men do: providing for and defending oneself.

Maria Dahvana Headley (trans.), Beowulf (Introduction)

#Maria Dahvana Headley #Beowulf #female experience #feminine rage #double standard #feminism #feminist quotes #Old English #Old English epic poem #quotes #quotes blog #literary quotes #literature quotes #literature #book quotes #books #words #text

[jarjarblinks]

"We all know a boy can’t daddy until his daddy’s dead."

Holy f*ck I love this version already.

- Beowulf, Unknown, translated by Maria Dahvana Headley

#beowulf #maria dahvana headley #old english #book quote #book quotes #poetry #epic poem #poetry quotes #poetry quote

[moondustbooks]

October JOMP Day 13 - Purple Books 💜

My favorite color! 💜

#justonemorepage #jompbpc #purple books #purple book covers #finale #the ballad of never after #stephanie garber #magonia #maria dahvana headley #the forbidden wish #jessica khoury #belladonna #adalyn grace #a wizard's guide to defensive baking #t. kingfisher #the lost apothecary #sarah penner #the crown of dalemark #the dalemark quartet #diana wynne jones #the snow queen #five hundred kingdoms #mercedes lackey #book photo challenge #book photography #moondustbooks

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

Gotta hand it (no pun intended) to Grendel's Mother.

Really who is doing it like her. Like you go up to this...Thing... that OVER A CENTURY OF SCHOLARSHIP hasn't be able to determine the species of, she's a human/troll/elf/dark elf/ogress/water spirit/mermaid/wolf mermaid/troll(the other kind)/troll-kin(seriously)/Generic Big Scary Monster/demon/ghost/dragon/shapeshifter/berserker/abstract concept, some people think she's the remnants of an ancient Germanic goddess, the only thing the text is clear about is that she's descended from Cain. she's like a hundred years old. you say "who or what the fuck are you" and she says "you can call me Dana, Jenny Greenteeth or SHE-WARRIOR BRIDE OF HELL, I don't know what I am so fuck you. I only care about one person anywhere ever and its the giant kid that I raised. dont ask who his dad is fuck you. he drinks blood he kills people if you fuck with him I'll kill you. if you fuck with me I'll kill you. I live in a giant secret cave full of treasures under a lake, I'm so fucking shiny, get out of my lake fuck you fuck you fuck you" and she's just the hottest MILF you've ever seen

...god I love her so much!!!

#imho grendels mom cusses like a sailor #shes just so full of rage and feelings okAY #completely incoherent tiredposting #its the first “Official Weather Warning” heat wave of the summer here so my brain is.... Bad.... #if you know the context to this post... You Know. #discovered Jenny Greenteeth as a concept and it broke me #the mere wife #grendel's mother #grendel #beowulf #folklore #mythology #maria dahvana headley #grendelposting #ttr #the third road #briar #supernatural #dean winchester #deanmon #tw profanity #merewife #jenny greenteeth #lake spirits #monsterfucker #creepy water women

[seeit-blr-blog]

JOMP September 6 - Favorite First Lines

"Bro! Tell me we still know how to speak of kings! In the old days, everyone knew what men were: brave, bold, glory-bound. Only stories now, but I’ll sound the Spear-Dane’s song, hoarded for hungry times."

Beowulf A New Translation By Maria Dahvana Headley

#jompbpc #justonemorepage #booklr #beowulf #maria dahvana headley

[b-oredzoi]

i am loving this translation so far

#technically it was the whole guy not just the skin #sucked those bones clean like a chicken wing baby!!! #maria dahvana headley #beowulf #this book is my new hyperfixation #catch me getting emotional about the mathematics of verse and gorgeous translation #niche memes

[kitchfit]

Year in Review: Books Pt 2

Rounding out the rest of my reading list. It's a short list, overall. One of my new years resolutions is definitely to carve more time out for reading, which may cut into my future bildeo bame time. Oh well! That's probably a good thing.

