Post-Thanksgiving Catch-Up

After having spent 36 hours cooking and another 12 hours eating, I'm a bit behind in my e-mails, including two that asked me to send information before Thanksgiving. Jeff Sypeck brought a bottle of mead to my house many months ago, and although we stayed up into the wee hours, we neglected to drink it. I'm delighted to say that my wife and I cracked it open yesterday and celebrated Thanksgiving Heorot-style. Thanks, Jeff!

Here are some things you might have missed in your turkey-induced coma:

• Gary Kamiya compared Lord of the Rings and the Zemeckis Beowulf, and found the latter lacking. h/t Quod She
• Weird Medieval Animal Monday continued with "The Bear."
• JLJ also sent us to the Grendel Drawing Project.
• Highly Eccentric examined the difference between wordhoard and wordhorde.
• Heavenfield had a review of Beowulf, but has also had a string of posts on Anglo-Saxon history recently.
• Stephen T. Asma has a review in the Chronicle of Higher Ed arguing that the new Beowulf is a liberal guilt-trip. Unfortunately, it's behind a subscriber firewall, so only we professorly-types out there will be able to read it. I wrote an article on the same subject entitled “Teaching Grendel as a Villain in a Post-Modern Age.” Alabama English 14 (2004): 6-17. In your face, Asma! I stole your thunder three years ago!