Beowulf
by Seamus Heaney
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| published
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April 2007
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| binding
| Unknown Binding |
| isbn
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1598959948
(isbn13: 9781598959949)
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| date added
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02-28-08
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Read in January, 2000
BEOWULF: A NEW VERSE TRANSLATION BY SEAMUS HEANEY: Earlier this year a new version of Beowulf was published, translated by the Irish Nobel Prize Winner (for 1995) Seamus Heaney. Heaney has spent many years trying to get this translation just right, and I believe he hit the nail on the head in this case. This book presents a different insight into reading Beowulf, adopting a more archaic viewpoint in both language and imagery. Henry does not bother much with fancy words to make the poem seem more...more
BEOWULF: A NEW VERSE TRANSLATION BY SEAMUS HEANEY: Earlier this year a new version of Beowulf was published, translated by the Irish Nobel Prize Winner (for 1995) Seamus Heaney. Heaney has spent many years trying to get this translation just right, and I believe he hit the nail on the head in this case. This book presents a different insight into reading Beowulf, adopting a more archaic viewpoint in both language and imagery. Henry does not bother much with fancy words to make the poem seem more fantastic, but sticks to the original terms, translating them as closely as he possibly can. The book is set up so that on the left is the poem in its original Anglo-Saxon or Old English text and on the right is Heaney's translation.
For this translation, Heaney had to return to his long misused Irish tongue of Gaelic. He had learned the language when he was a boy, but has since spent more time using English. His main source was his grandmother, who is still fluent in the archaic language. In talking to her, he would hear strange words and terms that simply do not exist in modern English. Heaney would then turn to the original text of Beowulf. There he would notice similarities between these strange expressions uttered by his grandmother and the poem. In one case he found an exact match with the word "Þolian" which means to suffer and his grandmother's expression, "They'll just have to learn to thole"; here the thorn symbol Þ is pronounced with a "th" sound. Heaney considered these unique insights "loopholes" through which he was able to translate this magnificent piece of literature.
It remains unknown as to when Beowulf was written and by whom. Quite likely a monk wrote it, since monks were really the only people of the time who were able to write; also the poem was written by a Christian, since there are numerous points throughout the codex where the "Almighty" and "God" are thanked and respected.
The poem was composed first orally some time during the middle of the seventh century, and then written down in the eleventh century. It is a tale about a great hero of the Geats know as Beowulf, who travels to Denmark, where the king, Hrothgar, is being attacked by a monster in the night known as Grendel. Beowulf fights with the beat and rips off its arm, whereupon the creature flees into the darkness from whence it came. The next night, Grendel's mother comes to avenger her son; she takes a life and flees back to her lair beneath the mere (a lake). Beowulf pursues, tracks her down and with a magic sword decapitates her.
After being greatly rewarded by Hrothgar, Beowulf and his army return to their homeland in the south of Sweden. There, after years of attacks by enemies, he inherits the throne and rules for fifty years. In his fiftieth year, a dragon is disturbed from its lair, where it has been guarding a mound of ancient treasure, left by a long-dead warrior. Beowulf confronts the dragon but is gravely injured. Wiglaf, one of his soldiers, comes to his rescue and stabs the dragon in the stomach, killing its ability to make fire. Beowulf draws his dagger and stabs the dragon a lethal blow. But Beowulf has been poisoned by the dragon's bite and dies shortly after.
A great funeral pyre is built and set ablaze, while his many followers watch. His cremated remains are added to a special mound that is created on a hilltop overlooking the sea, where any ship passing will see the mound and know that Beowulf lies beneath. Thus, the poem ends with the forever-lasting memory of a great hero.
Read the rest of the review at www.alexctelander.com
For more reviews, and writings, or to buy yourself a copy, please visit www.alexctelander.com....less
Read in February, 2002
I've just finished reading Beowulf for the third time! But lo, this reading was in the bold and exciting Beowulf: a New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney! And what a difference a day makes - Heaney is unstoppable! Rather, he makes Beowulf unstoppable. Unstoppable in his ability to pound you in the face with his manliness and leave you bleeding-but-strangely-desiring-more...more
I've just finished reading Beowulf for the third time! But lo, this reading was in the bold and exciting Beowulf: a New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney! And what a difference a day makes - Heaney is unstoppable! Rather, he makes Beowulf unstoppable. Unstoppable in his ability to pound you in the face with his manliness and leave you bleeding-but-strangely-desiring-more.