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

I hesitate to criticize the content of an autobiography, especially one as open and honest as this one. I listened to this through the audio book narrated by McCurdy herself, and she gives a great performance through the line reading. Almost as if she was a classically trained actor! Still, I wonder if her reading may have compensated for the quality of some of the prose, and I might not have gotten through it if I were reading it myself.

The title sounds a bit callous to those who haven't experienced child abuse, like myself, but I understand it's a common enough sentiment from those who have, and you come to understand her perspective. It's not a statement made from a place of malice, but one of acceptance that her life has improved without her abuser present, no matter the complicated feelings. The book is also not wholly about her relationship with her mother, covering her experience with bulimia, anorexia, the toxic environments of Hollywood, though her mother is at the center of all of it. It's also not a complete bummer! McCurdy injects a lot of humor throughout the book and covers some of the fun moments she's had in her career. Which is expected in a memoir, I suppose.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

This book is as fantastic as it is ridiculous. The story opens on our protagonist, Arthur, protesting the bureaucratic destruction of his home for the construction of a highway through the area, before he is whisked away by a bisexual alien hitchhiker just in time for Earth itself to be demolished by bureaucratic aliens to build an intergalactic highway. Every plot development acts as both comedy and world building. They nearly survive execution by giving shitty criticism to alien poetry. The president of the universe got his position as a practical joke. A whale is created by a cosmic RNG manipulation machine, and has an inner monologue on the nature of its life just before it explodes and dies.

The outside universe is chaotic and incredulous, and the excitement of wanting to explore that universe through the lens of a hitchhiker almost overwrites Arthur's existential dread on the destruction of his home world. While the book can handle moments of genuine drama, it never goes long before that drama is overshadowed by a joke, or perhaps the drama is itself the joke. This might be annoying to some, but Adams' writing style is slow fluid you don't really have time to be annoyed. It's a short book, and I'm excited to read the next one in the series, if SOME people would return it to the LIBRARY ON TIME. They probably have by now.

The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

I only recently became a Foo Fighters fan, introduced to the album "In Your Honor" by a friend in early 2022, which I immediately listened to ad nauseum until my sister noticed and got me the CD for my car. Thank You Sister! I was sad to hear about the passing of Taylor Hawkins only a couple weeks after I learned who he was. I already knew Grohl had lost a lot of people in his life. But his book is not about grief, at least, not exclusively. Like the title suggests, this memoir is full of stories! And Dave Grohl is, indeed, a good Storyteller.

The book follows his life in a reasonably sequential order, though framed through the lens of a father looking back on his life as he raises his two daughters. It covers his musical influences, his time in Scream and Nirvana, the creation of Foo Fighters. If you like anything from that scene, this book is a good time. It does get a bit name-droppy towards the end. But like. This guy is friends with Paul McCartney! Composer and performer of the classic song "Temporary Secretary," and nothing else! Who wouldn't bring that up at every opportunity?

The book always flashes back to the "present," where his eldest, Violet Maye, is following in her father's footsteps as a musician, which I now realize I've never heard. Give a second.

...

She's alright! Sounds a bit like those "Foo Fighter" guys.

Beowulf translated by Maria Dahvana Headley

This is something I had previously read for college, but the translation we read was focused on accuracy for the original text, and I felt it was a bit buried under flowery language that would tickle under the balls of an academic, but hard to parse for a casual reader. That's not to say that Headley isn't an academic, but her translation focuses largely on readability in a modern context rather than textual accuracy, and for the first time I actually enjoyed Beowulf rather than just understood it.

For the uninformed, Beowulf is what 9th century monks used to read since they didn't have Dragon Ball. It follows the title character Beowulf as he heroically challenges three monsters (some bitch named Grendal, Grendal's hot mom, and a dragon) for the safety of the Geats and his own people, but moreso for the glory and spoils of the win, and the love of fighting. The story is always told in past tense, and Headley goes the extra mile of telling it from the perspective of a dudebro who relays the tale to his other bros. I truly think this is the version that would most resonate with my generation, but it probably won't get shown off in college classrooms for using phrases like "dude, they were fucked," and "#Blessed."

