Beowulf in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Dec 22, 2020 Josh rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: scandinavia

I wish this book were more committed to weirdness or less committed to fidelity, given the author's purpose of looking at Beowulf "through the lens of the bro-story," but it mostly just reads like a run-of-the-mill translation with the occasional awkward insertion of 2020 idioms:

"Bro, lemme say how fucked they were,
in times of worst woe throwing themselves
on luck rather than on faith, fire-walkers
swearing their feet uncharred, while
smoke stepping." (181–185)

"She went round,
a Helming-hostess, tre

...more

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Nov 28, 2020 Jennifer rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, classics, translated, owned, poetry

Okay, I had absolutely no prior experience with the Beowulf story somehow before this book. I knew there was a monster? That the original was Old English and it took place in the North? That was really somehow it. I'd always intended to read the Seamus Heaney translation someday, but when I heard there was a radical new (feminist?) translation out there, I impulsively bought a copy.

I had a lot of fun with this. I loved the swagger and the Bro! of it. I have spent some serious tie thinking about ...more

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Feb 07, 2021 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

This is a really good and highly readable translation of Beowulf, though ultimately it's still Beowulf, an extremely long and extremely old poem, and I kept taking long breaks between reading sessions.

The translation mixes Old English alliteration and of-the-minute slang to produce a version of Beowulf with delightful wordplay that is very easy for today's reader to understand, but that also feels like it's going to feel dated really quickly. I don't think Maria Dahvana Headley was intending to ...more

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