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Beowulf

by Unknown, R.K. Gordon (Translator)

3.31 · rating details · 48,920 ratings · 2,142 reviews

Finest heroic poem in Old English celebrates character and exploits of Beowulf, a young nobleman of the Geats, a people of southern Sweden. Narrative combines mythical elements, Christian and pagan sensibilities, actual historical figures and events to create a striking work of great power and beauty. Genealogies.

Paperback, 64 pages

Published September 30th 1992 by Dover Publications (first published 900)

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Jun 29, 2007

Seth Hahne rated it

· review of another edition

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...moreI'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)

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Jul 21, 2010

Michael rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: quote-unquote-classics, poetry, olden-moldies, meta-reviews, reviews-with-the-most-votes

*bum bum* IN A WORLD . . . *bum bum* . . . FULL OF NASTY MONSTERS . . . *bum bum* . . . WHO EAT PEOPLE AND BREAK INTO CASTLES . . . *bum bum* . . . THE BEASTLY GRENDEL LURKED LONG OVER THE MOORES . . . *bum bum* . . . BUT NOW . . . *Cut to scene of monster ripping someone's face off with his teeth*

(silence. black screen.)

*Unknown warriors approaching*

"Who are ye, then, ye armed men,
mailed folk, that yon mighty vessel
have urged thus over the...more

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Jul 18, 2007

Keely rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: epic-poetry, poetry, reviewed, uk-and-ireland

There are different ways to translate, and it comes down to what you want to get across. Most creative authors have such a strong voice and sense of story that they will overwhelm the original author. As Bentley wrote of Pope's Iliad: "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer".

Sometimes this sort of indirect translation is useful in itself, such as during the transition of the Renaissance from Italy to Britain. Many of the British poets rewrote Italian ...moreThere are different ways to translate, and it comes down to what you want to get across. Most creative authors have such a strong voice and sense of story that they will overwhelm the original author. As Bentley wrote of Pope's Iliad: "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer".

Sometimes this sort of indirect translation is useful in itself, 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 is just this sort of translation, capturing the excitement and passion of the story, but obliterating the details which make the work interesting to students of history or literary theory.

Heaney's translation is a fun, rollicking epic, able to draw in even uninitiated students, which is no doubt why it is now included in Norton. Unfortunately, it is not a particularly useful tool for teaching the importance of the original work. Heaney severs many connections to the unique world of Beowulf.

As the only surviving epic from its time, place, and tradition, Beowulf is a unique vision into a pre-Christian culture outside of the Mediterranean. Though the poem shows Christian revisions, these stand out in stark contrast to the rest of the work, and can usually be easily excised, unlike many pervasive Christian impositions on the 'pagan' cultures.

Heaney is not a philologist nor a historian, but a popular poet. He doesn't have the background for conscientious translation, and the clearest sign that his translation is haphazard is the fact that there are no footnotes explaining the difficult decisions that most translators have to make in every line. Heaney also loses much of the alliteration and appositives that marked the artistry of the original.

A Beowulf that can exist without context is a Beowulf that has well and truly been separated from its past. Perhaps his translation is suitable for an introduction to the work, but a good professor should be able to teach the original without much difficulty.

Then again, perhaps the inclusion of this version in college classes has to do with the fact that college is no longer the path for scholars, but has been given the same equality treatment as art and poetry. College is now meant for your average, half-literate frat boy who only wants a BA so he can be a mid-level retail manager.

Heaney's translation certainly suits for them, since it is the easiest version of the story this side of a digital Angelina. It's fun and exciting, certainly worth a read, but doesn't stand up as a translation.(less)

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Jul 03, 2007

AJ Griffin rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: assholes, dickless pieces of shit, dumbfucks, douchebags

If I wrote a list of things I don't give a shit about, I'm pretty sure "some big fucking monster whose name sounds like a word for the area between my balls and my ass that attacks alcoholics and is eventually slain by some asshole, told entirely in some ancient form of English that I don't understand" would be near the top (for the record, run-on sentences would not. Judge not).

