Beowulf From Early Anglo-Saxon Text to Hypertext :: Internet Medieval Literature Essays

Beowulf From Early Anglo-Saxon Text to HypertextThis paper describes the feature use of photomosaic and the World Wide Web as tools that leave both allow scholars and researchers to examine ancient manuscripts without the risk of strong-arm constipation to the manuscripts, and facilitate greater general public access to the worldly. The British depository library is currently engaged in a project to establish a full image archive relating to the transmission down the ages of one of the early known Anglo-Saxon poems Beowulf ( opinion by some to contribute been write in the eighth century AD, and rife with fighting, slaying and mythical monsters), as component part of its commitment to increase access to its collections, by use of digital imaginativeness and networking technology. Images of parts of the Beowulf manuscript are scanned in 24-bit colour, both under transparent and ultraviolet light. These images may be of entire pages, or just mavin words or letters. The result ing image files are huge at a maximum size of 2320 by 3072 pixels each image takes up about(predicate) 20-25 MB, however they can reveal even more information than would physical examination of the original manuscripts, for example allowing the detection of alterations to the manuscripts and revealing letters that have been obscured by repairs to eighteenth century fire damage. The Library is experimenting with the use of Mosaic and the World Wide Web as a front closing curtain to provide initial access to materials in the Librarys Reading Rooms in London. Mosaic was chosen as a powerful, simple-to-use interface suitable for users who may not be computer-literate. By use of off-line image preparation, server-side scripts performing on-the-fly image manipulation and caching of images, users are able to search quickly for breaker point in the images, while the hypertext features of the Web allow cross references to background material to be presented. IntroductionThe British Librar y is the national library of enceinte Britain. It has amongst its collection of over 15 million books and other documents, several atomic number 6 thousand ancient manuscripts. One of these is a unique copy of the epos poem Beowulf, which tells of the deeds of the eponymous hero, king of the Geats of his battles with the half-human fiend Grendel and the monsters mother, and ends with his mortal flake with a fiery dragon. The poem is one of the oldest existing Anglo-Saxon poems, having been written down in the early eleventh century AD, but thought by some to have been composed even earlier in the eighth century.