Beowulf

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Summary: The best translation ever!
Review: I originaly read Beowulf in high school. It was confusing and hard to follow. Seamus Heaney's translation is so well written and makes the poem come alive like no other translation before it. I loved having the Anglo-Saxon on the opposite page to compare today's language with it. Anyone interested in epics, or classic literature should own this copy.

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Summary: An Epic Translation
Review: I first read Beowulf in University and used the standard Penguin edition as my source. I did not think much of it at the time and could not really draw a comparison between it and the Epic Poem's of ancient Greece and Rome (The Iliad, Odyssey, Aeniad). This translation has chaned my view of this Epic Poem forever. It really moved me. Mr Heaney mentioned in the introduction that the Epic deals with different themes such as the battling of the monstrous. I clearly saw this but another thing that Mr Heaney's translation brought to light (for me personally) was each character's (esp. Beowulf's) sense of duty and through their duty, their unavoidable fate. I could go on like this forever. In any case - this is the edition to pick up if you are interested in Norse Epic.

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Summary: If you have to read Beowulf, read this translation
Review: I am preparing to take the GRE in literature, and there are always questions on Beowulf. I hadn't read it since high school, so I picked up this new translation by the Nobel prize winning poet Seamus Heaney. All I remember from my high school days is the underwater battle between Beowulf and Grendel's mom because that's the only part that made sense to me. With this new translation the story came alive for me. Those Anglo-Saxon spellings of names in previous translations really lost me. But Mr. Heaney spells the names so they sound like modern day names, and it makes the reading flow. And I love how the Anglo-Saxon is on the left page with the translation on the right page, so you can go back and forth to see which words haven't changed much in over a thousand years like gold, god, and world. Pretty cool. My husband read the poem, and he isn't even an English major! It is a wonderful translation of an epic poem, and I recommend it highly.

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Summary: A Nordic Saga Brought to Life Again
Review: It gives great satisfaction to see that this Norse epic has found so many enthusiastic readers. They are right, of course, because it is a most wonderful story. I would not place it in the darkest of Dark Ages - it was written when life was rather civilized already. The Merovingian kings are mentioned, and that puts a time stamp on it. But whoever wrote it made up a magnificent story of murder and mayhem, of chivalry and cowardice, of ruling and serving. It seems to contain faint traces of other epics: Siegemund the dragon slayer, and the dragon guarding the gold treasure in the mountain. Maybe they were standard props at the time.

Mr. Heaney's translation is a thing of pure joy. He writes in earthy, to the point language. That makes the book such a great pleasure.

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Summary: Beowulf Beware
Review: I enjoyed listening to the CD audio version more than reading the translation. But BEWARE. The CD is advertised as UNABRIDGED. When you read the cover carefully, it says, UNABRIDGED SELECTIONS. There are passages omitted. That was the major disappointment, and one has to assume a deliberate attempt to mislead on the part of the publisher. Otherwise, why not call it what it is, ABRIDGED?

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Summary: Beowulf Review
Review: Beowulf is a work of poetry that tells a story of Beowulf's life and battles. The king of the Danes is Hrothgar. He builds a mead-hall that he names Heorot. A mead-hall is a place where the warriors and king go to drink and have a good time. Hrothgar builds Heorot to build fame for himself. Grendel attacks the mead-hall for twelve years, killing some of Hrothgar's men. Beowulf comes to his aid and defeats the vicious beast by ripping its arm off in a fight. Hrothgar rewards Beowulf with great riches. Grendel's mother is Beowulf's next challenge. Beowulf defeats her using a sword that was crafted by the hands of a giant. Beowulf again pulls away with a wealthy profit from Hrothgar. After returning to his homeland, Beowulf becomes king. Beowulf's third and final heroic battle comes against a dragon. Beowulf receives a deadly wound during this fight. His only loyal warrior left, Wiglaf, fights bravely beside him as they eventually defeat the dragon. Beowulf eventually dies from the wound applied to him from the dragon. The great poetry used in this epic is a great example of the main qualities of Anglo-Saxon verse. Verse is another term for poetry. The first quality is "alliteration". This is the repetition of similar sounds in a line or verse. Second is "strong beat". There are four beats per line of verse. Third is "no rhyme". The lines do not rhyme at all. Last is the use of "kennings". Kennings are riddling metaphors. For example, the author uses the term "sea-bench" to replace "beach". Another example is using the term "hand-spurs" to replace "claws". In the story you will encounter Hygelac, the king of the Geats, and Hygd, the queen of the Geats. Then there is Hrothgar and Wealtheow, the king and queen of the Danes. Unferth is Hrothgar's spokesman who argues with Beowulf, yet eventually becomes willing to help him. Breca is the man who has a swimming contest against Beowulf. At first these names were hard for me to comprehend. Eventually, I began to understand them. The events in the story occur around the year 400. They take place in and around southern Sweden and Denmark. The author did a wonderful job putting this magnificent epic together. There is only one thing that I believe the author could have left out. This is the discretion. Discretion is a side story. This is where the author leaves the main plot and begins to tell the reader of a different story. Otherwise, I believe the author put all he could into this story. It was a great book, and I highly recommend it.

