BBC Radio 4

Awash with the sounds of storm-tossed waves and crashing ice, the Anglo-Saxon poem The Seafarer is brought to life in the bowels of London’s Royal Festival Hall.  

Here in this eerie, ship-like space, an imaginative team, led by Southbank Artist in Residence Oliver Coates, recreate the watery world of the seafarer. His words (rendered in a new translation by Amy Kate Riach) are set to the music of Messiaen and songwriter Emily Hall, accompanied by the sounds of the birds and ocean.

 Poet Simon Armitage and Scholars including Dr Richard North of UCL climb on board the ship to experience the poem and ponder why the seafarer’s voyage is still so captivating today.