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Beowulf: A New Verse Translation Paperback - 2001
by Seamus Heaney (Editor)
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Composed toward the end of the first millennium, "Beowulf" is the classic Northern epic of a hero's triumphs as a young warrior and his fated death as a defender of his people. In his new translation--a national bestseller that is the winner of the Whitbread Award--Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney has produced a work that is both true, line by line, to the original poem and a fundamental expression of his own creative gift. (Poetry)
About this book
Beowulf, composed between the seventh and tenth centuries, is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and, later, from Grendel's mother. He returns to his own country and dies in old age in a vivid battle against a dragon. The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and living on in the exhausted aftermath. Heaney's celebrated translation honours what is remote and intuits what is uncannily familiar, at the end of the twentieth century, in this founding masterpiece of English poetry. Now, for the first time, the Old English text - which survived only in a single scorched manuscript, now held in the British Museum - can be read in conjunction with the translation on facing pages. Includes bibliographical references (p. 251-255).
Summary
Composed toward the end of the first millennium, Beowulf is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and, later, from Grendel’s mother. He then returns to his own country and dies in old age in a vivid fight against a dragon. The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then having to live on in the exhausted aftermath. In the contours of this story, at once remote and uncannily familiar at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney finds a resonance that summons power to the poetry from deep beneath its surface. Drawn to what he has called the “four-squareness of the utterance” in Beowulf and its immense emotional credibility, Heaney gives these epic qualities new and convincing reality for the contemporary reader.
Reader reviews for Beowulf: A New Verse Translation
Review summary
Most reviewers praise Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf as a clear, musical, and faithful translation that keeps Anglo-Saxon features while reading smoothly in modern English. The facing-page Old English, notes, and glossary are widely valued—useful to learners and inviting to first-time readers—and several say it rekindled interest in the original and other translations; some also note its Tolkien resonances. A minority found the poem or commentary dry, but the edition is frequently recommended to newcomers.
Readers say this book is:
accessiblelyricalfaithfuleducationalengagingquick readwell-annotatedscholarlyoccasionally dryrecommended for newcomersWrite a review for this book
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From the publisher
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Details
- Title Beowulf: A New Verse Translation
- Author Seamus Heaney (Editor)
- Binding Paperback
- Edition [ Edition: Repri
- Pages 256
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher W. W. Norton & Company, New York
- Publication date 2001-02-17
- Features Table of Contents
- ISBN 9780393320978 / 0393320979
- Weight 0.6 lbs (0.27 kg)
- Dimensions 8.3 x 6.12 x 0.69 in (21.08 x 15.54 x 1.75 cm)
- Reading level 1090
-
Themes
- Chronological Period: Ancient (To 499 A.D.)
- Chronological Period: Medieval (500-1453) Studies
- Cultural Region: Scandinavian
- Category Poetry
- Library of Congress subjects Heroes, Dragons
- Library of Congress Catalogue Number 99023209
- Dewey Decimal Code 829.3
Media reviews
Citations
- Entertainment Weekly, 02/09/2001, Page 69
- New York Times, 02/04/2001, Page 32
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