Ancient lines echo for modern youth
Oct 8 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal
A FILM made by teenagers, which turns the ancient poem Beowulf into a modern message on knife crime, was premiered on Tyneside last night.
The six-strong group of teenagers, all from Hebburn in South Tyneside, were inspired by the epic story of warriors and their deeds but saw the parallels with current concerns over knife-carrying.
Beowulf was written in Old English some time between the Eighth and 11th Centuries and survives in the form of only one manuscript in the British Library.
The nine-month project, run from Bede’s World in Jarrow, was backed by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and involved the 16 to 18-year-olds visiting locations such as Lindisfarne off Northumberland and the Anglo-Saxon site of Sutton Hoo in Suffolk.
The showing of the film at the Customs House in South Shields was followed by a debate on knife crime involving the police and the ambulance service.
The film-making youngsters were recruited through the Hebburn Detached Project, which is run by youth workers Chris Shieber and Steven Miller.
The group worked with Pearl Saddington, youth outreach officer at Bede’s World, who took Anglo-Saxon studies at Newcastle University and staged a dramatised version of Beowulf at Jarrow in 2005.
The six – Shaun Paisley, Jonny Stoker, Gareth Wood, Michael Wiblin, Jamie Larkin and Kyle Mcloughlin – made the film under the guidance of Craig Conway and Stephen Lamb from Headboy Productions.
The film’s title, 2449, refers to the line in the text of Beowulf where it says of a father: “The wisdom of age is useless to him; morning after morning he awakes to remember that his child is gone, he has no interest in living on.”
Pearl said: “The film is about choices. It poses questions about carrying a knife and whether we can choose to walk away from conflict. With this in mind, the film also has two endings.
“It is also about loyalty, and bonding. The message is don’t carry knives because they can be turned against you.”
Shaun Paisley said: “I never thought I would get to grips with a 1,300-year-old poem.”
Pearl also arranged a series of workshops in which the group learned about the language of the time and the text of Beowulf from Durham University lecturer Dr Neil Cartlidge. Other experts taught them about Anglo-Saxon weapons, armour and fighting techniques and, in a blacksmith’s workshop, they made their own Saxon sword.
They also received advice on acting from a member of Northern Stage and had tutorials on story-telling, music, make-up and film techniques.
“We came to understand how tough it was for Beowulf, always having to prove himself,” said Shaun.
“And we wanted to look at knife crime from a different point of view.”