As I said, I've read the epic Anglo-Saxon poem several times now, but usually, I'm trudging through to get to the "good parts" (i.e., Beowulf's three notable feats), but this time, I was taken aback! The whole durned thing was the good parts! What luck! I read it over the space of three days and boy is my voice tired (I have a distinct inability when it comes to facing these sorts of tales - I have to read aloud. And with an accent. And with bluster).
One of the coolest things spicing up this reading (besides Heaney's great translation) was the juxtaposition of the Old English to the translation. As you may know, the only surviving copy of anything close to an original Beowulf is written in Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) from 'tween AD 700 and 1000. Now Old English isn't just archaic some King James English with lotsa thees, thous, and forsooths, as many people seem to think. It's the illegitimate birth father of Middle English (which I believe came about sometime after AD 1066) which in turn spawned Modern English. Modern English includes the English used in both Shakespeare and the King James Bible as well as the haphazard trash we sprechen today. In truth, Old English is nearly indecipherable. Below, I've included the first three lines of Beowulf, which are not only a great example of what I'm talking about, but strangely fitting for who I am:
Hwæt wê Gâr-dena in geâr-dagum
Þêod-cyninga Þrym gefrûnon,
hû ðâ æÞelingas ellen fremedon.
Fun, no? Well... so you know, that translates as:
So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns.
Hoorah! Hoorah for the Spear-Danes! And...*ahem* ..who cares if by the time Beowulf comes around their busy getting their butts eaten off by Grendel. Hoorah for the Spear-Danes! Hoorah for Gâr-dena (and doesn't that sound like a wonderful name for a city?).
In any case, it was fun to look over at the Anglo-Saxon to see if I could decipher any of it. Alas, my attention was so rapt upon the tale that I didn't take as much time to peruse the original as I would have liked. But since I bought it, I should be afforded plenty of time for such trivialities....less
bookshelves:
classics,
epic-poetry,
poetry
Read in October, 2005
Usually I like to keep my translators and authors separate, but I will make an exception for Heaney. The problem is that most creative authors have such a strong voice and sense of story that they will overwhelm the original author's intent. As Bentley wrote of Pope's Iliad: "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer".
Now, sometimes this sort of indirect translation is just what one needs, such as during the transition of the Renaissance from Italy to Britain. M...more
Usually I like to keep my translators and authors separate, but I will make an exception for Heaney. The problem is that most creative authors have such a strong voice and sense of story that they will overwhelm the original author's intent. As Bentley wrote of Pope's Iliad: "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer".
Now, sometimes this sort of indirect translation is just what one needs, such as during the transition of the Renaissance from Italy to Britain. Many of the British poets rewrote Italian sonnets into English, and though the line of descent was unquestionable, the progeny was it's own work. Another example might be the digestion of Wuxia and Anime into films such as Tarantino's or The Matrix (though Tarantino's sense of propriety is often suspect).
However, in these cases, we can hardly call the new work a translation of the old. You are not experiencing the old work but the inspiration it has wrought. Beowulf, however, is one of those rare exceptions. Though it is an English to English translation, I don't think Heaney's adroit understanding of both ends of the vast linguistic spectrum that defines 'English' can be overstated. His Nobel is safe from my machinations.
I tried to read Beofulf some years before Heaney's version came out, and though I could understand the tale, it did not inspire me. It did not play with language and reference in a way I recognized, and failed to ever draw me in. Beowulf is a good story, but Chekhov showed that the quality of the story is in the telling. Even the drama of an epic can fall flat by telling. Without my years of Latin, who knows if even Milton's Paradise Lost could have failed to find me.
Heaney is conscientious of his creation, of its origins, and of its destination. He has wrapped up a gift from another age and brought to us on a silver tray. When Cotton's library burned, Beowulf was one of the few works and the only epic to survive to reach us from both Old and Middle English.