This was one of the first books I was ever assigned to read in high school, and I'm pretty sure ...more

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Jul 31, 2011

Ceridwen rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Ceridwen by: Ms. Levin

Shelves: rule-britannia, sexy-nihilists, poetry

I was recently in a bookstore – gasp, right? Who does that? - and I exclaimed aloud, “Who doesn't love Beowulf?” (This wasn't apropos of nothing; I was considering whether to buy Grendel.) The lovely be-tattooed college student clerk who was sort of eavesdropping and talking to us while we went about exclaiming about this and that – who also ranked all the Austen books in order of his enjoyment, boldly listing Pride and Prejudice as number three – was like, I don't. I was aghast, which is funny....moreI was recently in a bookstore – gasp, right? Who does that? - and I exclaimed aloud, “Who doesn't love Beowulf?” (This wasn't apropos of nothing; I was considering whether to buy Grendel.) The lovely be-tattooed college student clerk who was sort of eavesdropping and talking to us while we went about exclaiming about this and that – who also ranked all the Austen books in order of his enjoyment, boldly listing Pride and Prejudice as number three – was like, I don't. I was aghast, which is funny. I mean, of course people don't love things I love. But I love Beowulf with such a weird fervor that it hadn't even occurred to me that others don't.

When I was in the fifth grade, my teacher read us some kiddie version of Beowulf. We were young enough still to have story-time, the teacher reading out a chapter at a time of Where the Red Fern Grows - holy cow, the weeping with that one - but old enough to start trying to be cool, impossible though that is with a perm and neon socks. We were all astonishment, this bragging badass ripping off the arm of a monster and beating him to death with it. I know, now, that Big Bad B didn't beat Grendel to death with his own arm, but that's the way we took it. It was this refreshing bit of violence, this wonderful monster, so much easier to kill than the discomfort we felt and lived, the squirming adolescence we were similarly entranced by in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. You can't kill your own impending period, much as you want to, conferring in the girls' bathroom when one of us was struck down, bleeding.

I read it again in some dreary text book in the 8th grade, I think in a mythology class where we were treated to some of the most bloodless recounting of the savage, bitchy gossip-mongerings of the Greeks, Romans, and hearth-bound heathens. Anwatin Junior High, you fucked that up good. I knew Beowulf was still awesome, I just had to compare all that boring genealogy that was Greek mythology in the text book to the D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths my folks had furnished for me. But then, a few years back, Heaney translated Beowulf again, and I found in it all that shield-beating, clothes-horsing, Germanic-compound-wording that I love so very much.

But, backing up, I think we need to come up with a term for translations when the language being translated from is a dead one. I can't really join in this kind of conversation, because I am a dreadful monoglot, but I think it's interesting to consider who makes better translators – people who are native to the one being translated from, or people who are native to the one being translated to. (And, I'm sure there are ones who are native speakers of both, and that's its own riddle.) Anyway, translations from the dead tongues are always going to be the one way, and, moreover, no one really speaks a dead language, even if they do, because there is no way to correct the accent, no one to explain the obscure puns.

So, I have no idea whether Heaney's translation is any good, and I don't think anyone else can tell that either. Sure, I've heard some stuff about how it's not as precise as other translations, or that the Irish boast style is completely opposite to the Anglo-Saxon boast style, which may absolutely be right, but I love this translation for completely weird to me ideas about English that are super half-baked. My ideas about English, let me show you them. So, you know, the Normans invaded England in 1066 - a date I was ordered to learn by an asshole history teacher who affected a British accent, God rest his sherried bones - bringing into English this Latinate overlay. By the 12th (or possibly 13th) century, there is the Great Vowel Mutation, one of the best named events in linguistics ever. (And this is why you can read The Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English and sort of get the gist, while things like Beowulf are totally in a foreign language – Canterbury Tales was written after the Great Vowel Mutation, and after rhyme had been planted in the alliterative verse poetic garden of the Anglo-Saxons, and taken over like kudzu.) Anglo-Saxon skooched over on the couch, and the Latinate took over the tv remote, and the vocabulary of English doubled. Because the Frankish language of the invaders was the language of power, Frankish words are the ones that continue to be the higher ones, the ones understood to be better. You've got mansion, from the Romance languages, and house, from the Germanic. Which one would you rather live in? There's a doubling of all kinds of terms, high/low, the most obvious ones for the body and its functions. Piss/urinate, shit/feces, fuck/copulate etc. I realize now that some of this is Greek, but fuck off, the Greeks were the fancy for the Romans.) (And that, again, blows my mind, all this embedding of historical cultural supremacy in the language itself. Whoa, I just freaked myself out.)

