Beowulf

Rating:
Summary: Anglo-Saxon Poetry at its Best!
Review: I've been in love with the Beowulf epic since I was young and I must say that this translation is by far and away the best I have ever read. Perhaps one of the greatest texts in the English language, this poem should be required reading for anyone in the western tradition. In addition to providing matching old Anglo-Saxon text (for those who can speak Anglo-Saxon; I can't), Heany puts the text into a clear, flowing English without the turn of the century ornamentation so-often used in translations. While I must admit that I do miss the flowery word play of older translations, this is certainly a more accessable and perhaps more accurate translation of the epic. Interestingly enough, reading through it I saw parallels with many shamanic motifs used in indigenous cultures. Perhaps Beowulf represents a shamanic hero of the Geats? After all, there was lots of cultural exchange amongst the peoples of the north and the Saami (Lapps) had a thriving shamanic tradition until recently.

The introduction gives wonderful insight into the poem, its history and the proccess of translation, as well as providing plenty of notes alongside the text to help the reader get a clearer idea of the epic. In total, I must say that this is perhaps one of the best translations of this poem and I can do no better than to strongly suggest that anyone read this poem if they get a chance.

Rating:
Summary: CD Half the Text
Review: The product's details omit such mention, but for the audio version, the translator skips reading the facing Anglo-Saxon pages and reads instead only the purely modern English--still, for what it offers, four solid stars. As a nice touch by the translator, the book early clarifies that "Beowulf" originates in England during a then modern time with respect to the story's setting--so maybe four and a half stars in compensation for his simple frankness. A good buy.

Rating:
Summary: BEOWULF LITE...
Review: This is the new verse translation of this first millennium text, which was written sometime between the seventh and tenth centuries by an unknown English author. Translated by Seamus Heaney, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, and read by him on this audio cd, he breathes new life into this mythic epic.

This is the story of the heroic Beowulf , and his timeless story is stark in its simplicity, made sonorous by the poetic reading given by Seamus Heaney. It is, in its simple narrative, a story that was meant to be read aloud. After all, between the seventh and the tenth centuries, few people could read.

Seamus Heaney gives a remarkable reading, his soft brogue and cadence capturing the dark, epic mood of the piece. His verse translation gives the story an accessibility that should make it a much more enjoyable experience for many who may have shied away from this early English work.

What is there not to like about this story? It is about a hero who vanquishes monsters and lives to fight another day in the quintessential battle between good and evil. Its message, undoubtedly relevant when written, is still relevant today. Those who are new to this work should consider purchasing the audio cd and listening to Seamus Heaney's rendition of this ancient work.

Rating:
Summary: Great Edition of a Great Epic
Review: There are two reasons why this is a great edition of this timeless epic. To save time I'll simply list them:

1. It is an exquisite translation, none beat it

2. It contains the Old English along side the translation, which is great if you are studying the language... or simply want to see what it looks like

As for the story of Beowulf itself:
Many have called this boring or hard to understand. Well, my answer to that is if you like epics of any kind, then it won't be boring, and if you are not a complete idiot, than it won't be hard to understand.
Even if you don't like epics (this being the greatest), this is an essential read for anyone interested in English history or the language, it's as simple as that.

Rating:
Summary: Hauntingly Archaic
Review: The Anglo-Saxon poem known as Beowulf is a part of a larger, and historically lost, work written by an unknown (late first millennium) English author. The story, however, concerns Scandinavia and two peoples called the Geats (southern modern-day Sweden) and the Danes (across the sea). Beowulf, the poem's hero, becomes king of the Geats; the work is a narrative account of his battle with two troll-like monsters (Grendel and his mother) and a dragon.

