From Beowulf to Internet Speak: Punctuation as a Bridge
- The debate over introducing anachronistic punctuation, like exclamation points, into historical texts comes into focus.
- While traditionalists argue against such changes, modern translators like Maria Dhavana Headley inject life into ancient tales.
- Headley’s Beowulf starts controversially, interpreting the famously versatile Anglo-Saxon “hwaet” (something like “listen”) like a shout for silence in a pub full of beer-drinking dudes.
- For our internet-savvy audience, this prompts reflection on the balance between historical accuracy and effective communication.
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The exclamation point attracts enormous (and undue) amounts of flak for its unabashed claim to presence in the name of emotion which some unkind souls interpret as egotistical attention-seeking.
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