Michael Wood - In search of Beowulf

Dude's a modern day bard. A bringer of legends to life.

Back in the 1980s I thought Michael Wood had the best job in the world

This is one of my favorite documentaries made by Michael Wood, and I’ve watched it several times! From the comments I read, it seems that there are some ignorant folks who believe Wood has given in to “revisionist” history, in that he accepts the recent position changes regarding the so-called “Dark Ages” and the theory of the mass invasion and conquest of England by the Anglo Saxons. People clearly don’t understand that our understanding of history is a fluid process that must change where evidence supports change, AND they don’t understand how this differs from so-called “revisionist history.” ”Revisionist history” (which is that unsupported by facts) is motivated by unscrupulous people who attempt to change history in order to support their biased, incorrect, unsupported view of events.

These people are apparently unaware that the theory of the “Dark Ages” was just that—a theory—which was disproved by the evidence unearthed by scholars, who then outlined and documented their findings in peer reviewed scholarly journals and books. It was all very aboveboard, but the old theory that, “the lights went out all over Europe,” was so entrenched by historians who had based their whole careers on it that there was a great deal of anger when they had to change their views to fit the facts. The so-called Anglo Saxon armed invasion and conquest of England and the life of King Arthur are other strongly held theories based only on old stories and a great deal of emotional investment, with zero evidence, and it’s very distressing to see people attack Michael Wood for following the evidence.

Julian Glover's reading of Beowulf is fantastic! Does anybody know the author of this translation?

Point of order: Michael Wood, looking at the ancient 18-foot-tall stone cross located in what’s now Scotland, calls the image of the woman washing Jesus’ feet with her hair “Mary Magdalene washing…”. It is not. The woman in the story is not named; stories associating Mary of Magdala with the sinful woman came much later. It became a tradition, but there’s no basis for the tradition in the Scriptures.

I saw him over in Crockett Texas taking a dump on the courthouse lawn about couple weeks ago. He's definitely a drifter.

More welfare money, make-work bull shit, UK government pointless spending. God fuck the king, Satan enjoy fucking the inbreeding whore that spawned it.

Loosely based on ancient king wulf Dietrich. Even nowadays, plenty of cryptic monster sighting are reported. Someone with the guts to take one on would be considered heroic.

Michael keeps saying Beowulf came from "Sweden", but he actually came from Gotland Island in the middle of the Baltic, today a part of Sweden, but then an independent, sovereign community where the Geats came from. They became "Swedish" in 1645 A.D. , 1,000 years after the times described in the story.

fascinating indeed 💕

It speaks to u bcos wr of northern European have ancestry to these northern lands and we are all 1 tribe...its not myth but woden❤💯..and yes I had a vision of this helmet not telling the rest but the hopi have got it correct!

Found him.

I hate history

The 1st thing I would do is smell that book.

But this is interesting

He should be wearing gloves when he's turning the pages of the original manuscript. That's inexcusable.

At primary school my teachers best friend Hugh Lupton came and did Beowolf and he was large and to us at about 8 even the boys found him scary.

I just saw a Swedish documentary about Beowulf. They think that the original was written in Scandinavia and that the Anglo Sachsen version is a copy of a much older story. Some of the details described in the book can only be done if you’re from Scandinavia, especially how they describe chainmail, the relationship to gold rings and bracelets and other details about the landscapes etc. They compared story content with Swedish Rune stones from the 6th century, gold artifacts, helmets and locations in the Scandinavian landscapes. Also where in Sweden Beowulf must have lived and so forth. It was very interesting.

Why isn't the librarian and yourself not wearing white gloves to protect the manuscript!?
We know it's not the original but to us it still looks old!

How they haven't done a big budget live action movie for this legendary story is mind boggling! Especially with so many fantasy tales making huge money, even with popular video games having similar storylines. It would be an epic movie!

I enjoyed this so much just as I did the film of the excavation of the ship. If I remember rightly it was called 'The Dig'. Many thanks.

