Holly
Vande Linde
9
September 2002
Medieval
Lit 3014
Web
page evaluation
The title of the page is Beowulf on Steorarume (Beowulf in Cyberspace), edited and translated by Benjamin
Slade. It can be accessed at http://www.heorot.dk/. This site’s audience is students or
anyone wanting to learn the story of Beowolf and view its original text. I evaluated the web site on the
following criteria: credentials of the author, readability of the text, sources
for the text, supplemental information, and copyright information.
Slade’s name on the title page of the site
serves as a link to his credentials, which is beneficial to users who want to
ensure the authority of the creator. He is a graduate of
Johns Hopkins University, with a major in English Studies and a minor in Classics & Linguistics studies and is now studying
cognitive psychology at Johns Hopkins at the doctoral level.
In addition to the table of contents, information is provided in right hand margin of the page for quick access. Topics in the margin include the homepage, annotation key, glossary/maps, diplomatic text, Old English text with translation and a link in Old English. When the annotation key link is selected, a key is displayed in the right margin, allowing user to learn what the symbols in the document mean and still keep his/her place in the text.
When
viewing Beowulf in the modern translation, one can select highlighted words to see
their definitions in the right margin.
For some words it also gives references to other works that the text
alludes to. Also on this page, one
can select the microphone icon to hear selected passages in Old English.
The
site also includes supplemental information dealing with other poetry and prose
from the medieval period. These
sources are organized into two divisions: those whose original and translated
versions are available on-line and those with at least one version found only in
hard copy (these are divided into subheadings according to the language of the
original text). This division is
very handy when looking up materials; however, within the divisions the sources
do not appear to be in any particular order, potentially making it easy to
overlook a needed source.
The copyright information for the page is stated in a
very clear manner. On most links
it explicitly states that the images of Beowulf are reproduced by the
permission of the British Library Board and that all other material on the site
are under copyright. It also
requests that all material should be sited properly or one should have
permission for reproduction from author.