For a modern reader with little knowledge in early English literature, this poem, although surprisingly easy to read (thanks to Heaney's work), is a difficult book to write about. This is because (in my amateur opinion) the story is, though beautifully rendered, fairly simple and primitive in terms of its narrative elements (what's there to write about?). It's about courage, loyalty, friendship, battle, and everything else highly regarded in an early medieval European society. Most of all, though, Beowulf is about confronting the monstrous outside forces that threaten to destroy our way of life. In doing so, we must muster enormous courage and strength in spite of our fear of those unknown beasts that haunt our worst nightmares. And this poem is, if only for brief moments, haunting enough to give Stephen King a shudder. Every time the Geats or the Danes settle down in hopes of peace, some long-brooding evil that lurks the surrounding countryside after dark comes to eat villagers and destroy buildings. There isn't anything much more nightmarish than that. The dark, foreboding tension matches Tolkien at his best (see the chapter entitled Shadow of the Past in LoTR). Here's a sample from Grendel's first attack:

So times were pleasant for the people there
Until finally one, a fiend out of hell,
Began to work his evil in the world.
Grendel was the name of this grim demon
Haunting the marches, marauding round the heath
And the desolate fens; he had dwelt for a time
In misery among the banished monsters...

Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: If you only read one book this year that: lacks substance, doesnt require any real thinking, lacks adequate description, has a ridiculously overpowered and infinitely benevolent hero, is written in a boring fashion, and is a 6th century equivalent to The Power Rangers......... makes it this one!

Rating:
Summary: A Stellar Translation!
Review: I've read a prose version of Beowulf before, and by the time I'd plowed through half of it, I was wondering what all the fuss was about. The book I had in my hands at the time was dry, passionless, and overall uninteresting. Everything I'd heard about the wonderful characterizations, the action and adventure, and the cycle of Beowulf's life and death seemed like bunk.

My father gave me this translation for my birthday a couple of years back, and let me tell you, it's everything that Beowulf must have been when people heard it told and retold. There's an immediacy to the translation, an approachability. Beowulf speaks to the reader, not as a distant, intellectual figure but as a warrior. The prose is vibrant, compelling. I tore through the book in one night, and I was in tears by the end.

If you've read Beowulf before and didn't get a lot out of it, or if you're just looking for a fresh new take on a beloved subject or even if you're a newcomer to this sort of literature approaching Beowulf for the first time, I highly recommend this book. There's something in it for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Undeniable Masterpiece, Still Rings True..
Review: Many a public school students have had this epic tale shoved down their throat; thus turning them off from any further exploration of it. I, however, was never victim of such forced reading of this text, and as a result, grasped it on my own free will. This is one of the newest translations of Beowulf, and possibly the best one out there.
Undoubtedly, Heaney's translation is fairly easy to read. The pages are in old English and then Heaney's translation, facing one another. While this makes for an entertaining reading experience, I don't know how to read Old English and therefore this was lost to me.
In this book, Seamus Heaney manages to translate Beowulf accurately and carefully; the awkward language of many translations is not present here. Additionally, while not simplistic, Heaney's writing style is easily understandable. This book was truly a joy to read.
Also, what renders this book so interesting in my own mind is not only its age, but its continued appeal. Beowulf was penned anonymously some 1 000 years ago - give or take a few centuries. As a result, it was written in old English, the ancient great-great-great grandparent of our own jargon today. Nevertheless, the archtypical ideals remain the same: Beowful is fierce, and he battles a monster.
The heroics of the story, and the basic plot, remain unadultured even in our culture today. We still find ourselves drawn to heroics and the battle of good versus evil, this arguably the root of most stories. Beowulf just goes to show that a millenia later, we still are able to connect with the literary and sociological aspirations of our forefathers.