Such things were poorly valued by the Helenophile Christians, and so we have. Unfortunately, lost a great deal of that art, all placed unfairly under the epithet 'Pagan'. That this survives, and tells its own history by the curiously tacked-on Christian sentiment and internal Saxon rebellions, and so becomes much more to us than a simple story, but for those of us who wonder what the Isles brought to the Italianate literature they digested, Our Story. It is a wonder that modern day 'Pagans' muck about with Tarot Cards (14th century Italy), Ouija Boards (19th Century America), and Druids (of which we have no relaiable knowledge) when their ancestry does survive, at least in part, in Beowulf....less
Read in January, 2008
At the start of this thousand-year-old Old English epic poem, Beowulf is a young unproven warrior, physically strong and determined to prove his merits. He crosses the sea, defeats ungodly beasts in bloody combat, wins a foreign ally for his king and earns respect from his native people. Eventually he becomes king himself, rules in relative peace and wisdom, and then is killed in a fight with a dragon, but not until after he slays the beast.
It's a strange story, about a world with foreign na...more
At the start of this thousand-year-old Old English epic poem, Beowulf is a young unproven warrior, physically strong and determined to prove his merits. He crosses the sea, defeats ungodly beasts in bloody combat, wins a foreign ally for his king and earns respect from his native people. Eventually he becomes king himself, rules in relative peace and wisdom, and then is killed in a fight with a dragon, but not until after he slays the beast.
It's a strange story, about a world with foreign names, an early Christian warrior code of ethics that is hard to imagine, and monsters that have not survived into 21st century mythology. Along the way, there are historical asides and philosophical meanderings that make "Beowulf" a deeper, better story than it would otherwise be.
It's hard to judge the story on its own merits, because I don't know how much of its beauty is inherent and how much is the work Nobel-prize winning poet Seamus Heaney, who spent 15 years on the translation, in frequent consultation with editors and medievalists. The result is a spare, poetic, Saxon-sounding verse with the strange loping of pre-meter rhythmic writing, and assonance and alliteration on every line. I read most of "Beowulf" at a whisper, because it almost commands to be heard out loud.
These are words about a long-gone kingdom, ancient even in Beowulf's time, and the death of a civilization:
The hard helmet, hasped with hold
will be stripped of its hoops; and the helmet-shiner
who should polish the metal of the war-mask sleeps;
the coat of mail that came through all fights
through shield-collapse and cut of sword,
decays with the warrior. Nor may webbed mail
range far and wide on the warlord's back
beside his mustered troops. No trembling harp,
no tuned timber, no tumbling hack
swerving through the hall, no swift horse
pawing the courtyard. Pillage and slaughter
have emptied the earth of entire peoples.
This backwards-looking scenario is evoked at the end of the book, as Beowulf's survivors imagine what will happen to their own kingdom without their warrior leader to protect them and keep peace with their longtime enemies.
Two or three times Heaney inserted a Latinate word that startled me or didn't seem quite right for the language, even though its meaning was clearly best for the line, its consonants and vowels fit with those that surrounded it. I was amused to read in his acknowledgments at the end that the Saxon-Latin diction conflict was one Heaney spent some time pondering in academic circles as he worked on his translation....less
bookshelves:
literature,
old-english
Read in May, 2008
I teach Beowulf in my honors class, and it's a tale I've always loved. There's something about the raw power, the direct yet engaging storyline, the rhythm and tone of the story that draws the reader (or, ideally, the listener) into another world. The social conventions, alien in many ways to our modern mindset, show a world both brutal and honorable, where death and heroism go side-by-side, where every act has consequence and there is no expectation of joy and happiness—these thing...more
I teach Beowulf in my honors class, and it's a tale I've always loved. There's something about the raw power, the direct yet engaging storyline, the rhythm and tone of the story that draws the reader (or, ideally, the listener) into another world. The social conventions, alien in many ways to our modern mindset, show a world both brutal and honorable, where death and heroism go side-by-side, where every act has consequence and there is no expectation of joy and happiness—these things have to be wrested from existence and are of short duration. And the interplay of the original Pagan story and the Christian elements brought in by our monastic narrator show the tension of a people wrestling with their old beliefs and how to reconcile them with the new. The startling use of language and poetic diction make this a masterpiece of English literature.
I've read a dozen translations (and even done my own crude one); each of them has different aspects to recommend it. Heaney's strength is in his poetic voice—he's done an amazing job of preserving the rhythms and alliterations so crucial to the format of the original verse and updated it without being so modern as to lose the flavor of the original. He uses some archaic terms and those of his Celtic ancestors, which work well and do not mar the understanding of readers new to the text. Best of all, this is a parallel translation, with the original Old English on the verso pages.
