Stanford Medievalist Compresses Old English Epic 'Beowulf' Into 100 Tweets

Is it possible to capture the essence of a book, play, or poem in a tweet? If not one, then a series chronicling the arc of the work?

Stanford medievalist and “text technologies” researcher Elaine Treharne gave it a shot, as the Atlantic reports, compressing ‘Beowulf’ into 100 tweets.

Treharne explains the motivation behind the project:

“As the Christmas break started, I began preparing my course for the Winter Quarter, ‘Beowulf from Then ’til Now,’ which looks at all existing and imagined manifestations of ‘Beowulf,’ from the oral fantasy to the Heaney translation, Zemeckis film and, particularly, R.