Rating: 
Summary: Seamus Heaney does justice
Review: I am no scholar of Beowulf, but Seamus Heaney's version is the fourth or fifth version I've read, and in comparison to those it is by far the most superior. Any prose translations should be discredited by that account alone, but Seamus Heaney doesn't just make it poetic, as it should be, he uses his personal experiences, as indicated in the Introduction, when choosing the best word for the meter. When he uses these Irish local coloquialisms, it's not out of sheer desperation but of sheer love for the music of poetry, and when no other words sounds right, he chooses these words to emphasize the poetry and the plot.I have read other reviewers at this site discrediting Seamus Heaney due to this very reason, but in my view if a translator doesn't add passion to his translation then it is a waste of time to translate at all. It may not be exactly true to the text, but true enough. One thing I love most about his translation is the fact that he stays true to the meter. With four alliterations per line, he provides the feel of the original text upon the reading. Another thing I loved about this translation is the very first line. He makes (a true) comment that while previous versions begin the entire text with a "Lo!" or a "Hark!" or a "Behold!", Seamus Heaney starts off with the simple yet modern "So." -- with a period -- not even an overused and ecstatic exclamation mark. Finally, for those who don't dabble in the egoism of stuffy "scholarly" expectations will also enjoy glancing at the original text that displays directly next to the translation. Here you get the feel of Seamus Heaney's decision to translate the way he did. You won't understand the original text, yet with the translation sitting next to it, you will.
Rating: 
Summary: What language was he translating from?
Review: I was really looking forward to listening to this, and found myself very disappointed. Anglo-Saxon is a language of concrete nouns, active verbs, things happening and things being shown. Instead we have Heaney using such extremely trite phrases as, "Without further ado." Can you see Beowulf doing something without further ado? Of course not; Beowulf just does. Then there was the use of the phrase, "Desperate affair," to describe Beowulf's fight with Grendel. Desperate affair? This does not sound like the way to describe the process of tearing off a Neanderthaloid monster's arm with your bare hands. Heaney's reading voice is frankly not very impressive, and coupled with the translation, made for a disappointing experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy it!
Review: Don't be deceived! Don't read it! Seamus Heaney tramples Beowulf in his new translation. He has done Old English literature a great disservice. Admittedly, he is no Anglo-Saxonist, and his shotty work should never have been published. Perhaps millions of people will read Heaney's translation, and truly believe it captures the essence of Beowulf. It doesn't. Heaney compares Old English to Irish "scullion speak" in his introduction. This comparison lacks any true foundation in serious scholarship. The terribly positive reviews on this site are almost as sickening as Heaney's translation itself. Please, if you're going to read Beowulf, read Chickering's overlooked but infinitely better translation, available on this site. Heaney has attempted to make Beowulf pretty, something it is not. Chickering's translation is a genuine translation, capturing the raw, primitive flavor of the original poem.
Rating:
Summary: raging intellect of the middle ages not let down
Review: Heaney's translation is very fluid, very cursive. Beowulf as a classic, is recommendable for historical value & literary merit on its own, & he does it great justice. "Foreign places yield more to9 one who is himself worth meeting."