My only quibbles have to do with some of Heaney's word choices. There are debates within the literary community about the nature of the monsters (and the heroes) in the poem, and Heaney takes a pretty hard line, translating some phrases and terms in ways that make his choices seem unavoidable (but which are not always supported in the original). Innocent phrases like "wight" and "spirit" are sometimes glossed as "demon" or "specter," and we lose the sense of some of the wonderful Old English kennings, like the description of Grendel as a mearcstapa, "walker on the borders."
Overall, a really fine translation. (And since it's been immortalized in The Norton Anthology and all Norton's student editions, it will be the version most everyone knows for the foreseeable future.)...less
recommends it for:
Any fan of fiction and/or poetry!
OK, so there is absolutely nothing to say about this that hasn't been said before, but I do want to mention my preference for the Seamus Heaney translation. I have read two other translations and they are sorely lacking in making you feel that this is a song, a bardic epic celebration of a way of life that is passing from the world. Indeed, one could argue that the Beowulf poet has been able to glimpse into the future and see that brute strength and courage under duress would never be as impor...more
OK, so there is absolutely nothing to say about this that hasn't been said before, but I do want to mention my preference for the Seamus Heaney translation. I have read two other translations and they are sorely lacking in making you feel that this is a song, a bardic epic celebration of a way of life that is passing from the world. Indeed, one could argue that the Beowulf poet has been able to glimpse into the future and see that brute strength and courage under duress would never be as important in the scheme of things as they were up to that point in history. When you read about the bloody conflict resolution described in this book you will see what I am talking about. Though of course war and hellacious indecency still exist on our planet it is seen as wrong by all rational beings and is continually becoming a thing that we brush under the rug so as not to embarrass ourselves. Of course, all that anger and frustration has to go somewhere and though there have been many developments in finding means to positively express this energy, they are not available on a global scale and I worry that it is far more likely that we will exert our negativity on some poor defenseless outside body before we learn to completely accept and peacefully deal with the dark side of humanity.
Oh, and by the way, if you are at all a fan of any kind of fantasy or mythology this is beyond required reading. Everything Western (and even Western influenced cultures) you have touched before has been heavily influence by this text, just as there is no escaping Grendel's bloody machinations, there is no escaping this poem in the world of cultural studies!...less
bookshelves:
classics
Read in September, 2005
I don't know what it was about 2005, or perhaps living in Manila, that sent me on an epic-poetry jag -- but something did, and that was the year I finally read the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Beowulf, all in superb, direct, forceful translations (Fagels for the first two, Heaney for Beowulf). I re-read it about two months ago, prompted by my sense of revulsion at the ads for the film adaptation that greeted me at the bus stop every day (I think it was Angelina Jolie's high-heeled hooves that pushed...more
I don't know what it was about 2005, or perhaps living in Manila, that sent me on an epic-poetry jag -- but something did, and that was the year I finally read the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Beowulf, all in superb, direct, forceful translations (Fagels for the first two, Heaney for Beowulf). I re-read it about two months ago, prompted by my sense of revulsion at the ads for the film adaptation that greeted me at the bus stop every day (I think it was Angelina Jolie's high-heeled hooves that pushed me over the edge). Like Fagels's translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Heaney's translation here just sings, and the dead poem of English majors' nightmares comes alive. Beowulf's funeral is probably the place where Heaney is at his finest, but what I really loved were the many passages of Beowulf's bad-ass boasting; if there had to have been a Beowulf movie, these passages convinced me that Sam Raimi should have directed, with Bruce Campbell in the lead.
In the end, however, it's still Beowulf -- a poem whose narrative flow will seem decidedly odd to a modern reader and whose major project is in weird ways similar to Christian rock music: selling and/or reaffirming Christian faith through an unlikely genre as a means of appealing to an audience whose commitment to the faith may be a bit shallow. My rating notwithstanding, I'm not sure I actually like the poem -- but I do find it fascinating, which is more than I can say for most of what I read. ...less
Read in September, 2007
So, somehow I made it through college as an English major without ever reading Beowulf. Then I heard that there was a new modern-English translation of it that was highly readable and enjoyable. I picked it up the other day and found it hard to put down until I'd finished it.
