All Things Medieval discussion

Excited this morning to find this easily gettable, in two paperbacks - not expensive either - put out last September, editor Gordon Kendal.

I've been struggling to read this on my Kindle, where the formatting is awkward and the lines division lost, downloaded from http://www.scotslanguage.com/articles.... I'm glad to have a book.

Here's Wiki on the essentials:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eneados

It's a translation of the Aeneid into Scots written circa 1513. Might be known as the Eneados, as on the title page. Ezra Pound called the Douglas 'better than the original', and though I can't read the original, on what I've struggled through so far I believe him. It's astonishing poetry and I've never liked the Aeneid half so much. But it's Douglas' own Aeneid. To quote John Speirs in Part One of this set (I can't find part one) Medieval Literature: The European Inheritance:

Lastly, the reader should not miss Gavin Douglas's (1475?-1522) Scots translation of the Aeneid. It is the first version of the complete poem in any branch of English, and in the opinion of some critics, the greatest. Ezra Pound said (I think rightly) that Douglas gets more poetry out of the Aeneid than any other translator. But it is a different poetry from that of the Aeneid. As a poem in its own right it is the culmination of the medieval Scots poetry and in the succession from Henryson and Dunbar. Its characteristics are those of medieval Scots poetry; the differences between Douglas's Scots Aeneid and the original Aeneid are the differences between the Scots and the Latin sensibilities.

That's why I'm more into the Scots, and never mind the original.

Thanks for that. Downloaded a copy.
Hadn't heard of this before.
From the brief look I've had it may benefit from reading aloud...I find anything written before standard spelling is easier to understand when heard due to the jarring that occurs when viewing words spelled in an unfamiliar way.
Having said that I note that even the glosses and commentary seem to be in the more modern Scots (eg: bedyed = drookit) so another dictionary may be needed for full understanding...unless you've a familiarity with the Guid Scots Tongue.
On a light note and in ref to more modern versions of our lingo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0rgET...

Yes, that was the trouble too with the website version from the Scots Language Centre: the guidance is still in bluidy Scots! The introduction was more of a task to read than the poem, and spelling is modernised into the Scots you know today. Confuses the issue for the likes of me... bring on the paperbacks, which are both 400+ pages so I assume give you lots of help. And aren't in Scots, except for the text (in fact a 'Scots-English blend' the new book description says).

Now I want to read The Iliad as translated by Irvine Welsh...there's a thought.

The issue of translation is complicated though isn't it?
Literal? The meaning? How academic in tone?
If it's too literal you may lose the actual meaning unless you get the ref points, metaphors lose loads by being too literal in translation, yet if you focus too much on the meaning you lose the flavour or poetry in many cases.
To read a translation of a poem into a language that isn't one you are familiar with brings even more to the table in terms of problems...but also I think makes the dish more interesting. Even Shakespeare or Malory are culturally and chronologically remote enough to make their reading almost a game.
Anyway, have fun. If you read it and start a thread or a comments bit on the book I'll chip in.

I love the Elizabethan translations - Chapman's Iliad, Golding's Ovid - because I'm as much or more interested in Elizabethans (that, and they knew how to write). Why the topic belongs in a medieval group: it ain't the Aeneid, it's an epic in English/Scots. For Virgil no doubt you want to go elsewhere.

These 16th century translators seem to err on the creative side and seize the poem for their own. Suits me, I like the results, they have conviction, they're not short on gusto, and afterwards, the scholarly translations of today have an air of 'exercise' and come across as timid. But that's me.

I'll be back when I have my books.