Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5011 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
What could be a more promising poetic project than the greatest of early English poems, Beowulf, newly translated by arguably the greatest of living poets writing in English, Seamus Heaney? The literary pedigree of this great fabular epic in the hands of Nobel Laureate Heaney matches Ted Hughes' award-winning rewrite of Ovid's Metamorphosis, Tales from Ovid. Heaney has chosen the plain, prosaic yet subtly cadenced vernacular of his Northern Irish roots as the poetic voice into which he renders this famous Anglo-Saxon fabular epic of a dragon-slaying Danish warrior. The result is an engaging evocation of the highly alliterative, densely metaphorical texture of Anglo-Saxon verse, which is famously hard to capture in modern English poetic forms.

"It's narrative elements may belong to a previous age but as a work of art it lives in the present," writes Heaney of this tale of monstrous, murderous Grendel, heroic, kingly Beowulf, blood-feuds, dragon-slaying and spiritual grace. The very plain-spokenness of Heaney's translation makes it admirably easy to read and understand, whilst rendering an often true translation at a galloping narrative pace. Heaney's Beowulf opens up one of the most famous founding epics of European literature to a modern world of new readers. --James Barry

Synopsis
Composed towards the end of the first millennium of our era, the Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf" is a Northern epic and a classic of European literature. In this new translation, Seamus Heaney has produced a work that is true, line by line, to the original poem.

Customer Reviews

Epic stuff!
This was my first encounter with Beowulf, (I haven't seen the film either). I chose the bilingual edition to see what the Old English looked like and although I could barely recognise a word, it did help to see the shape, metre and style of the original. Heaney's translation is easy to read, very straight-forward in language, and the accompanying essay helps you see how much work goes into preserving some of the form of the original in the modern translation.
With the original and Heaney's version printed side by side, it affected the way I read it. I tended to readi it aloud to myself (but in my head), trying to see the translation's cadence resonating with the original's two parts to each line. This was novel for me and enjoyable for one who doesn't normally do poetry!
As a story, you can see why it survives, but there is too much pontificating on the glories of war, fighting and serving the king and not enough action; Beowulf's dispatching of Grendel seemed to be little more than arm-wrestling and was over in a couple of pages.
I'm glad I read it and am sure I will refer to it again.

Monotonous
I was very much looking forward to listening to 'Beowulf' read by its illustrious author/translator. Audiobooks read by their authors must be as credible as anything can be - or so I thought. Whilst I am not denying the skill displayed in this beautifully poetic translation, the soft Irish tones of Seamus Heaney are not for me, atleast, not after the first 20 minutes of listening. The descriptive passages are luxurious, the battle scenes full of action, the characters heroic yet vulnerable. So where is the enthusiasm in the reader's voice, where the awe, the admiration for the story? I am sure no teacher or casting director would have ever freely chosen Mr Heaney as The Narrator for any performance or playreading. Seamus Heaney has indeed given us a brilliant and admirable translation, but I strongly recommend that he restricts his professional activities to the written and not the spoken word.

Englands Oldest Legend!!!!!!
originally told round the bonfire and in small halls until it was finally written down in the 7th century(ish) after it was brought to england by the invading anglo-saxons/english. This is the oldest surviving written text in english history (to be found in the British library) This tells the story about a Swedish warrior who goes back to his native Denmark to defend the people against a man eating monster called Grendal. But dont forget about gredals mother or the flame throwing dragon. A story of germanic honour, courage and loyalty. Read it here in both modern and olde english. Fantastic stuff, i couldnt put it down. A true classic.