Outstanding, thank you.

Why does he say the anglo Saxons didn't have much effect on our DNA? -About a third of our British ancestry is anglo saxon...

Gods, that reenactment was amazing. Id love to be in that hall

Absolutely fantastic. It really saddens me to know that this BBC which created fascinating documentaries and incredible dramas no longer exists. What on earth happened to them?

Beowulf is mosty set in todays Sweden and Beowulf himself was half Swede (central Sweden) and half Geate (south central Sweden). The tribe of the Danes controlled the southern part of todays Sweden so the geographical areas can’t be compared to modern borders. Old western and Roman Christian manuscripts also most often call every Scandinavian a Dane, even if they were Geates, Jutes, Gutes or Swedes. The story was orally told In Scandinavia long before Christians wrote it down so Beowulf is therefore more of a Swedish epos than an English one. Where the original Swedish manuscript went is unknown. It was probably destroyed in fire when the castle Three Crowns burned down in 1697. The castle library contained the majority of the old Swedish manuscripts from the time.

Wonderful stuff.

Anyone know where to get a recorded full performance from Julian Glover? I loved that... I saw some clips from when he was younger and like the presentation in this documentary better. Also love Woods "In Search of the Dark Ages" series. Check it out!

If even the dog reacts to the story, now that is talent.

06.00 is that the bad guy from indiana jones and the last crusade

🙏🙏🙏

Rendlesham!Grendel was an alien

I'm a Canadian of Anglo-Scandinavian descent.....but my spiritual homeland is Anglo-Saxon England in those early years of the medieval era ( 400 AD to 1066). This documentary is a mini-masterpiece! From the presentation, locations and the scenes of Julian Glover reciting Beowulf. If this could be compared to anything, it's an never-ending well of lore, history and an age, though long gone...much beloved and presented here, almost real! I probably watch it 4 to 5 times a year, along with a reading or listening of the original (trans. By Seamus Heaney) Cheers! Fellow Wyrd Walkers!

Love everything Michael Wood presents!

British pussies cannot imitate this. BBC is a shithole lol

This is awesome, I could watch this all day.

His ears make him look like a little jubilant elf next to the fire and that's my favorite part lol

YOU ALL ARE FRIGHTFULLY UNAWARE OF THE TRUTH OF BEOWULF~!!!
Its a TRUE ACCOUNT of a man who battled DRAGONS (DINOSAURS) BUT WAS mistakenly put in category of "MYTH" because NO ONE knows about the existence of DRAGONS (DINOSAURS) today. It was COMMON KNOWLEDGE then~!!!
A dictionary as recent as 1945 refers to DRAGONS as "Now RARE",,, and NOT myth. We have forgotten our own history. The Bible Scripture mentions "Dragons" (Dinosaurs) 39 times AND it has DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS of two different types of such creatures. The book of Job had God describing them and Job himself obviously being aware of the creatures about which God is speaking of. One describes Leviathan which is a sea serpent that breaths FIRE. The other is clearly describing a Brontosaurus.
Isaiah kills a DRAGON (DINOSAUR) which the Philistines worshiped.
Frightful ignorance which envelopes the whole world.
If anyone is interested I will explain quit easily how an organism... in this case, a sea serpent can breath out fire.

BeeWolf 🐝

Michael Wood in search of himself

Was Beowulf an English tale or Nordic tale?

No it's not its Scandinavia 😂

What a load of iron age bollocks and prejudice. Noah was not a prophet. He was a drunk. No mystery there.

Young James Taylor Michelle Moore Maria

Man.... That library curator needs to listen to Beowulf more. He has to be the lowest T man I have ever seen.

This was made when the bbc was good

Heorot's supposed to have been at Lejre, isn't it ?

Jabberwocky was a parody?

Why did the anglo saxons tell a tale about events in Denmark and southern Sweden?🤔