In 1999, acclaimed Irish poet Seamus Heaney published a new translation of the Old English epic, Beowulf. While his translation won awards and was greeted with great acclaim by many, others criticised him for the liberal use of terminology from the English as spoken in Northern Ireland – the linguistic tradition in which Heaney grew up, which has profoundly marked his writing.
Heaney himself commented that he had used Northern Irish dialectal terms he knew from listening to his aunts and other relatives, and that he had seen similarities between the original Old English and some of the words he was familiar with as a child.
Heaney’s most vociferous critics took to referring to his translation as “Heaneywulf” to signal their disapproval of his treatment of the text.
Photo Source: https://susannahfullerton.com.au/13-april-1939-seamus-heaney-is-born/
