- Paperback: 112 pages
- Publisher: Norton; New edition edition (2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0571203760
- ISBN-13: 978-0571203765
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (178 customer reviews)
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First Sentence
So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grendel, "Finally, something I can sink my teeth in".,
By
This review is from: Beowulf A New Verse Translation Bilingual Edition (Paperback)
Actually Grendel did not say that. However this translation is something that you can sink your teeth in. There is a 22-page introduction. At first you think it is too long. After reading the introduction you realize it is too short and knowing more about what Seamus Heaney accomplished, you wish half the book were the introduction. In the introduction He covers references to J.R.R. Tolkien's ""Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics", the average readers needed background knowledge and the reason he chose the particular words for this translation.It is the words he chose to use and method of applying them that makes this translation palatable to the average reader. It may also be this translation that may grate on some people. This is like comparing the King James Version of the Bible to the Good News Bible. (However he is not transliterating or paraphrasing) The main idea is that this would be the translation if you were to verbalize the saga. There are 213 numbers pages with the original text on the left page. The text is numbers to correspond with numbers on the translated right page. On the far right is a synopsis of what you are reading. This synopsis helps keep you from wandering from the text to speculate on what is really being said. At the end of the book is a diagram of the family trees and this helps visualize how the different clans are related. I found it handy to keep a dictionary with me as he uses a wide variety of words as in different context than most novels or texts use them. Still the language is so clear that if you do not mind glossing over these words you will still get the story and enjoy reading the adventure.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A translation worthy of the epic itself,
By Myrr (Midwest, United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Beowulf (Hardcover)
I have tried reading "Beowulf" four times before, each time with a different translation, but couldn't get past 40 pages on account of boredom. The sentenses dragged on and on, causing the story to appear monotonous and tedious, and the slowly-unfolding events in it - even slower. When the new verse translation by Seamus Heaney came out, I decided to give the book one last chance... and I was not disappointed! Compared with previous editions of "Beowulf", this one was a breath of fresh wind. Not only was Heaney's verse clear, smooth, and flowing, but it redeemed the story from the dull and the obvious and returned it its epic form. The preachy "beholds", "yeas", and "los", that the previous translators seemed to favor, are gone at last, yielding their places to the modern, dynamic words. This edition is bi-lingual, with the original Anglo-Saxon verse of the text printed opposite of Heaney's. This added to my enjoyment of the epic, and served as a constant reminder of its antiquity - for it is almost 1200 years old. But despite of its age, "Beowulf" looks surprisingly modern. Even though there are no dragons to battle with nowadays, there are even more terrible phantoms lurking inside of us, needing to be fought and defeated.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A poetic presentation of Western Civilization,
By Billax (Orinda, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Beowulf (Hardcover)
This classic Anglo-Saxon poem was created by an unknown poet sometime between 700 and 1000 A.D. It was reduced to writing much later than that and has been turned into modern English prose by numerous translators. Since the nineteenth century, Beowulf has been a staple in college prep English classes throughout the English-speaking world. Nobel laureate in poetry, Seamus Heaney has created a glistening translation of Beowulf. It shines in part because it is a translation in poetic form and in part because Heaney is an Ulster-born Irishman whose native tongue emphasizes the harsh consonants that drive the mood and meter of Beowulf. This book won England's prestigious Whitbread Award. We meet Beowulf as a young warrior from Southern Sweden who travels to Denmark to slay the Dragon Grendel. After defeating Grendel, he has little time to boast because Grendel's mother seeks revenge for the death of her son. Here is Heaney describing the place where Grendel's mother lives (note that a mere is a lake or pond): "A few miles from here a frost-stiffened wood waits and keeps watch above a mere; the overhanging bank is a maze of tree-roots mirrored in its surface. At night there, something uncanny happens: the water burns. And the mere bottom has never been sounded by the sons of men. On its banks, the heather-stepper halts: the hart in flight from pursuing hounds will turn to face them with firm set horns and die in the wood rather than dive beneath its surface. That is no good place." Beowulf defeats her, in her underwater lair, although it is a close call. From these victories his legend grows. He becomes the King of his land and rules wisely for fifty years. Near the end, yet another dragon marauds the land and Beowulf, even as an old man, is asked to take up the sword again . Once again he slays a dragon, but, this time, the price of victory is his life. The funeral pyre that cradles him also provides lasting glory to his name. The background of this poem is the teutonic warrior tradition of courage, loyalty, honor, generosity and glory. Warriors boast in the mead halls at night and deliver against those boasts by day .... or die trying. This poem is at the very core of Western Civilization and Heaney's translation makes English-speaking readers proud to be the inheritors of that tradition. Here are 200 pages of poetry, with the original Old English poem on the verso and Heaney's contemporary English poem on the recto. Read this book! Everything virtuous about our heritage is on display for your delectation, delight and awe.
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