The Two Towers by Jolkien Rolkien Rolkien Tolkien

This is the second entry in my very slow read-through of Lord of the Rings. I have been called a fake nerd for not having read these books. And they were right for calling me that! I only have the distinguished and highly regarded appearance of a nerd, and that needs to be corrected! One book a year, apparently. I read Fellowship last year, and while I enjoyed the second half of that book a great deal, damn can Jolkien describe a hill. A significant portion of book one was dedicated to the hobbits journey to Rivendale and singing songs of old Middle Earth legends, which are probably more enjoyable on re-reads. Book two has much better pacing, imo.

Immediately, you are set into the action of a fractured narrative. Pipin and Merry are missing, Frodo and Sam left the fellowship to go on their own fruity adventure, Boromir is dead, and Aragorn, Gimli, and Orlando Bloom are left to figure out what exactly the fuck happened to everyone. I like how each storyline is told. From what I remember in the movies, everything is interspersed with each other, but in the book you have to follow everyone separately, creating a genuine sense of mystery that slowly unravels itself. Frodo isn't even in the book until halfway through!

Each storyline also introduces a new, fun element of Middle Earth that makes the world feel much more developed than in Fellowship or even the Hobbit. I fucking love Ents. And big spider... Frodo's relationship with Gollum is also fascinating; his desire to save this gross little freak working as a reflection of his feelings about himself. Will someone try to help me if I end up like that? Will my friends still love me? It's a very real possibility as he carries this curse, and by proxy makes me love Samwise that much more, since we know from his narrative perspective that yes, he will love and try to help Frodo no matter the circumstance. Even if the current little freak is getting on his last nerve.

The Shining by Stephen King

I've not read a ton of what I'd classify as "horror," outside of short form fiction, but apparently I love to write about it, so I wanted to take a look at the predominant Horror Guy from the 80s times. I love the movie that spawned from this, and knew that Stephen King hated it for some reason, and now I think I know why! The movie is definitely its own beast, and I think I may write a separate blurb for it if I ever rewatch it in the near future, so I'll refrain from too many comparisons.

The story follows a boy with psychic powers, and a haunted house that eats boys with psychic powers. The Torrances are a very loving family, or they would like to be, but their dynamic is plagued with generational trauma and the father's, Jack's, alcoholism. They are put in charge of the Overlook Hotel, which has to be maintained over the winter lest it be torn to pieces in the Colorado mountains. Why don't the owners hire more than one family to take care of this big ass hotel? They're a bunch of cheapskates!

I would love to make an entire deconstruction on Jack Torrance. He's a man who's been unbelievably shitty to his family and the people around him, saw the monstrousness in himself and desperately tried to back peddle. It is the Overlook, this entity that breaths within the hotel, that uses that darkness to carve him out from the inside and use him as a puppet to threaten his loved ones. It actually fails at first, Jack's love of his wife and son beating back the ugly thoughts the hotel plagues his mind with, and thus it had to get him drunk to make any real headway, force him to relapse into the man he wanted to overcome.

The mystery of the Overlook's origin is compelling. It clearly lures people with "the Shining" into itself to devour and maintain itself, but where does it's monstrosity come from? Was it always there? Or was it the violence and racism of its previous owners that left such a strong imprint that created such an entity? King's answer would probably be a mix of both, but that last interpretation makes the ending much more poignant to me. A monster that victimizes people who shine created by monsters who victimized women and people of color, ultimately overcome and destroyed by a black man with psychic powers, a housewife, and a little kid. Maybe that's too generous an interpretation for a book written by a white dude in the 70s, but I don't give a shit. Night of the living dead author and all that.

And that ends my reading list! I don't really expect too many to read any of this, let alone all of it, but if you did, thank you! This is not only to share what I've read this year, but also to go back and appreciate what it was I read, so it doesn't become a vague tear in the tapestry of memory. Wow that sounded pretentious as hell! I hope I made these books sound at least a bit interesting for you, because they're all genuinely good reads! And if you have a book you think I might like, please let me know! I'm always looking for new books to get halfway through and never finish.