Rating:
Summary: Great intro to medieval literature.
Review: My 6 1/2 year old liked this from start to finish. The book is easy for a young kid to read, though there are some harder vocabulary words, such as "forfeit," "burnished," and "precipice." Her favorite part was the section where Grendel takes a victim:
"Grendel . . . lurched towards the nearest man, a brave Geat called Leofric, scooped him up and, with one ghastly claw, choked the scream in his throat. Then the monster ripped him apart, bit into his body, drank the blood from his veins, devoured huge pieces . . . swallowed the whole man, even his feet and hands." There is a nice Glossary at the end, telling the reader how to pronounce the English and Danish names (and names of swords!). If you are a parent, why teach your kid about King Arthur and Robin Hood, and stop there? There are other fine tales about knights, et al., i.e., Beowulf. The illustrations are stylized pen and ink, that is, they tend not to be literal representations of monsters and dragons. If you are teaching your kid about early English history, e.g., about William the Conqueror or about King Henry II, then this version of Beowulf makes a good accompaniment. Another excellent book, which narrates relationships more subtle than monster-hunting, is Canterbury Tales, retold by Geraldine McCaughrean (this is not a typo) with delightful illustrations by Victor G. Ambrus. None of Chaucer's baudy tales are in this kids' version. Instead, you'll find tales of faith, devotion, and trickery, all suitable for the age of five and up.

Rating:
Summary: Epic proportions
Review: I once made the joke that Grendel was the first beo-degradable monster in history...

GROAN!

When I gave this joke to an English professor, he used it in class, and promptly returned it to me.

Okay. I'll accept that. But, Beowulf deserves the kind of serious attention that would prompt people to want to make bad jokes about it (unimportant things are ignored; only important things are held up in jest).

Beowulf is an old poem--often considered the first in English. This is technically not true, for linguistic and other reasons (where the demarcations of English beginnings fall are debatable; also there is the fact that there are older poems, just not epic poems). An epic is a long, narrative poem, a literary form undervalued today, but which was probably the equivalent of a Cecil B. DeMille production in more ancient times. The Illiad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, Gilgamesh--all these are epic poems. Generally, they recount heroic deeds, and most often were composed and intended as oral history. Beowulf consists of 3182 existing lines.

Scholars also disagree on the 'British heritage' of the poem, many believing it more likely to be an import from Anglo-Saxon European homelands than a composition original to the Britain. The tale does portray two leaders, Hrothgar, leader of the Danes, and Beowulf, leader of the Geats, a Swedish tribe. These are interconnected through generations of family intermarriages, and Beowulf because of this loyalty takes his men to help defend Hrothgar's home against the monster Grendel.

The tale of Beowulf involves heroism, sacrifice, loyalty, warfare, conflict and resolution--all the elements that go into a good action feature. It also has moral overtones (so it was meant to educate and inspire as well as entertain). It carries the strong message that a fighting man's allegiance to the overlord and to God should be absolute (something that is often instilled in soldiers of today). It is almost decidedly Klingon in the glorification of battle (in fact, I've often wondered if the Star Trek universe took a leaf out of this epic to create the Klingon idea)--Beowulf fights three battles (a holy trinity of battles, almost), dying gloriously in the final battle with a great dragon, after having lived an honourable and courageous life.

This story contains elements of both early Christianity and late paganism, however in some cases the Christian aspects may be later additions by monks who transcribed the manuscripts (monks were noted for doing that in many circumstances, including Biblical texts). The oldest existing manuscript dates from about the tenth century and is preserved in the British Museum.

This particular translation of Seamus Heaney (a 1995 Nobel laureate) is a beauty to behold. Opt for the dual language edition if possible, so that you may compare the Old English with Heaney's recreation -- his economy of language (often but not always found among Celtic poets) lends itself well to the simplicity and economy of the original Old English. Heaney does often maintain the alliterative flavour, but resorts to truer meanings rather than translation quirkiness. He also often has to recast the cadence of the verse, as Old English did a sort of four-step that modern words however simple often cannot emulate. Yet for all the criticism that may be levelled (and in Heaney's case, many fewer than most translations of Beowulf would have to bear), he was done perhaps the greatest service a translator can do to any work, particularly an ancient one -- he has breathed new life into the poetry so that the story and the language can live again.