Anyway, I think Heaney nails something in his translation that speaks to the part of my English-speaking brain that is the invaded Anglo-Saxon, in her ill-lit mead-hall, beset by monsters and the French. I want to say something about the narrator of this work, that anonymous monk, who pops in from time to time to break it down, hit the unwanted Tolkienesque aside of poetry, chide us, or talk smack, but then I don't really think he'd appreciate it if I started droning about the narrator. I love him though; he's funny as hell. The story itself is told so oddly, with an Imma tell you what Imma do, then Imma do it, then Imma tell you what I done did construction which, you know, is a little hammy. I'm not sure how to put this, but I kept thinking about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight when I read this, because that has this strange attentiveness to describing food, and Beowulf has a similar attentiveness to describing weaponry. (Gawain also describes clothes, but so much more sensually. The silk underpants of Gawain are particularly noted, if I'm remembering correctly.) I want to make a joke about British cuisine here, but you have to fill it in yourself. Something about the French invading with sauces, and being completely beat down by the boiled vegetables? Whatever. You know.

So, here I am, second read through, and this Beowulf is still wonderful. I read in a cabin, on a porch in the moth-battered light. The last trip up, my mother watched a bear lumbering through the yard, and told us, and we told our children, who thrilled with idea of the beast outside the light our habitation throws. They worried, and we soothed their worries, but the monster still thrills. I love that Beowulf ends on a sour note, Wyglaf prophesying doom, and the narrator backing that prophesy with the help of narrative hindsight. I love the weird, fatalistic Christianity. I named my cat Grendel; this was probably a mistake.
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May 20, 2008

Michael rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: old-english, literature

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 ...moreI 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)

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Sep 15, 2010

Alex Telander rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2000, books-read-in-2009

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...moreBEOWULF: 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.

For more reviews, and author interviews, go to BookBanter.(less)

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Sep 15, 2008

Greg rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

Yeah, yeah it's a 'classic' of literature and all that but what would make this better is if a movie was made of it with some big name talented actors reduced to playing second string to some crappy CGI, now that would be entertaining!!

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Nov 05, 2011

Steve rated it

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Shelves: sagas, 2d-readings-the-good-stuff, poetry

I've read this multiple times. One of the true, original bad asses. 6 stars.

OK. Very briefly (in part because I've been very busy), the Heaney version is THE version to read if you're looking for accessibility. Who would of ever thought that such a rough and tumble read would come out so smooth? And from a poet who is all knots, rough rhythms, and peat moss. But it is. What I particularly liked were the various important speeches. Clarity is key with this version, but with ...more

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Jun 14, 2007

Trin rated it

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Shelves: poetry, classics

This epic poem becomes even 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 Herot. Who doesn't sometimes feel like the exiles of the world?

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Aug 08, 2007

Meredith rated it

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Beowulf, "the earliest extant heroic poem in any modern European language," has survived since its composition in the early 900s. (To be honest, some scholars do date it as late as the 11th century.)

As a function of its age--but also, I think, of its literary genius--the poem has delightfully weird language, even in translation. (I enjoyed the Donaldson prose translation in my Norton, although I'd be interested in comparing it with Heaney's celebrated verse version.) So...moreBeowulf, "the earliest extant heroic poem in any modern European language," has survived since its composition in the early 900s. (To be honest, some scholars do date it as late as the 11th century.)

As a function of its age--but also, I think, of its literary genius--the poem has delightfully weird language, even in translation. (I enjoyed the Donaldson prose translation in my Norton, although I'd be interested in comparing it with Heaney's celebrated verse version.) Some examples of its fantastic compound words: the sun as “the world-candle,” war as “life-evil,” cervical vertebrae as “bone-rings,” being in a black mood as being “gallows-grim.”

What struck me reading was not so much the adventures of Beowulf himself--the tearing off of Grendel's shoulder and arm, the subaqueous slaying of Grendel's mother, the fatal struggle with the fire-breathing dragon--but rather all of the side stories, genealogies, and digressions that added a richness to the social fabric of the text.