#book reviews #reviews #i'm glad my mom died #jennette mccurdy #the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy #douglas adams #bookblr #the storyteller #dave grohl #foo fighters #violet maye grohl #beowulf #maria dahvana headley #the two towers #jrr tolkien #lotr #lord of the rings #the shining #stephen king #books #my post

[betterinthedarkblog]

"People love to say that human bodies are made mostly of water; I'd say that human souls and societies are made mostly of story." — Maria Dahvana Headley

#quotation #quote #maria dahvana headley #writing #stories #fantasy #sci fi & fantasy

[robotbirdhead]

I have no idea why Beowulf is trending but while you're here you should do yourself a favor and read Maria Dahvana Headley's translation. it is genuinely the most vibrant piece of translated ancient poetry I have ever read. also it starts with the line "Bro, tell me we still know how to speak of Kings!" which rules, frankly.

#beowulf #maria dahvana headley #i think about that line all the time #bro #tell me we still know how to speak of kings #its so good #such a tone setter #i love it

[my-own-lilypad]

Living has killed us all. We're dustbinned by destiny.

Beowulf

Maria Headley trans.

#beowulf #maria dahvana headley #literature #anglo saxon poetry

[nicolagriffith]

Hollowed by sorrow and filled with joy

MENEWOOD is out in less than 2 months. It's full of war—bitter war, winter war—but it's not miserylit, it's not grimdark. It's a book about *life*—a book *of* life: searing grief, savage triumph; soaring joy and quiet satisfactions. I hope you like it.

✤ Menewood is a searing depiction of a world at war and the ferocious and complicated woman at the center of it. Griffith maps the entirety of this landscape and the profound emotional journey of Hild, a woman in a time of reckoning, protecting her people. Menewood is the story of Hild’s joy, anguish, hard-won survival, and journey into newfound power, filling the past with the people who’ve…

View On WordPress

#carolyne larrington #hild #historical fiction #maria dahvana headley #menewood #pre-order #war

[jarjarblinks]

"[His] soldiers got drunk instead of crying. They mourned the way men do. No man knows, not me, not you, who hauled [his] hoard to shore, but the poor are plentiful, and somebody got lucky."

- Beowulf, Unknown, translated by Maria Dahvana Headley

#beowulf #maria dahvana headley #old english #book quotes #book quote #poetry #epic poem #poetry quotes #poetry quote

[cup-and-chaucer]

My Month in Books: March 2023

we are back, babyyyyyy. this was the month of novellasssssssssss

Beowulf, translated by Maria Dahvana Headley: This was so, so, so sexy oh my God. I picked this up from my local bookseller and it just--it really floored me by how phenomenal the translation was? I was skeptical, I have to admit but I felt the excitement, the blood, and the enduring relevance of this story through this translation.

Grendel by John Gardner: We love a themed read but this just wasn't for me. I think reading it so closely to the Headley translation was a mistake. This was exceptionally well-written and there are some great scenes but I felt that the overly academic approach to Grendel sucked the viscera and fear from the story. Grendel's isolation was so complete that, as a reader, I felt alienated from him. The most exciting and climactic moment was, of course, when Beowulf appears and there is this fantastic line: "Oh my God, he's insane" in the wake of Beowulf telling the story of him swimming for several nights through a storm. But, maybe in a different time, this book would have struck me differently but it was a miss for me.