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Summary: Beowulf finally meets his match.
Review: Beowulf has been admirably translated before, notably by Burton Raffel. But in Heaney the crusty old warrior has finally found a poet capable of making his heroic exploits shine via a deft, complex translation.

Heaney combines gleaming clarity with a rich, dark earthiness that fully captures the saga's strange antiquity, without in any way seeming antiquated. Reading this translation, you are transported not so much to the distant past as simply to another time and place totally foreign to our own. This is no simple "swords and sorcery" children's story, but an astonishingly modern evocation of how we confront our darkest terrors -- and triumph over them.

Forget the Beowulf you struggled with in school. Here lurks the real barbarian, wrapped in stinking animal hides, runes carved into his arms and wielding a well-worn, heavily nicked broadsword, standing just outside the gates and waiting for you to join him ... if you dare.

Highly recommended, both as poetry and a great story.

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Summary: Beowulf
Review: When I first picked up this book, I thought it was going to be one of the hardest books I would ever read. I thought wrong! When I began to read the book, it was hard for me to fallow. But after a while I understood everything that was going on. Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon poem about a hero named Beowulf. Beowulf, who is the main character in the poem, risks his life to defeat monsters that are destroying countries. He was a brave leader that fought for his country, and in his braveness he gained fame and honor. If I didn't like the book, I wouldn't be writing this review. This book was a very good book, and I am sure all of you will like it. Once you start to read, the words will begin to make sense. I am not a big reader myself, but after I began to read it, I was completely consumed by everything that was going on.

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Summary: Beowulf: A must read
Review: Beowulf was assigned to me as a book for my summer reading. As all of you know summer reading is not a high priority on any students list. Most of us wait until the last week to do it. So I started this book planning to struggle through it. Oddly enough, I became more and more interested as I progressed in the story. I read most of Beowulf when I was on my vacation at the beach. I couldn't put it down. Every time I decided to go down to the beach I got into a new chapter and it was like the book was sucking me in. After a while it was as though I was in the story myself. Beowulf is a very brave, courageous man. He is trying to gain fame throughout the entire story, this was the only way to gain "immortality" in the Anglo-Saxon society. But unlike so many others he became widely known and finally became king of Denmark. The are three major confrontaions with demons or monsters in the story and they are spread out evenly. From reading this book I gained knowledge fo the Anglo-Saxon society. The way Beowulf was written is in Anglo-Saxon verse. The main qualities are alliteration, which is the repetition of similiar sounds in a line of verse, and kennings which are riddling metaphors. Beowulf is one of the best books I have ever read and I would strongly advise you to read it. You will gain knowledge of history which you may not already be aware of but you will go away having read a great book.

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Summary: Beowulf
Review: I was assigned this book for summer reading. I am in ninth grade and as most of you reading this know all students fear summer reading and tend to wait until the last minute to complete it. Well, I started this book planning to struggle through it but I became more and more interested in it as I went on. After a while I felt like I was even involved in the events that took place in the story. The anglo saxon verse was abnormal for me but I picked up on it. The main qualities that i picked up on and we studied in our class were alleteration, which is a strong beat. There were also kennings which are riddling metaphors. The story kept me interested with action as well as taking me through anglo saxon history. I read most of this book when I went to the beach, I started reading and I couldn't put it down. There are three main battles which take place in the story and they are spaced out evenly within the story. Beowulf was a brave courageous man who eventually with a lot of hard work made his way to king. He like many others in the anglo saxon community realized that fame was the only way to be remembered forever in their society. The only thing that separated him from most of the others is that he suceeded and became king of Denmark. After ruling his country for many years, he finally ends the story with one last major battle. I dont want to ruin the story for you so I wont tell you. If you came up to me on the street and asked me should you read this book I would do my best to convince you to read it. You will take away a lot more knowledge of the old cultures in our world as well as having read a great story