To give an example: the minor character King Hrethel is given one of the most moving passages, a description of his grief having to avenge one son's death by the misfired arrow of his brother (the king's other son):

"So it is sad for an old man to endure that his son should ride young on the gallows. Then he may speak a story, a sorrowful song, when his son hangs for the joy of the raven, and, old in years and knowing, he can find no help for him. Always with every morning he is reminded of his son's journey elsewhere. [...] There is no sound of the harp, no joy in the dwelling, as there was of old. Then he goes to his couch, sings a song of sorrow, one alone for one gone. To him all too wide has seemed the land."

These seeming digressions and side-stories that inhere to Beowulf's life history suggest that the true richness of the narrative lies not so much in just particular battle-deeds, but rather in the broader culture of storytelling, collective memory, and song.

For our own days of wire-tapping, civil liberties infringements, and egregious abuses of power, a passage on power and corruption stood out to me. King Hrothgar warns Beowulf of the dangers of kingship. Beguiled by an easy life and “a stronghold of men to rule over,” the corrupt ruler “makes regions of the world so subject to him, wide kingdoms, that in his unwisdom he may not himself have mind of his end.” He, in other words, uses empire as a way of forgetting about death.

Hrothgar continues: when the ruler’s conscience sleeps, his psyche self-destructs: “the watcher sleeps, the soul’s guardian; that sleep is too sound, bound in its own cares, and the slayer most near whose bow shoots treacherously. Then is he hit in the heart, beneath his armor, with the bitter arrow—he cannot protect himself—with the crooked dark commands of the accursed spirit” (46). The corrupt ruler falls into covetousness (“What he has long held seems to him too little, angry-hearted he covets”), forgets God, and his “loaned body weakens, falls doomed.” And, of course, his worldly treasure is lost to him in death. Beowulf takes the admonition to heart. More than one can say about the Bush administration.

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Dec 13, 2011

Bryan rated it

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Shelves: christianity, classic-literature, fiction, highly-recommend, mythology, mythopoeia, read-multiple-times, recommend

One of the greatest tales of loss ever written.

The way the author tells the story powerfully expresses what it must have felt like when, during those same times, they watched their mighty pagan traditions of honor and bravery set out to sea forever, then to be replaced by the new culture of Christianity.

If you read it, make sure you also read J.R.R. Tolkein's "The Monsters and The Critics." The whole essay brings new insights to the story; my particular favorite pa...more

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Mar 02, 2008

Summer rated it

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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 st...more

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May 09, 2009

Nikki rated it

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Shelves: medieval-literature, poetry, classics, for-class, myth-legend-saga-etc

I think I would've liked this better if I'd listened to the cassette tape we have of Seamus Heaney reading it. I liked it much better when I started reading it aloud to myself, and grasped what was going on much more easily -- otherwise, I'm afraid it didn't hold my attention very well (much like The Iliad and The Odyssey, honestly). I like Seamus Heaney's translation, although, of course, I don't have any other to compare it with! I was kind of surprised: most of what I knew about Beowulf was a...more

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May 05, 2011

Scott rated it

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Shelves: horror, poems, 2000s, medieval

Beowulf is a dense poem, a thousand years old and over 3,000 lines long, written in a barbed version of English that looks like it might catch in your craw. It begins, "Hwæt wé Gár-Dena in geár-dagum þéod-cyninga þrym grefrúnon hú þá æþelingas ellen fremedon." Not only do the words look foreign, the letters themselves seem strange, like something you might find scrawled on a mossy rock in Middle Earth. This is fine stuff for elves, trolls, or orcs, but as generations of English student...moreBeowulf is a dense poem, a thousand years old and over 3,000 lines long, written in a barbed version of English that looks like it might catch in your craw. It begins, "Hwæt wé Gár-Dena in geár-dagum þéod-cyninga þrym grefrúnon hú þá æþelingas ellen fremedon." Not only do the words look foreign, the letters themselves seem strange, like something you might find scrawled on a mossy rock in Middle Earth. This is fine stuff for elves, trolls, or orcs, but as generations of English students can sorrowfully attest, squeezing meaning out of even a few lines can be painful. It's no wonder that it took Seamus Heaney, Nobel Prize laureate and Harvard professor, over a dozen years to unwind the Old English, smooth out the edges, and reload its meaning into his sleek verse translation.

What Heaney offers us, in his "big voiced" Ulster dialect, are the oldest English ghost stories, murky tales of monsters that haunt the halls by night, gobbling up unwary warriors as they sleep, leaving behind nothing but blood-splattered benches and woe. Beowulf (his name means bee wolf, or bear) battles with the worst of them, wrenching his foes apart with his bare hands, diving deep into their haunted lairs, hacking and hewing the demons and hanging them by bits in the rafters, proof of his good works.

