Beowulf

Rating:
Summary: The joy of rediscovery
Review: This book jumped out at me at the bookstore when I wasn't even looking for it. Seeing a figure on the cover in full-body chain mail will do that to you, I guess. Anyway, I picked it up on a whim, remembering it from high school at least a dozen years ago, and I was amazed to find that it wasn't the dull fairy tale I had remembered it being when I was forced to read it in my English Literature class back then.

Heaney has removed the "academic" label that has long doomed this beautiful poem to be perceived as the sole property of snooty academe and dusty English Lit tomes. Without dumbing down the story, Heaney has made it utterly accessible to today's Modern English speaker, expanding its appeal to include anybody who simply wants to enjoy a good adventure story. I'm enjoying it both for that reason and for my interest in Old English; this book has inspired me to also purchase an audio reading of excerpts from "Beowulf" in OE. The singing melodies of OE are a joy to anybody who has an interest in the history and evolution of the language we speak. Heaney has captured and preserved that beauty in his translation. Bravo!

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Summary: Essential "Roots" Literature
Review: Essential "roots" literature for anyone with a drop of Indo-European blood, and anyone with imagination. There are passages of soaring poetry, particularly in the first half. I was struck by the echos of Homer in the clash of shining war gear and the curve-prowed ships that fly like birds.

Also fascinating is the conflict between the warrior's code, celebrating vengence as the highest goal, and the nominal Christianity of the period. Many things are still the same.

Rating:
Summary: Mea culpa
Review: Before I am attacked for philistinism, let me say that I may just have missed the boat. I am willing to lay the blame for failing to enjoy or be moved by this translation at my own feet. That said, I was very disappointed. Heaney may or may not have done wonders for the original text; I wouldn't know. What I do know is that the structure itself kept me at bay. The life of these people was drowned in the ritual, the action drowned in the talk. I suppose I entered the book looking for something as shattering and moving as the Fagles' translations of Homer. It is no slight to Heaney to say that he falls far short of Fagles in turning an ancient story into something exhilirating to the modern reader. Perhaps it is the source material: Homer has survived for longer on his own merits, whereas Beowulf has surivived because of its place in history. The form of the story itself may be, I am sure, fascinating to some sutdents and scholars. But to the simple masses, it may rest as it did for me: remarkably heavy and awkward for such a slight volume. Sorry.

Rating:
Summary: Much bettewr than I remember from high school
Review: "Beowulf", or at least parts of it, was required reading in my high school English class. I don't remember much about that translation (after all, it was almost 40 years ago), but I've always had good thoughts about it, particularly after reading John Gardner's wonderful "Grendel". When I heard that Seamus Heaney had a new translation of the work, I purchased it almost immediately, and I was not disappointed. It's absolutely wonderful! I agree with a lot of the other reviewers that this is tailor-made to be read aloud, and I did that a lot. Now this treasured book will be passed on to my son, whose background as an English major in college and an avid reader like his father, will enable him to enjoy it as much as I have.

Rating:
Summary: The epic Beowulf
Review: My first introduction to Beowulf was nearly 11 years ago as a high school student. Now, after reading Seamus Heaney's recent transalation, I remember why I enjoyed this epic so much. I would wholeheartedly recommend this translation (and more generally Beowulf) to all ages.

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Summary: a read-aloud must
Review: i purchased this book to read aloud to my children, aged 5 and 7, because they love all things dragon! with much discussion they understood all of it, and loved it. i recommend it to all families who have a medieval penchant.

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Summary: From a Beowulf Epic novice...
Review: The little I knew of Beowulf prior to reading this translation of the epic was some mytho-poetic exposure in men's circles. I had no exposure to the epic in my educational background (sounds like this was fortuitous given the comment on prior translations).

Given this simple background, I approached the epic simply looking for a good read as well as to gain some knowledge of the ancient story first-hand. And what a read! The 3,200 hundred lines need to be read aloud, as all good poetry should. The meter of the poem flows. I found it to be far easier to read aloud then the recent translation of The Odyssey by Robert Fagles (although I loved that story-telling as well). Despite the ease and lightness of the words and text, I received a very good sense of the dark, brooding, medieval atmosphere surronding the epic; a sense that this story was told around the fires in dark huts in the cold north.

I feel blessed and more full, having read this tale.

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Summary: This Is What Tolkien Meant
Review: After reading Tolkien's "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" as well as his epic fantasy, my own path was set: I became an English medievalist and, in fact, as a senior graduate student, taught Beowulf under the direction of William Alfred of Harvard before graduating and going on to become a writer of fantasy and science fiction.

I've tried to do my own alliterative translations: Mr. Heaney's translation comes as a delight for a number of reasons. Chief among them is this: he's the best poet to tackle BEOWULF since the original -scop-. Even 20 years after my grad school days, I read Old English. Heaney has produced a translation that is profoundly moving. If he sometimes diverges from the four-stress alliterative pattern, with the third stress being the main one, it's by design -- and he's explained it. He spares us the most convoluted kennings, but gives us, instead, the tautness, the spaces between the words, the pauses for thought, tension, and what Tolkien and Auden referred to as the Northern Thing -- the austere combination of faith and darkness that is Wyrd. It's a solid translation and a fine poem in Heaney's hands.

And it consoles me for not having a full translation by Tolkien and that John Gardner never lived to translate BEOWULF as he had hoped.

It is also delightful to consider that, for the first time since the death of T.S. Eliot, poetry is going to the top of the best-seller lists.

Mr. Heaney, although he is not a ring-giver, rings true, and has given us a great gift.

Rating:
Summary: An ancient epic comes to life
Review: I have to be honest that my first encounter with "Beowulf" was not an enjoyable one. Lacking a translation by a master poet like Seamus Heaney, I read the old Burton Raffel translation which, though venerable, lacked a sense of the poem that Beowulf is.

When I found that Heaney was developing a new translation of Beowulf, I became eager to revisit the poem a second time. What he has produced is no less than a treasure, not only for its poetry, but for the strong sense of history that permeates the book.

Heaney has been well-recognized for his own poetry and has produced here a dynamic translation of an ancient poem that still has relevance for crusaders and defenders today. To be sure, the Anglo-Saxon world he and the un-named ancient poet portray is vastly different from the one we know. There are very few women; the brave men who populate the story are slain bloodily by dark monsters and dragons. Gold and chain mail glisten and clank. Heaney brings all of these sights and sounds to life in the cadence of the poem; guttural, with two sub-lines per line. I found myself trying to make sense of the Anglo-Saxon just as much as I read the modern English translation. This was initially frustrating owing to the lack of a pronounciation guide, but I actually found understanding the Saxon alphabet and figuring out what I could of the grammar to be a challenge.

This leads me to the second joy of this translation, which is the sense of history that it is filled with. Heany writes of his own Irish-Gaelic background and how it informed his use of language in translating the poem. Beowulf is an ancient text that survived for hundreds of years in the oral bardic tradition, then in a single copy at the British Museum. What we have left to us is a living relic of language and sound. That the English language itself has changed so much since Beowulf was written is at once amazing and frightening. What will our heirs be reading in a thousand years? What will they sound like? What can we offer to them?

In any case, Seamus Heaney has given us a treasure.

Rating:
Summary: Beowulf-Learning Lifes Lessons
Review: "Y Tu Brute" That's how much this new translation of a very, very, very, old book moves me. I cant say enough but lets give it a go. My favorite part of the book was when Beowulf kills the evil king. Whats his name again? Claudius. I also like when he insults Ophelia. Calling her a harlot. Ha Ha Haa.