The story of Beowulf, a kind of Herculean figure of medieval Scandinavia, and his encounters with three monsters, sucked me in. I see why it's been chosen as the basis for an upcoming movie. I also discovered that,...more
So, somehow I made it through college as an English major without ever reading Beowulf. Then I heard that there was a new modern-English translation of it that was highly readable and enjoyable. I picked it up the other day and found it hard to put down until I'd finished it.
The story of Beowulf, a kind of Herculean figure of medieval Scandinavia, and his encounters with three monsters, sucked me in. I see why it's been chosen as the basis for an upcoming movie. I also discovered that, despite its strangeness (you feel throughout that you are immersed in a completely foreign world and culture) there is a lot of familiarity in it. I saw many parallels to contemporary works I enjoy, including Crichton's Eaters of the Dead (made into a just okay film, The 13th Warrior) and especially to Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. In addition to similarity of culture and language, there's even a scene that involves the theft of a cup from a dragon's lair. I suppose this makes sense since Tolkien wrote an influential work on Beowulf.
The story was occasionally confusing, but helped by useful one-sentence summaries in the margins. Mostly, though, it was an engaging story.
One last note: the translator's introduction was very helpful in understanding places and themes, but if you want to be at all surprised by what happens in the story, don't read it until after you've finished the book.
Wow. My longest review ever. If you're interested enough to read all of this maybe you should just get the book....less
bookshelves:
poetry
Seems fitting that Heaney, from within the schism of Northern Ireland, should provide this modern rendering. No idea how faithful he sticks to the original, but the power of Heaney’s version is unmistakable. Reading it is like learning English fresh. Much is made these days of the creative way English has absorbed words from other languages and from new technologies, so it is great to see the way Heaney has captured the elemental form of the Old English and Old Norse. The power of short single...more
Seems fitting that Heaney, from within the schism of Northern Ireland, should provide this modern rendering. No idea how faithful he sticks to the original, but the power of Heaney’s version is unmistakable. Reading it is like learning English fresh. Much is made these days of the creative way English has absorbed words from other languages and from new technologies, so it is great to see the way Heaney has captured the elemental form of the Old English and Old Norse. The power of short single syllable words. It’s a dictionary of simple nouns and verbs, and a model showing how to use them to describe. I love the alliteration, the stresses, the use of compound nouns, and the grounding of every sentence. It’s stunning how different the Old English is in appearance from modern English. In his introduction Heaney talks about how one word used by his aunt grounded him to the language of the original. I found one too: in line 1384 there is this “bearn Ecgpeowes” which Heaney translates as “son of Ecgtheow.” The Scots say “bairn” for baby (often using the redundant phrase “wee bairn” ) and prior to seeing this line in the poem I had already titled a story “No’ Barren, Bairn” that also punned on bearing. Thus seeing “bearn” immediately connected me all the way back to the original. The audio version, with Heaney reading, is off the charts. Skip the iPod. Listen to it through a Bose. In a dark room. Awesome....less
bookshelves:
beowulf,
classics,
epic,
fantasy
I’m not going to do a full on review here for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s Beowulf. It’s an epic poem that’s survived for a thousand years, and will probably survive a thousand more. If you like epic poems (and I do), it’s good. If you don’t, then you won’t like Beowulf either. That’s about all I have to say on that.
The version of Beowulf, specifically, is new translation done by Seamus Heaney. It’s a nice translation. It reads well. I can’t read Ol...more
I’m not going to do a full on review here for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s Beowulf. It’s an epic poem that’s survived for a thousand years, and will probably survive a thousand more. If you like epic poems (and I do), it’s good. If you don’t, then you won’t like Beowulf either. That’s about all I have to say on that.
The version of Beowulf, specifically, is new translation done by Seamus Heaney. It’s a nice translation. It reads well. I can’t read Old English, so I have no idea if it’s a good translation or not. Poeghostal tells me that a different version is more faithful to the original wording. So be it. This one reads fine. The book actually gives you the original Old English side-by-side with the translation, so if you could compare them, if you know the language. Even if you don’t, it’s neat to be able to make the comparisons, and see if you can pick out certain words.
Me? I love epic poems. Iliad, Odyssey, Aenid, Beowulf, Paradise Lost…I love ‘em. I love epic heroes, I love the language, the style, the whole bit. And Beowulf taps into my generic Viking love, so I love it even more. It’s a great story, and Heaney’s version, while it might not be completely accurate, is a pleasure to read. Definitely worth the look.
