On engliscre spræce? Old English and the politics of intralingual translation

The idea that translation from Old to Modern English involves “updating” within the same language-rather than what Jakobson calls “translation proper”-is a pervasive one. In this article I argue that this “interlingual fallacy” still conditions the ways in which the language and early medieval period are represented in the public sphere today. Focussing on two high-profile engagements with the language-Seamus Heaney's Beowulf and Paul Kingsnorth's shadow language in his novel The Wake-, I argue that the intralingual fallacy has had the dual effect of marginalising the act of translation as a site of cultural exchange, and limiting the possibilities for interrogating those productive issues it shares with interlingual translation. Several examples are given of recent projects that set out to problematise this narrative of intralingual transfer, and that present a way forward for further integrating Old English into the contemporary discourse on translation.