false 52357 98 In <I>Beowulf</I> warriors must back up their mead-hall boasts with instant action, monsters abound, and fights are always to the death. The Anglo-Saxon epic, composed between the 7th and 10th centuries, has long been accorded its place in literature, though its hold on our imagination has been less secure. In the introduction to his translation, Seamus Heaney argues that <I>Beowulf</I>'s role as a required text for many English students obscured its mysteries and "mythic potency." Now, thanks to the Irish poet's marvelous recreation (in both senses of the word) under Alfred David's watch, this dark, doom-ridden work gets its day in the sun. <p> There are endless pleasures in Heaney's analysis, but readers should head straight for the poem and <I>then</I> to the prose. (Some will also take advantage of the dual-language edition and do some linguistic teasing out of their own.) The epic's outlines seem simple, depicting Beowulf's three key battles with the scaliest brutes in all of art: Grendel, Grendel's mother (who's in a suitably monstrous snit after her son's dismemberment and death), and then, 50 years later, a gold-hoarding dragon "threatening the night sky / with streamers of fire." Along the way, however, we are treated to flashes back and forward and to a world view in which a thane's allegiance to his lord and to God is absolute. In the first fight, the man from Geatland must travel to Denmark to take on the "shadow-stalker" terrorizing Heorot Hall. Here Beowulf and company set sail: <blockquote> Men climbed eagerly up the gangplank,<br> sand churned in the surf, warriors loaded<br> a cargo of weapons, shining war-gear<br> in the vessel's hold, then heaved out,<br> away with a will in their wood-wreathed ship.<br> Over the waves, with the wind behind her<br> and foam at her neck, she flew like a bird... </blockquote> After a fearsome night victory over march-haunting and heath-marauding Grendel, our high-born hero is suitably strewn with gold and praise, the queen declaring: "Your sway is wide as the wind's home, / as the sea around cliffs." Few will disagree. And remember, Beowulf has two more trials to undergo.<p> Heaney claims that when he began his translation it all too often seemed "like trying to bring down a megalith with a toy hammer." The poem's challenges are many: its strong four-stress line, heavy alliteration, and profusion of kennings could have been daunting. (The sea is, among other things, "the whale-road," the sun is "the world's candle," and Beowulf's third opponent is a "vile sky-winger." When it came to over-the-top compound phrases, the temptations must have been endless, but for the most part, Heaney smiles, he "called a sword a sword.") Yet there are few signs of effort in the poet's Englishing. Heaney varies his lines with ease, offering up stirring dialogue, action, and description while not stinting on the epic's mix of fate and fear. After Grendel's misbegotten mother comes to call, the king's evocation of her haunted home may strike dread into the hearts of men and beasts, but it's a gift to the reader: <blockquote> A few miles from here<br> a frost-stiffened wood waits and keeps watch<br> above a mere; the overhanging bank<br> is a maze of tree-roots mirrored in its surface.<br> At night there, something uncanny happens:<br> the water burns. And the mere bottom<br> has never been sounded by the sons of men.<br> On its bank, the heather-stepper halts:<br> the hart in flight from pursuing hounds<br> will turn to face them with firm-set horns<br> and die in the wood rather than dive<br> beneath its surface. That is no good place. </blockquote> In Heaney's hands, the poem's apparent archaisms and Anglo-Saxon attitudes--its formality, blood-feuds, and insane courage--turn the art of an ancient island nation into world literature. <I>--Kerry Fried</I> 189503 book 1000 Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Bilingual Edition) total:17214|5:3468|4:4841|3:5167|2:2514|1:1224| 17214 58457 20804 1227 4 11 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Fri Jun 29 17:08:38 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 29 17:11:06 -0700 2007 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 ...more...]]> 1 7 false false Mon Jul 02 09:58:30 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 03 01:25:42 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 8 false false Tue May 20 19:42:47 -0700 2008 Fri Jan 04 09:23:30 -0800 2008 Tue May 20 19:42:47 -0700 2008 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 mo...more...]]> 3 7 false false Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Thu May 24 19:47:42 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 18 13:05:34 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 5 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Fri Nov 02 11:19:45 -0700 2007 Thu Mar 06 23:20:56 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1 2 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 02 10:54:39 -0800 2007 Sun Mar 02 17:21:53 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 3 false false Thu Jun 14 18:51:20 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 14 18:52:07 -0700 2007 more astonishing if you read it aloud in a valley girl voice. ("So. The Spear-Danes? Like, in days gone by?")

On a more serious note, I love Heaney's theory of the Irish as the cold and rejected Grendel prowling outside the warm fires of England's Her...more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue May 20 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Sat May 03 23:39:07 -0700 2008 Sat May 03 23:54:07 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Sun Jan 27 03:19:38 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 01 17:27:27 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 02 10:45:48 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 06 20:10:05 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 23 21:19:11 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 25 15:07:41 -0700 2007
The stor...more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 08 07:27:25 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 08 07:27:32 -0700 2007
As a function of its age--but also, I think, of its literary genius--the poem...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Nov 10 00:00:00 -0800 1993 Mon Feb 25 19:51:47 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 30 09:34:43 -0700 2009
Chickering's translation is likely not for the average reader. He reproduces the blunt, epic style of the original in a way that is faithful to the...more...]]> 5 1 true false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Thu Jun 28 20:54:13 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 03 19:39:34 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 22 11:18:22 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 15 11:06:38 -0700 2008 What a big joke. At least modern greek is a continuation ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Feb 01 14:18:45 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 01 14:22:50 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 18 10:10:03 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 25 13:25:45 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 20:39:43 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 20:45:37 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 23 10:10:05 -0700 2007 Sat Nov 10 14:29:47 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997 Sat Oct 06 18:26:32 -0700 2007 Sat Nov 10 14:09:28 -0800 2007
According to the book I am holding in my and and cross reverenced with the isbn number and title I can tell you that this...more...]]>