Not just a grim story couched in the language of "melancholy and fortitude," Beowulf is also an elegant tale of courtly etiquette, a handbook of behavior in the mead hall. Kings, warriors, and queens have necessary roles to fulfill in a society that totters on a wobbly foundation of violence, plunder, and retribution. Don't look for the northern gods in this epic set during the early centuries of Europe's Christianization. Woden, Tiu, Thor, and the rest of Valhalla have been dismissed, their place in the hall taken by the god of the Old Testament. But the ghouls are refitted into the Christian mythos (Grendel's thought to be a descendant of Cain). Odd how the pagan monsters linger even after the heathen gods have gone.

All this may sound a bit serious, but Heaney -- whose goal is to rescue the poem from the tedium of its first language -- makes Beowulf pleasing ... even the gory bits. He doesn't always use alliteration so densely as the first poet, but when he chooses, Heaney plays with it to our delight. Here's his description of Grendel just after Beowulf has relieved him of his arm: "He is hasped and hooped and hirpling with pain, / limping and looped in it." I have no idea what hirpling means, but it feels like the right word for the line. It trips along like a drunk man dancing barefoot on hot coals, adding a comic lilt to an episode that's otherwise taut with suspense. I liked Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf so well that I read it twice through in three days. It's everything the original isn't: clear, unclenched, and compelling. And Farrar, Straus & Giroux's edition, set in large Palatino type, well leaded, trimmed out with notes in the margins and the Old English text on the facing page make reading the old poem a real pleasure. (less)

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Jan 15, 2011

Xabier Cid rated it

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Even if the story has some captivating moments —or at least some captivating moments for freak people loving old epics— I couldn't enjoy this work as it probably deserved. The reason for that is the Galician translation, what I deeply disagree with.

I am not intending to say that the translation is not accurate, because I hardly can write in English, let alone to give my opinion about Anglo-Saxon translations. My reluctance is related with the Galician result. Translator's decision w...moreEven if the story has some captivating moments —or at least some captivating moments for freak people loving old epics— I couldn't enjoy this work as it probably deserved. The reason for that is the Galician translation, what I deeply disagree with.

I am not intending to say that the translation is not accurate, because I hardly can write in English, let alone to give my opinion about Anglo-Saxon translations. My reluctance is related with the Galician result. Translator's decision was to write a work in verse, but it should be told that breaking the lines after getting the right half of a page does not make exactly a poem, but the rhythm does. And there is no rhythm at all in this Galician Beowulf.

Translator has chosen to recreate poetry using the same tools that a group of probably bearded people ten centuries ago, i.e., the alliteration and the repetition of characteristic phrases, something that other epic-composer peoples had done before. But our Neolatin system for creating rhythm is quite different: rhyme and number of syllables. Including three words beginning for t-, or even just two, in the same verse does not make any perceptible hum in a Contemporary reader, nor helps him/her to retain in his/her memory a list of 3182 verses. Is it a shame? Maybe, but that's how Galicians read now.

That imperative search for t-words, p-words, b-words and so on has another casualty: the very content. The epic register —Galicians have one coming from eight centuries ago— is mingled with very popular sentences, creating a quite odd mix of Galician words coming directly from the dictionary with a result lacking harmony.

I am not saying that the translator did a wrong job. His introduction is brilliant, his job was impressive, and the number of nights stolen from his family to be devoted to an obscure Medieval text could not be paid. As Galicians, we should be proud of his work, of his effort. I am only saying that, IMHO, he has taken a wrong decision about translation principles when he started his job.(less)

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Jun 28, 2007

Wealhtheow rated it

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Recommends it for: fans of Tolkein

By far my favorite translation, although the least faithful to the original text. Heaney captured a spirit, tone and power in a way that no other translator has even approached.

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May 13, 2011

Ryan rated it

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On page 109:

So. In the midst of this fiendish fun-book.
Monsters flit to and fro, the hungry blokes.
Heaney's translation exhales and breathes.
It brooks no comparison mayhaps,
Old English’s boon is drinking in its words,
Delivering blow by blow as swords clash
Bilingually, the movie grays beyond
Compare to the verses that believe
In the breast where the chain-mail protects
Our hero’s blood, and flesh, the chain-mail cloth
I...more

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Jul 28, 2011

lauren rated it

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Shelves: religion

First off- this whole thing is a poem! A freaking poem.