Rating:
Summary: Poetry in Any Language
Review: When eager warriors aren't fighting a blood-feud or otherwise pursuing treasure, glory and fame, life in the Scandinavia of long ago is one of beer-fuelled revelry. At daily banquets in the king's wine hall, as the court minstrel sings and plucks his harp, the shield-bearing thanes line the benches to drink goblets of mead. For the legendary Beowulf, however, whose many gifts include a prodigious athleticism on land and in water, festivities come to a temporary halt when he learns of the 'greedy and grim God-cursed brute' wreaking havoc across the sea in the land of the Danes. The action of the 3000-line Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, the only Germanic epic to survive complete, centres on the young hero's bloody battles with not only the murderous, swamp-inhabiting Grendel, but also the unearthly creature's equally terrifying mother and, decades later back in the warrior's Geatland, in southern Sweden, an enraged treasure-hoarding dragon. Amid gruesome scenes of tearing flesh, ripping sinews and a posthumous decapitation a day's swim downwards to the monsters' lake-bottom abode, the poem depicts heroism and envy, imparts wisdom on fate and the exercise of individual will, and warns of the brittleness of life and the dangers of pride, of ignoring eternal rewards. Seamus Heaney's rich and evenly poised translation is a thrilling trove of vocabulary, alliteration, metre, cadence and melody to be savoured in their own right. When the giant Grendel - variously described as corpse-maker, terror-monger, hell-brute from the demon's mere, guilt-fouled fiend, one of Cain's clan, a fatherless creature, impervious to the blade - is horrifically injured by Beowulf's vice-like grip: 'He is hasped and hooped and hirpling in pain,
limping and looped in it. Like a man outlawed
for wickedness, he must await
the mighty judgement of God in majesty.' Written some time in the closing centuries of the first millennium, the original poem was the first in a European vernacular language. A glance at the all but indecipherable Old English, reproduced as parallel text beside just the first page of the translation, confirms that Heaney's is indeed a translation from another language. And a flick through other modern English renderings shows just how much he has made the poem his own. With glosses in the margins and family trees at the back of the book to guide the newcomer through the story and its dynasties, this eminently readable version is accessible to the uninitiated reader of poetry. As Heaney relates in the introduction, it was the grand, measured speech of his father's male relatives in his native Derry which suggested the translated poem's tune. But it was the young poet-translator's discovery of words common to both Beowulf and the everyday language of his forebears, and especially that of his aunts when he was a child, that was his first step towards reconciling the Irish his family once spoke with the English tongue brought to his homeland during the Ulster plantations. Heaney acts on the same universalizing impulse as his compatriot Joyce, whose Finnegans Wake strives to transcend the boundaries drawn by any single language. In translating Beowulf, he not only celebrates his own linguistic heritage, but takes another step across fading frontiers into the unbounded polyglot world of all language.
Rating:
Summary: What a read!
Review: Look, you know you have wanted to read this epic poem since it was first assigned to you in high school. I for one never quite got around to reading it until this translation came out. It has the reputation of being opaque and the narrative thread can seem hopelessly confusing. With this wonderful translation Seamus Heany makes it such a wonderful read and the story's simplicity is so clear that you will wonder what all the fuss and difficulty was about. Yet this translation tells the tale with great power and beauty. Mr. Heany also provides us with a nice introduction and an essential set of family trees in the back. I know this is one of those things we are supposed to read and for that reason many avoid it. However, this IS a great read with wonderful images and great monsters and heros that are somehow monumental and ancient but still not hopelessly removed from our time. The original Anglo-Saxon is given on the left hand pages and is wonderful to try and puzzle out. I wish that I had time to learn to read it. What I would REALLY like is a recording of the sound of this being read in the original tongue. More than cool! Mr. Heany also has a disk and tape out where he reads this poem. Very worthwhile.
Rating: 
Summary: Bloody and marvellous.