And that’s all I’ve got to say about that....less
bookshelves:
poetry
Read in May, 2003
Can't really say enough about this one. This short epic is too big for it's pages. The way the narrative folds, twists, and forks, it just can't be described, it has to be read. Well, I've re-read it 8 or 10 times now, and it just keeps getting better and better. There's a reason this is one of the foundation works of Western literature. And Seamus Heaney was uniquely positioned to retranslate it, as he demonstrates in the short, pithy introduction.
This book can be described with those tw...more
Can't really say enough about this one. This short epic is too big for it's pages. The way the narrative folds, twists, and forks, it just can't be described, it has to be read. Well, I've re-read it 8 or 10 times now, and it just keeps getting better and better. There's a reason this is one of the foundation works of Western literature. And Seamus Heaney was uniquely positioned to retranslate it, as he demonstrates in the short, pithy introduction.
This book can be described with those two words: Short, pithy.
Heaney's word choices are utterly precise and perfectly rhythmic. Much has already been written about this translation, and I doubt I can add much.
I enjoy my British Faber and Faber edition of the book, whose cover was done by the great design house, Pentagram. In the cover painting a bloody red light shines out from black field. Here's a link to the edition.
...less
Read in September, 2007
I don't agree with a certain BEOWULF scholar, who said "it's what you get from a drunken Irish poet," because (annoying Irish stereotype aside) Heaney's version has gorgeous poetic passages, especially the description of Grendel's mother's mere and Beowulf's funeral. Also, Heaney preserved the aspects of the epic - the connections between Christian concepts of evil and nature, paganism, and the feminine - in which I remain most interested. However, the version which I recently taught, ...more
I don't agree with a certain BEOWULF scholar, who said "it's what you get from a drunken Irish poet," because (annoying Irish stereotype aside) Heaney's version has gorgeous poetic passages, especially the description of Grendel's mother's mere and Beowulf's funeral. Also, Heaney preserved the aspects of the epic - the connections between Christian concepts of evil and nature, paganism, and the feminine - in which I remain most interested. However, the version which I recently taught, commissioned by and published in the Norton anthology, omits the original Old English, and I had to supplement it a great deal with external texts in order to do the work justice. It's very difficult to teach the literary techniques and style of the original, when the translation takes so much liberty. In other words, although Heaney's translation is quite beautiful and accessible, I wonder how long it will survive as the version taught in literature survey courses. I'm not sure the version I read as an undergraduate was so "obscure," as Heaney claims in his introduction, as to require such massive renovation....less
Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
geats
Oh, this was wonderful. I wish I owned this book, I love its cover....
And I've learned now from posters in the subway that they've finally made a movie! Only I am a little confused. Angelina Jolie (is that Angelina Jolie?) is way too skinny and pretty to play Grendel's mother, even by Hollywood's standards, and I don't remember any other important female characters in this. So I'm a little confused about that....
Well, the sad thing about just seeing the movie is that you'll miss out on M...more
Oh, this was wonderful. I wish I owned this book, I love its cover....
And I've learned now from posters in the subway that they've finally made a movie! Only I am a little confused. Angelina Jolie (is that Angelina Jolie?) is way too skinny and pretty to play Grendel's mother, even by Hollywood's standards, and I don't remember any other important female characters in this. So I'm a little confused about that....
Well, the sad thing about just seeing the movie is that you'll miss out on Mr. Heany's great translation -- okay, you can't say something's a great translation if it's the only translation you've read, so I take that back. Anyway, this is a good winter read. When the weather gets dismal, you can kind of hunker down in your great stony fire-lit hall with a big jug of mead, and it's nice because in addition to being an enormously fun read, you get to be all, "Sweet! I'm reading Beowulf!" which makes you sound way fancier than if you were, say, watching Lord of the Rings on DVD, which I'd find about a thousand times more boring than reading this, truth be told....less
Read in June, 2008
Monster ravages a land; great warrior from another land, Beowulf, arrives to kill it, and does. Irked at her son's death, mother of recently deceased goes on rampage, and is also killed by Beowulf. Thanks are given, gifts are exchanged, and hero returns to his own land, and rules well for fifty years until a dragon complicates the situation. Beowulf kills the dragon, but dies from his wounds. Centuries later the dead return to life to struggle anew in crappy 3D cartoon movie.
