false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179427124m/915220.jpg 915220 4 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> 900303 1968 Beowulf total:12|5:1|4:5|3:5|2:1|1:0| 12 42 16 3 5 0 false false Sat Oct 25 02:50:58 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 25 02:53:15 -0700 2008 15+ 3 0 false false Fri Oct 31 03:28:52 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 31 03:30:01 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Sat Jun 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 29 08:54:26 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 29 08:57:15 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Sun Nov 15 20:12:21 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 15 20:12:21 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Sep 27 12:18:59 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 12:19:08 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed May 13 18:56:43 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 18:56:43 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun May 10 20:48:48 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 20:48:48 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Apr 27 20:08:38 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 20:08:38 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Apr 16 15:24:11 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 15:24:11 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Feb 26 19:01:41 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 19:01:41 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Tue Dec 23 11:01:52 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 11:01:52 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Mon Aug 25 12:32:59 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 25 12:32:59 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Thu Jul 17 12:26:15 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 17 12:26:15 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Mon Jul 07 11:01:52 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 07 11:01:52 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Mon Sep 10 21:04:38 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 10 21:04:38 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 27 06:48:23 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 10 10:23:22 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=915220