(8) Snow Line
This is no walk on the beach. The plot doesn't make sense. The diction is weird. And yeah, it's written in a dead language. Of course, in order to get the most out of the poem, you must delve into the Old English original. The modern English translation simply cannot capture all the depth and nuance of the original. Without at least some understanding of the language and rhythm of the Old English original, the translated poem loses much of its intended oomph.
What's cool, though, is that, because the poem is so ambiguous, and because there are so many wide-ranging theories and interpretations, you have license to create your own. In examining the original and translated versions of the poem side by side, you can develop your own theories and interpretations. In short, you get to be a scholar of Old English—without all the grad school.