The monster Gren...more
Monster ravages a land; great warrior from another land, Beowulf, arrives to kill it, and does. Irked at her son's death, mother of recently deceased goes on rampage, and is also killed by Beowulf. Thanks are given, gifts are exchanged, and hero returns to his own land, and rules well for fifty years until a dragon complicates the situation. Beowulf kills the dragon, but dies from his wounds. Centuries later the dead return to life to struggle anew in crappy 3D cartoon movie.
The monster Grendel did a Beowulf a service, the mizzle of his blood allowed the victor a brief footing with the inevitability of death; all three monsters were death coffered in flesh, manifest adversaries preferable to the slow tick of time into the grave. Were that the evils that beset our world today so kind as to easily admit the competition of men, allow defeat. And if there be such opportunity, what blade might hold steadfast against them, what webbing of chain would thwart their attack?
I gotta admit the poem made me think of a simpler time when a hammer to the head could settle a score....less
Read in January, 2008
This poem is awesome (in the traditional sense of the word) only because it is sooooo old. I read it for 2 reasons: A) I've been trying to interject classic books that are commonly referenced into by repertoire and B) I wanted to read a book called Grendel that has been sitting on our bookshelf for years but thought I might miss the joke if I didn't first read Beowulf.
Overall, it was a little bit of a tedious read. It skipped around a lot between family lineage and the actual story ...more
This poem is awesome (in the traditional sense of the word) only because it is sooooo old. I read it for 2 reasons: A) I've been trying to interject classic books that are commonly referenced into by repertoire and B) I wanted to read a book called Grendel that has been sitting on our bookshelf for years but thought I might miss the joke if I didn't first read Beowulf.
Overall, it was a little bit of a tedious read. It skipped around a lot between family lineage and the actual story of Grendel the monster and the story was hard to follow sometimes. Either major parts of the story were lost when the original was burned OR the idea of holes in the plot never occurred to people in the 11th-12th century(?somewhere in that time frame, I can't remember). All I can say is thank goodness for footnotes and a family tree or reading it may have been a complete loss. ...less
recommended to Spahnie by:
Me, Myself, and I
recommends it for:
They who are intimidated not by literary works that nobody knows the author of
First of all, that anyone can call this a poem is beyond me. A 3185 line poem is a BOOK. And whoever wrote this was either very, very insane, very, very imaginational, or very, very gifted. And we don't even know who they are. They've been dead over 1000 years, buried under the dirt somewhere in the UK, and somehow their little tale's managed to stay very alive. Were they not a corpse, they'd be very wealthy. Obviously this a legend/folktale/song, or is it? That's why it's easy to enjoy t...more
First of all, that anyone can call this a poem is beyond me. A 3185 line poem is a BOOK. And whoever wrote this was either very, very insane, very, very imaginational, or very, very gifted. And we don't even know who they are. They've been dead over 1000 years, buried under the dirt somewhere in the UK, and somehow their little tale's managed to stay very alive. Were they not a corpse, they'd be very wealthy. Obviously this a legend/folktale/song, or is it? That's why it's easy to enjoy this if you put your mind to it. It's only 100-some pages and it doesn't have any "doth" and "thine" and "thou" and "dost" and "nay" and "mayhap" or any other Old English monstrosities (and if it does, they're rarely used). I'm not sure if we have to read it for high school. I don't think so, anyway, so that's why I read it now. Overall, it's very entertaining, but make sure you either pay really good attention to it or know the main premise of the story before you read. Get out there and go slay a monster. Do a good deed....less
bookshelves:
2001,
classics-corner,
trgbc
Read in July, 2001
Loved this after reading it twice in a row with CC on CR. Discussion linked below.
http://www.constantreader.com/...
Monday, July 02, 2001 11:54 AM
Well, Beowulf is done and I'm on to Grendel and I have to
say I'm waiting for the CR "experts" on Beowulf to tell me
what I just read and why Heaney's translation is so
marvelous and in comparison to what is this translation so
much i...more
Loved this after reading it twice in a row with CC on CR. Discussion linked below.
http://www.constantreader.com/...
Monday, July 02, 2001 11:54 AM
Well, Beowulf is done and I'm on to Grendel and I have to
say I'm waiting for the CR "experts" on Beowulf to tell me
what I just read and why Heaney's translation is so
marvelous and in comparison to what is this translation so
much improved and -- well, you can see I have a lot of
questions! {G} Maybe I'm just not very WITH it here -- but
old Beowulf left me "prettige verdomde koud" -- hope
someone can 'splain it so I warm up just a little bit!