Review: This Anglo-Saxon epic is most famous for the struggle between the Geat warrior Beowulf and the monster Grendel (plus, later, his avenging mother), who had wreaked bloody terror on the court of the Danish King. But this takes up less than half the poem; the second part is in many ways the more fascinating, interspersing a rush of historical narrative with Beowulf's duel with a 50-foot dragon, roused to bloodlust having been discovered in his hideout, an ancient burial mound in which the survivor of a dying race hid a gold-hoard, a thousand years ago. The modern reader may have to undertake some mental readjustment before s/he can enjoy this poem, notorious bane of English undergraduates the world over. It's not just the language (which would have a pronounced and regrettable influence on 'Beowulf' scholar Tolkien), or antique world-view that tries to reconcile Christianity with a violent warrior culture of battles and blood-feuds. The formal presentation of the narrative can be off-putting, even tedious - the action set-pieces we look forward to go by in a handful of brusque lines, while endless formal speeches and boasts (usually beginning 'X, son of X, spoke') clog up the poem. In other ways, however, the poem seems unexpectedly modern, its form pleasingly complex. Although the narrative events are essentially linear, there is a rich use of flashbacks and flashforwards, constantly undercutting the complacency and elation of the present tense. So, for instance, at a feast celebrating a great victory, the Geat hero is presented with a ring, which, we are immediately told, will be worn by his king on the day he dies, in a battle of 'carnage', where 'Geat corpses covered the field'. Then straight back, without pause, to the feast: 'Applause filled the hall'. 'Beowulf' is, in any case, set in the long distant past: the poem's first line reminds us that this is a story from 'days gone by'. A heavy mood of elegy palls the poem. The anonymous poet celebrates the nobility and bravery of exceptional warriors, recreates with vivid detail a lost aristocratic world obsessed with reputation, and tied to a resonantly-described land and sea; a world of beautiful, exceptionally crafted riches. But these secular pleasures are transient: when gold that has glittered throughout the poem, and has inspired the slaughter of many men, is buried under a mound, the poet sardonically notes: 'gold under gravel, gone to earth,/as useless to men now as it ever was'. This is why those formal speeches, with their insistence on names, families, titles, places and histories, are so important - they are the futile attempt by man to create a bulwark of order against the inevitability of death. This hierarchy contrasts with the darkness and formlessness of Grendel and his realm, as shadowy and undiscriminating as Death itself. He is not Death, though, but a descendent of Cain, a visual emblem of man's sin and its continuity - later the collapse of a dynasty is similarly caused by the murder of a brother. Beowulf is the greatest of heroes, valiant, skilful, intelligent, but generous and humorous, too: ultimately, however, his fate is that of all - 'Famous for his deeds/a warrior may be, but it remains a mystery/where his life will end'. Seamus Heaney's translation has earned the usual begrudging nit-picking from academics, who seem to forget that a poem is not a museum piece, but a living thing. Especially when read aloud, as such a poem should be, Heaney's modestly-concealed achievement becomes apparent - in recreating the alliterative energy, atmosphere and ultimately tragic mood of the original, he brings a long dead world to life. His introduction to the epic, its origins, critical history and possible meanings is a lovely prose poem in itself, although the part about how he came to translate 'Beowulf' is a self-parodic exercise in critical political correctness.
Rating:
Summary: A clear, poetic, excellent translation
Review: Seamus Heaney gives us an excellent translation of this earliest known Anglo-Saxon literary work. "Beowulf" is a poem consisting of a little over 3000 lines detailing the exploits of its title character, a prince of the Geats. The plot is simple: Hrothgar, King of the Danes, is unable to defend his people from the attacks of a monster called Grendel. Beowulf decides to help Hrothgar and sails from Geatland (an area that is now southern Sweden) to Denmark to fight Grendel. After making short work of the beast, Beowulf is rewarded handsomely by the Danes, but then he has to answer to Grendel's mother, who has come to avenge the death her son. Beowulf chases her to her underwater lair and beheads her, winning even more acclaim from the Danes. Beowulf sails back home, where he becomes the king of the Geats after his uncle and nephew are slain in battle. Fifty years pass, and a dragon begins to terrorize the Geats after an item is stolen from its treasure hoard. (So that's where Tolkien got the main idea for "The Hobbit.") Beowulf, ever the protector of his people, goes to fight the dragon and manages to kill it but is mortally wounded in the combat, partially due to the cowardice of his retinue. The Geats burn his body in a funeral pyre, fearful that now their leader is gone they will be easy prey for their enemies the Swedes, Franks, and Frisians. An interesting point about Beowulf's character is what Heaney refers to in the Introduction as the "Germanic warrior code": Everything Beowulf does has a sense of fairness and honor about it. When he learns that Grendel does not use weapons, he puts aside his sword and chooses to fight the beast barehanded; when he prays to God before the fight, he asks that "the Divine Lord in His wisdom grant the glory of victory to whichever side He sees fit" rather than victory be given prejudicially to himself. He feels that honor must be earned through bravery and that it's better to avenge the murder of loved ones than to mourn their loss. Also interesting are the Biblical references that reflect the poet's Christianity; for example, it is mentioned that Grendel is, like all monsters, a descendant of the murderous Cain of the Old Testament. The Introduction is every bit as entertaining as the poem itself. Heaney explains how instead of doing a literal translation, he was careful to choose words for their alliteration and accentuation to make the epic sound like a poem in modern English; he also makes liberal use of modern idioms for the sake of clarity. By Heaney's skill, the past ten or twelve centuries shrink away and the curtain is drawn back from a window that gives us an authentic medieval view.