The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis: One more in the journey to read the complete works of Lewis!! I'd read parts of this before but never completely and in order. So, here's the thing, I love Lewis. I really, really am a True Fan. The way that he organized and categorized the world and human relationships is really impactful and truthful. Even contextualizing him in his time period and social context, I really struggled with listening to the homophobia in this. It really bothered me in this book in a way that his mentions of it in Mere Christianity didn't. Part of it was because the introduction to the book was written by Charles Colson, notoriously conservative evangelical, and part of it was because it was a book on love. I feel silly objecting to something that I knew was part of his belief system, a belief system that I don't think he ever had life experiences to challenge. But--it got to me this time. It is the feeling of: you have helped shaped my worldview and you would pity me? I don't know. There is a lot of gold in here. I had a similar lukewarm reaction to The Great Divorce last year and that book has subsequently never left me alone. So, Lewis is a guy who needs to age in my system, I think.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway: I had such an interesting experience with this one!! I was enjoying it but not feeling particularly moved by it and then halfway through I attended a workshop of an operatic version of it by Paola Prestini and my mind completely changed. Her clear love of the book, the beauty that she mined from it...seeing someone who so clearly loves this book and this story completely changed my perspective on it. And when I finished it, I had a much deeper appreciation for the story, the drama of it, and the beauty in it.

Here Goes Nothing by Eamon McGrath: This sucked. Like, this is already the worst book I have read and will read this year. I mean, it was remarkably bad. I listened to the audiobook version on the drive home from Boston and it was incredible. I listen to audiobooks to help pass the time and this actively made my trip feel longer. I just. It was only 2.5 hours long and I felt like I lost years to this book. The writing was inconsistent--vacillating between pretty good to sophomoric and just filled with poorly constructed metaphors. The story was confusing, without purpose or shape. The idea of the audiobook was to have a customized soundtrack that matched the story and it just--was bad. Like, sir, the reason you never made it big as a musician is because you are bad at this. I understand the romanticization of your misspent youth and a nomadic period of your life...but this whole rebels without a cause thing just didn't land. As I grow older, my patience with the sighing, looking out the window at human foibles and disappointments grows shorter and shorter. My guy, you need better friends. You need to be a better person. Treat your mom better. That's all. It was an interestingly gendered book--the characters are all male and apparently unable to understand or communicate...any emotion or physical urge including anger, hunger, fear, happiness in any way that is remotely productive. The lack of women here was also very noticeable. I mean--to be sure, it was about a group of men and they are in a culture where women are there to be...fucked or are their literal mothers but the narrator low-key drops that he had a nameless girlfriend the ENTIRE time in the last fifteen minutes and you're like, oh my GOD, you really...really...WHAT. You really...really treat the women in your life disposably.

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade: I read one trashy romance book a year and this was ittttttttttttttt. It was, as all these books are, a Time and a Half. I actually liked this one best of the whole series. Like just--absolutely a wild time from beginning to end. 10/10 they tried to fuck in a room next to a wedding proposal filled with all their coworkers no notes. I do think that it's hysterical that D&D not showing up to that Game of Thrones fan conference probably sparked this entire romance trilogy in which they, very specifically, feature as the single worst human beings to ever exist on the face of the earth. Good for her.

#ship wrecked #olivia dade #here goes nothing #eamon mcgrath #the old man and the sea #ernest hemingway #the four loves #c.s. lewis #grendel #john gardner #beowulf #maria dahvana headley #my month in books

[thecolorsinouruniverse]

storms rise, and ships wreck. it's a fact of life, boy, though you're too young to know it. everything that seems sound has got a hole in it somewhere.

sword stone table: maria dehvana headley, mayday

#quotes #books #sword stone table #maria dahvana headley #mayday

[roseunspindle]

March 2023 TBR

#Chain of Gold #Cassandra Clare #Cathedral of the Sea #Ildefonso Falcones #Queen of Air and Darkness #Magonia #maria dahvana headley #Switched #amanda hocking #genuine fraud #e. lockhart #markswoman #rati mehrotra #dragon prince #melanie rawn #the gutter prayer #gareth hanrahan #tbr #march 2023

[betterinthedarkblog]

“The words, ‘Tell me a story,’ are another way to say, ‘Do me some magic.’” — Maria Dahvana Headley

#quotation #quotes #maria dahvana headley #fantasy #sci fi and fantasy #writing