Beowulf is the macho-est of macho dudes, and this story is all about how dudes should be fearless or shit goes down. Beowulf is so fearless that him and his bestie swim for many nights in a sea full of voracious sea creatures just to see who is tougher. Guess who is tougher? Beowulf. Duh. People all over are lavishing him with gold rings and hand-forged, jewel-encrusted swords, and the finest chainmail for all his badassery.
...moreFirst off- this whole thing is a poem! A freaking poem.

Beowulf is the macho-est of macho dudes, and this story is all about how dudes should be fearless or shit goes down. Beowulf is so fearless that him and his bestie swim for many nights in a sea full of voracious sea creatures just to see who is tougher. Guess who is tougher? Beowulf. Duh. People all over are lavishing him with gold rings and hand-forged, jewel-encrusted swords, and the finest chainmail for all his badassery.

When the monster Grendel emerges from his putrid cave underneath the swamp and starts feasting on drunken soldiers, Beowulf and his hand-selected man-friends sail across the see to battle Grendel, since who is the only person far and wide who can take on Grendel? That's right, Beowulf. Not only is Beowulf the only one tough enough to take on Grendel, he's so tough he does it with his bare hands! He messes up Grendel so bad that whatever is left of him runs off to cry to mommy in the swamp-cave.

Mom is pissed. And when all the soldiers get drunk in celebration of Grendel's demise, momma comes tearing into the mead hall and tried to fuck their shit up! Alas she only manages to get one of the king's trusty manservants, since she is but a tired old hag-monster. But a super pissed one.

Beowulf is all like "Nuh-uh!", and takes off to the swamp. He dives through the murky waters and busts into mama's dank home, kicks her ass and steals the head of Grendel to prove that he's way tougher than those monsters. The king tell's Beowulf he is like a son to him and gives him more gold.

So Beowulf and his men go back to their home, and Beowulf gets all this land, and eventually becomes king. Everything is, of course, awesome with Beowulf as king. That is, until some transient sneaks into the dragon cave and steals a piece of treasure that the dragon is protecting, and awakens the fury of the ill-tempered fire-breather! They have to keep rebuilding things because that damn dragon keeps burning everything down.

Beowulf will have none of this. At this point he is an old man, but he's still the toughest thing around, still as cocky as ever. He gets some more men together, they go to the dragon cave, Beowulf wants all the glory so he heads into the cave himself. Beowulf has had a premonition of his death before going into the dragon cave, and the dragon is messing him up pretty good. All but one of his men turn out to be big wusses and run away when the dragon starts breathing fire at them. One guy sticks it out with B. and lands a solid blow on the dragon. But that guy doesn't kill the dragon. He just preps the dragon for death, then Beowulf, of course, lands the lethal blow.

The dragon is dead! But Beowulf is almost dead too, though he's not going to die until he sees the invaluable treasures that the dragon has been guarding. That other guy brings some gold out to Beowulf to see, and B. tells him exactly how the monument to his death should be built, and how many of his treasures should be incinerated with him in the funeral pyre.

This seems like an honorable and decent end for the hero, saving the people once again. But people start getting worried. None of them are as tough as Beowulf, so without him around, they are sure to be invaded by their enemies that Beowulf has kept away all those years.

um... I don't remember what happens next. maybe i need to reread the last ten pages.(less)

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Jan 18, 2010

Mrs. Crane rated it

· review of another edition

Although I had this book on my to-read list, I only finally read it because I found it for free in a box around the way.
It's not my kind of subject. I'm not sure I knew what I was getting into before I started reading it. I knew it was considered a required read, and so that's why I had it on my list. However, subjects about dragons and slaying does not appeal to me in the least. For me personally it was quite difficult to get through. I'm just very relieved its finally over and it wasn't...more

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Oct 13, 2009

Christopher H. rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Christopher by: lonebearimages@gmail.com

Shelves: poetry, favorites, read-in-2009, my-western-canon, favorite-rereads, adventure, european-literature, translations, nobel-nba-booker-pulitzer, mythology, medieval-anglo-saxon-middle-english, british-authors-translators, british-literature, classics-of-antiquity