Rating: 
Summary: The New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
Review: The Translation By Seamus Heaney displayed a incredible tail of the medieval times. Though most of the items were far from reality it was displayed in a well written manner.
The famous Beowulf, hero, king, friend, with his features of loyalty, courage, and love was the all time perfect warrior. Seamus made Beowulf out to be an incredible character in the poem. Beowulf grew up knowing that he was going to be something of importance in his future. The poem was unique by the way it showed such a long transitional period of ones life. It showed Beowulfs life from adolescence to adulthood. In his youth Beowulf was already showing qualities of a magnificient warrior. Though he would not need to use those qualities for some time, they were there. Beowulf's defeat of Grendel, and Grendel's mother proved his reputation for his acts of bravery and established him as a hero to all.
One thing about the poem that was not understood is why Seamus in the begining of the poem focused on Beowulf as an child and in the second part of the poem focused on Beowulf in his older years. Leaving out the middle of Beowulf's life. Though Seamus in a strange way showed what happen in the middle of Beowulf's life trough the other characters and sutuations. Beowulf in his older years showed those king like virtues by becoming a king and treating his people they he would want to be treated. Beowulf being the great hero and king he was even risked his life for his peole and fought the dragon himself to save his people.
The poem in itself was fairly decent with a bit of a twist. Seamus used very good transitions and a well thought out choice of vocabulary. Seamus also wrote the poem in a well natured way. TJW Young
3/3/02
Rating:
Summary: A New Reading of the Classic
Review: About six months ago I submitted a review of Burton Raffel's version of Beowulf in which I stated that I was glad I read the poem again. I now have the pleasure of reviewing a "New Verse" translation of the epic by none less than the Nobel winning Seamus Heaney. At first glance, I was hoping for something majestic or even awe inspiring from this great modern poet. What I got was a Beowulf for the modern age. The storytelling is crisp and clear. The poetry, while a little more difficult at times than it needs to be, attempts to follow the metre and style of the original Old English. Beowulf is without a doubt a grand epic which needs a careful reading to pick up the nuances of style and language specific to itself. Heaney makes no apologies for the difficulty of the poem. The reader must work to get the most out of the epic that he or she can. But the careful reader will be rewarded. There are many critics who feel that Mr. Heaney has gone too far to modernize the text of the poem. Some have said that Heaney makes his Beowulf too Irish by his use of traditional Irish words. With this I disagree. A translator necessarily brings his own style and mannerisms to the work. A reading of the introduction to the work helps to explain the translator's goals and ultimate word choices. The intoduction is quite valuable and for a change in works of this type quite readable. What we have here is a reading for modern society. Heaney presents the work without turning it into a novel for the pop generation. He presents the poem in verse that modern readers can sink their collective teeth into. He does not dumb down the work for easy consumption. As I said of another addition to this poem, read it you'll be glad you did. And you may even enjoy it in the process.
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