Swimming with Leander, Lord Byron, Beowulf and around Britain with special guest John Hancock
Description
It’s a swim literature episode! Featuring John Hancock, who told us the colourful life story of Sir Bernard Freyberg and his wartime swim.
This time John and Shona talk about:
The “mad, bad and dangerous to know” poet Lord Byron’s 1810 swim across the Dardanelles (formerly the Hellespont, between Europe and Asia). Lord Byron was inspired by the ancient Greek myth of Leander, who swam across the same body of water to his lover Hero’s lantern-lit tower each night. Byron recounted his swim triumph in his poem ‘Don Juan’.
The Old English poem Beowulf, whose protagonist spent a week in the freezing Scandinavian ocean, first competing with his childhood friend Breca and then fighting off ‘sea monsters’.
Much more recently, British writer Roger Deakin’s series of swims across Britain, captured in his beautiful book Waterlog (1999). Deakin is considered by many to be the founding father of the modern ‘wild swimming’ movement.
John and Shona do some readings from the texts above (extra points to John for managing some Old English). John also talks about the book Haunts of the Black Masseur: the Swimmer as Hero by Charles Sprawson (1992).
We’re keen to know what you think of this episode! Leave a comment or email swimchatswithshona at gmail dot com.
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In the introduction Shona talks about Ben Knight, a Wellington ocean advocate and protector who sadly passed away this month. Over the years Ben worked with Mountains to Sea Wellington and Sustainable Coastlines, which posted a lovely tribute to Ben on Facebook with some conservation figures that demonstrate his incredible legacy. Thank you, Ben. You have inspired many of us.
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