Beowulf: An Epic Enigma, by Chris Vinsonhaler
This event is part of International Medieval Congress
Challenging the longstanding view of Beowulf as a praise poem for heroes, this groundbreaking performative translation reveals a riddling design in which the mirroring resemblance between the monsters and the Scandinavian heroes serves as a scathing indictment of heroic ideologies. Even more provocatively, it reveals a subtle web of clues that indicts the heroes in crimes against kinsmen. King Hrothgar’s rise to power is shadowed by hints of his brother’s proxy murder, while Beowulf’s heroic allure proves the false front of a criminal mastermind who slays his king, orchestrates the murder of his prince, and misleads his countrymen to their deaths, even as he continues to mislead the poem’s readers to this day. For more information, please visit Beowulf.Live.
‘Here is a riddling maze never seen before, a murder mystery of smoke and mirrors that will intrigue and entertain new readers and aficionados alike.’ (Robert E. Bjork)
Biography
Chris Vinsonhaler bridges the worlds of scholarship and performance. A translator, storyteller, and medievalist, she brings Beowulf to life as both text and event – recovering the poem’s riddling structure, its irony, and its power to move audiences through voice and embodiment. Her work fuses historical insight with the immediacy of live performance, revealing Beowulf not as a relic of the past but as a living act of imagination.
Tagged with: Poetry