Dena Bain Taylor

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The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon…

A Message from Dena

 

Dena Bain Taylor has spent most of her life in Toronto, Canada, pursuing her joint passions: music and books. She is a classically-trained singer. She is also a writer, critic, tv script advisor, literary award juror, and erstwhile owner of Ben Abraham Books (specializing in the occult).

Bones & Keeps

 

The year is 542 AD and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. As he does every autumn, he leaves the complications of his keep to wander his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden. He returns just in time to hear his doom pronounced by his sister Skuld, the most powerful witch-queen of her generation. At the same time—by luck, coincidence or fate—a seafaring woman arrives from the far south, escaping the plague that grips the city of Alexandria and threatens to destroy the Byzantine Empire.

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Original Artwork by Martin Springett (Click to Enlarge)

 

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Bookmark designs by Martin Springett

 

Microblogs

Featured
Art Imitates Death
Art Imitates Death

Not to sound morbid, but I love to see how writers handle the deaths of their lead characters. Here are some of my favourites…

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Here Be Monsters
Here Be Monsters

I won’t presume to say anything definitive about a subject as vast as the role of nature within Western literature. But it has been on my mind because of my work with the epic Old English poem Beowulf.

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John Gardner’s Grendel
John Gardner’s Grendel

In the 1000+ years we’ve known the story of Beowulf, poor Grendel has gotten all the bad press.

The monster has been universally reviled as the polar opposite of Beowulf’s human virtues. It took the American novelist John Gardner, in his wickedly funny novel Grendel (1971), to ask a few questions:

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Iron Age Reality Check
Iron Age Reality Check

Let’s say you wake up one morning and you're completely disoriented. You worry you've time traveled to sixth-century Scandinavia. It happens to all of us at times, surely.

Here are some clues…

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Articles

Featured
Who Was Grendel in Beowulf?
Who Was Grendel in Beowulf?

Heorot, the magnificent hall of the great Danish king Hrothgar, is being terrorized by the monster Grendel. Night after night, Grendel swoops in from the misty moors to slaughter Hrothgar’s thanes (warriors) where they lie sleeping on benches around the hall.

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On the Hunt for Heorot
On the Hunt for Heorot

The hunt for Heorot was the starting point of my adventure with my friend and colleague Margaret Procter. Professor Kristian Kirstiansen of the University of Göteborg had urged me in an email to “go to Lejre and visit the place of Beowulf, it is marvelous, and the great halls have been found and excavated.”

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How to Ferment a Shark and Why You Might Want To
How to Ferment a Shark and Why You Might Want To

Fermented shark (properly, hákarl) is a traditional Icelandic delicacy, generally washed down with a potato and caraway liquor called brennevín, aka Black Death. These days it’s mainly tourists who eat it, egged on by grinning Icelanders who can’t wait to see them gag. Anthony Bourdain famously called it “the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing” he’d ever eaten.

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Who was Beowulf and was he real?
Who was Beowulf and was he real?

The story of Beowulf comes down to us in three written sources. The most famous is the epic poem Beowulf, written in Old English in (likely) the early tenth century. I’m fully prepared to argue over drinks that it’s the greatest poem in the history of English literature.

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Image Gallery

 
View fullsize 🔪 🔪 The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. He rules his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden wisely and gives rich gifts to his thanes, defends his keep an
View fullsize 🔪 🔪 The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. He rules his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden wisely and gives rich gifts to his thanes, defends his keep an
View fullsize 🔪 🔪 The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. He rules his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden wisely and gives rich gifts to his thanes, defends his keep an
View fullsize 🔪 🔪 🔪 The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. He rules his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden wisely and gives rich gifts to his thanes, defends his keep
View fullsize 🔪 🔪 🔪 The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. He rules his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden wisely and gives rich gifts to his thanes, defends his keep
View fullsize 🔪 🔪 🔪 The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. He rules his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden wisely and gives rich gifts to his thanes, defends his keep
View fullsize 🔪 🔪 🔪 The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. He rules his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden wisely and gives rich gifts to his thanes, defends his keep
View fullsize 🔪 🔪 🔪 The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. He rules his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden wisely and gives rich gifts to his thanes, defends his keep
View fullsize 🔪 🔪 🔪 The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. He rules his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden wisely and gives rich gifts to his thanes, defends his keep
View fullsize 🔪 🔪 🔪 The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. He rules his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden wisely and gives rich gifts to his thanes, defends his keep
View fullsize 🔪 🔪 🔪 The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. He rules his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden wisely and gives rich gifts to his thanes, defends his keep
View fullsize 🔪 🔪 🔪 The year is 542 and the great king Beowulf is midway in life between slaying the monster Grendel and his fatal battle with a dragon. He rules his kingdom on the west coast of Sweden wisely and gives rich gifts to his thanes, defends his keep