Michael Wood on Beowulf

[davem]

This Thursday night at 9.00 on BBC4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kpv23

Historian Michael Wood returns to his first great love, the Anglo-Saxon world, to reveal the origins of our literary heritage. Focusing on Beowulf and drawing on other Anglo-Saxon classics, he traces the birth of English poetry back to the Dark Ages.

Travelling across the British Isles from East Anglia to Scotland and with the help of Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, actor Julian Glover, local historians and enthusiasts, he brings the story and language of this iconic poem to life.

Michael Wood is one of my great influences - in the late 70's he did a series for the BBC called 'In Search of the Dark Ages', where he introduced folk like me to Athelstan, "Sutton Hoo Man", & Eric Bloodaxe. The Dark Ages was a period I knew nothing about before that series, & I can't thank Wood enough for that introduction. Plus, I'm fairly certain Tolkien will pop up in this programme, so well worth a look...

And I've just found out that a week later Simon Armitage is fronting a programme on Gawain & the Green Knight.

[Rumil]

Hi Davem,

thanks for flagging this up, was it really 30 years since 'In Search of the Dark Ages'?

Will have to try and catch it

[davem]

Originally Posted by Rumil

Hi Davem,

thanks for flagging this up, was it really 30 years since 'In Search of the Dark Ages'?

Er... not quite - checking broadcast dates it seems it was 1981! I can remember the series so vividly though. The Athelstan episode had him flying over South Yorkhshire (where I was born) in a helicopter, looking for the site of Brunanburgh (he places it at Tinsley Forest). Really odd to hear places I'd grown up with getting a name-check on national TV -like 'Wath-on-Dearne' & 'Conisborough Castle' - with 'its magnificent Norman Keep' (which it really is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conisbrough_Castle - it actually inspired Sir Walter Scott to write Ivanhoe!)..but I digress. I'm looking forward to the programme - what with this & Channel 4's recent '!066: The Battle for Middle-earth' we seem to be getting spoiled....

[Bêthberry]

And just how are we on t'other side o' th' pond supposed to catch this? It doesn't strike me as bit torrent fair.

[Rumil]

Ah well, if you must go throwing tea into Boston harbour

And the ladies used to rather admire admire young Michael too (strange to think of an Ancient Historian heatthrob!), though don't know what he looks like these days.

Must say my fleeting memories of this series were that the Dark Ages were mostly overcast and windy, possibly with ominous clouds scudding across the lowering sky. Oh, and talk of Viking Blood Eagles etc, schoolboy-friendly gore! Don't rmember if Eomer the Assassin got a look in?

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Rumil

Ah well, if you must go throwing tea into Boston harbour

Ah, but some of us are north of the 49th and would never harbour such an uncivil thought about tea. Indeed, we live in a land which once upon a time has such an arrangement with the Beeb that the original Doctor Who was telecast here just days after there.