Now Grendel!! Heh -- I'm laughing out loud and the blurb on
the home page says something about it being sad and
beautiful -- maybe I haven't got to the sad parts -- anyway I
find myself liking this old monster a LOT -- uh-oh -- isn't
Beowulf the great hero of ancient time and Grendel his
enemy? -- I may be in really deep trouble this time. Gulp.
...less
Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
myth/hero nerds
This is a very well translated, or perhaps I should say modernized, version of the classic heroic story. Heaney's writing shows his poetic sensibilities without straying from the original story's intent--which you can check if you care to slog through the original, early english version, which is provided alongside Heaney's text. The original wording is nice to have not only for the language freaks amongst us, but also because it gives you an opportunity to read it out loud and hear the sound ...more
This is a very well translated, or perhaps I should say modernized, version of the classic heroic story. Heaney's writing shows his poetic sensibilities without straying from the original story's intent--which you can check if you care to slog through the original, early english version, which is provided alongside Heaney's text. The original wording is nice to have not only for the language freaks amongst us, but also because it gives you an opportunity to read it out loud and hear the sound of the original narrative, the harsh rocky tones of English's Germanic roots.
The story itself will probably not thrill those who are not into fantastical heroic stories, and it does lack a lot of the conventions of a modern text. However, it is of interest because of its historical significance.
Note: Michael Crichton's "Eaters of the Dead" (which was the basis for The 13th. Warrior) is a good place to look if you want a more modernly accessible novel based loosely on the story of Beowulf....less
Read in November, 2007
I must not have read this poem before, because I think I would have remembered Beowulf taking on Grendel barehanded, and holding the beast so tightly that he rips off its arm. Nice! If that doesn't qualify you for the Badass Hall of Fame, I don't know what does. But the best part comes at the end, 50 years later, when our hero, long past his prime, faces one final battle against the dragon. When his sword fails him for the first time in his life ... what a scene. And I love that he couldn't have...more
I must not have read this poem before, because I think I would have remembered Beowulf taking on Grendel barehanded, and holding the beast so tightly that he rips off its arm. Nice! If that doesn't qualify you for the Badass Hall of Fame, I don't know what does. But the best part comes at the end, 50 years later, when our hero, long past his prime, faces one final battle against the dragon. When his sword fails him for the first time in his life ... what a scene. And I love that he couldn't have killed the dragon without help from Wiglaf, the only one of his soldiers who didn't run away in fear. While the Geats have lost their king, and there's an uncomfortable sense that enemies are ready to pounce, Wiglaf makes you hope that the world will still have heroes, even if they can't measure up to Beowulf.
Being a bit rusty on my old English, I can't possibly comment on the faithfulness of Heaney's translation. But this is an adrenaline-pumping read, with moments of real grace....less
Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone
I've read this book many times with pleasure, and I'm re-reading it again before the movie comes out, hopefully aloud with Maureen over some mead at Tornado ;) time permitting. I'll add more review later, but for now, I'll let it suffice to say that Beowulf was one of my main motivations for becoming an English major.
c.
(later)
Re-reading it this time around, I noticed particularly how the many references to God seem out of place in the grand scheme of things. I remember from classes ...more
I've read this book many times with pleasure, and I'm re-reading it again before the movie comes out, hopefully aloud with Maureen over some mead at Tornado ;) time permitting. I'll add more review later, but for now, I'll let it suffice to say that Beowulf was one of my main motivations for becoming an English major.
c.
(later)
Re-reading it this time around, I noticed particularly how the many references to God seem out of place in the grand scheme of things. I remember from classes in the past that the religious theme was one that was supposedly added to a pagan story by the Christians who were trying to bring Christianity to the pagans; by altering their existing hero tales to include the lord, they made religion more palatable. This never stood out as much before as it does now, but that's probably based upon where I'm at in life at the mo'; when I was 19-22 I warmed to the heroic archetypal themes.
...less
book data (includes all editions)
avg rating
(all editions):
3.50 (7057 ratings)
avg rating
(this edition): 4.25
(8 ratings)
number of reviews: 631
other editions
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Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Paperback)
isbn: 0393320979
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Beowulf (Signet Classics (Paperback))
isbn: 0451527402
