Muscular. Kennings-filled. Geats, Danes, Swedes, ogreish creatures, and dragons, all involved in bloodthirsty intrigue against each other. An enjoyable read which really brought those Dark times to life for a modern reader. Was Heaney meticulously accurate in his translation? I can't read Anglo-Saxo...
This is an amazing new (not so new anymore) translation of Beowulf that I read years ago when it came out. Seamus Heaney does a fantastic job of this, love, love, love!
Being the only translation of Beowulf I've read, I don't know how it compares to others, but now I don't see why I'd ever want to read another translation. Heaney's translation is so rich and accessible, full of imagery and absorbing detail. (I've also never read any Seamus Heaney before either, and...
I was recently in a bookstore – gasp, right? Who does that? - and I exclaimed aloud, “Who doesn't love Beowulf?” (This wasn't apropos of nothing; I was considering whether to buy Grendel.) The lovely be-tattooed college student clerk who was sort of eavesdropping and talking to us while we went abou...
Beowulf is about a time when fighting monsters and slaying dragons was what gave life meaning. I’m glad I wasn’t living then because I would have ended up as one of those poor helpless guys who were eaten by Grendel the monster. Beowulf is an Old English epic poem that is available in many differe...
I've read this thing like five times now. This was my second time through Heaney's translation, which (like Armitage's translation of Gawain and the Green Knight) conveniently gives the original text on the left side and Heaney's translation on the right. It's wonderful: muscular and powerfully we...
Well, I was right - I wouldn't have gotten through this in book form but listening to it was tolerable. The basic story is exciting enough, and it's been reprised innumerable times both before and after the monk (or monks) sat down in the 11th century (or was it the 9th?) and put pen to parchment.I ...
Read this in two different college classes, the first with a terrible professor and I hated it, the second time with a wonderful professor and I loved it! There is something to be said for teaching style.
I'm afraid I can't say much about this translation, for want of personal ability to compare with the original text. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading it. The structure was quite different of what I'm used to read in English, and this in itself made things more interesting in my eyes. It was high time ...
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