This was incredible! First of all, the story was told in the spare, sparse, and gritty language of Seamus Heaney's bilingual translation of the Anglo-Saxon original. Second, the plot of this elegiac poem was absolutely epic. The horror of Grendel and his Dam was palpable; and the heroism of Beowulf and his spear-fellows timeless. Finally, the ability to carefully study Heaney's translation, alliteration, and interpretation and then compare it to the Anglo-Saxon was almost surrealistic. It w...more

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Jul 30, 2009

Iris rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: adventure-seekers, storytellers, chainmail-and-longsword fans from the Renaissance Faire

Shelves: poetry

Seamus Heaney translated Beowulf with his "large-voiced" relatives in mind: he wanted it to be simple and clear and a natural candidate for reading aloud. As a result, Heaney's Beowulf seems timeless: it's not sassy and modern, nor fetishistic of the past. Avoiding the Renaissance Faire-style catchphrases of previous translators, Heaney takes your hand and guides you through the past on a deep level. Reading this book, you connect to centuries of storytellers and listeners.

...more

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May 03, 2008

Joshua rated it

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Shelves: poetry

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 thos...more

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Feb 01, 2008

John rated it

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Shelves: classics

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

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Jan 06, 2008

Courtney rated it

· review of another edition

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 fo...moreAt 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)

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Sep 25, 2007

Chris rated it

· review of another edition

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 discover...more

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Sep 17, 2007

Carl rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Non-specialists and specialists alike

Shelves: middleages, anglosaxonstudies, heroicliterature

I'm dating this review based on the first time I read this translation (I THINK it was sometime 2003), not the first time I read Beowulf. The poem itself is one of my favorites, but there is nothing like reading it in the original-- even if you aren't a Medieval studies major, if you like this, I say take a course in Old English, then another where you go through Beowulf with the help of the professor. I've done that twice with two different professors (Carol Pasternack as an undergrad, Nick H...more

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Mar 30, 2009

John rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-for-school

NOTE: Goodreads thinks that the Chickering and Heaney translations are the same. This is wrong. My review is for Chickering's translation.

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 original and even engaging. However, the original story describes a culture where stealing mead-hall benches is seen as a great feat for a king. (This text in question is describing the might of Ki...more

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Jul 03, 2007

Toby rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: top10, medieval

The most readable translation, and the one most likely to excite non-majors. I would say it's the best translation (ok, so I've only read one other translation all the way through, but I've read sections of ten other translations, and wrote an essay comparing them, so I feel (sort of) qualified to make these statements) but I've heard some grumbling about gender issues in the Heaney version, though I haven't read any articles about it. I know it's a big issue, but I'm willing to see past it beca...more

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Jul 15, 2008

Stamatia rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classic

When I bought this book I had a vague and quite naive idea of exploring old english with the use of a translated verse (very much as I did Odyssey by reading the translated into modern greek verses simultaneously with the original text).
What a big joke. At least modern greek is a continuation of the old language and we still use most of the words that Homer did. Needless to say I didn't get around to accomplishing what I set out to do.
What I did get out of this book was a highly sati...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
A few Questions for Those Who Read Beowulf	2	39	Feb 01, 2012 05:29pm
What is your idea of a true hero? How is your idea of a hero similar to or different from the epic hero Beowulf?	14	39	Jan 27, 2012 04:55pm
WCHS: Senior Book...: Beowulf	1	6	Oct 16, 2011 04:57pm
HTEA Brit Lit: What is the purpose of the scene between Beowulf and Unferth?	35	28	Aug 29, 2011 12:12pm
Beowulf	2	29	Nov 23, 2007 09:57am

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Quotes from Beowulf: A New Verse T...

“It is always better
to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.
For every one of us, living in this world
means waiting for our end. Let whoever can
win glory before death. When a warrior is gone,
that will be his best and only bulwark.” — 18 people liked it

“Quickly, the dragon came at him, encouraged
As Beowulf fell back; its breath flared,
And he suffered, wrapped around in swirling
Flames -- a king, before, but now
A beaten warrior. None of his comrades
Came to him, helped him, his brave and noble
Followers; they ran for their lives, fled
Deep in a wood. And only one of them
Remained, stood there, miserable, remembering,
As a good man must, what kinship should mean.” — 5 people liked it

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