New Thinking: Beowulf
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2022
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough takes a look at the latest research shaping our understanding of the great Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf. She’ll be finding out about the insights that digital approaches are bringing to the tale of gold-hoarding dragons, sword-wielding heroes and murderous fenland beasties. We discover what video games and grammar have to tell us about Old English literature.
Andrew Burn Andrew Burn is Professor of English, Media and Drama at University College London’s Institute of Education. He is director of ReMap a research centre that focuses on media arts, creative practice and play and games. He has published work on many aspects of the media, including young people's production of digital animation, film and computer games. Further information about his research can be found at: https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=ANBUR40 and www.andrewburn.org.
Roxanne Taylor is a research student at the University of Manchester where she is completing her PhD. She is working on an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project on argument structure and genitive modification in Old English noun phrases.
Beowulf Retold is on Radio 3 on Sunday 30th October and is available on BBC Sounds for the following 28 days.
This podcast was made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI.
Producer: Ruth Watts
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Can I just say? |
| 0:01.5 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | It's such a wonderful listen. |
| 0:05.6 | So nice. |
| 0:06.5 | There are loads more like it on BBC sounds. |
| 0:08.8 | Different paces, different heights. |
| 0:10.6 | The roof is buckling. |
| 0:11.9 | Where you can also listen to live sports commentary. |
| 0:14.2 | It's right foot goes for goal. |
| 0:16.7 | And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories. |
| 0:21.7 | The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession. |
| 0:25.2 | And she's had to live with that. |
| 0:26.8 | So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion. |
| 0:29.7 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:31.7 | Sort of expecting that every week now. |
| 0:35.8 | BBC Sounds, music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:40.6 | Hello, or perhaps I should say what. |
| 0:43.5 | I'm Eleanor Rosamond Barakloff. |
| 0:45.1 | In this episode, in the new thinking strand of the Arts and Ideas podcast, we're off |
| 0:50.0 | on a quest to meet gold hoarding dragons, sword-wielding heroes and murderous Fenland Beasties. |
| 0:57.5 | Beowulf, not himself, shipwrecked by self-doubt, doom ravaged, declared revenge. |
| 1:05.6 | The leader of the Gaets ordered a war shield, fashioned from iron, impervious to fire, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.