Beowulf

Published by Tantor Media, Inc

Narrated by Rosalyn Landor

When sleep was at its deepest, night at its blackest, up from the mist-filled marsh came Grendel stalking...

Thus begins the battle between good and evil, for lying in wait and anxious to challenge the ogre Grendel is a young man, strong-willed and fire-hearted. This man is Beowulf, whose heroic dragon-slaying deeds were sung in the courts of Anglo-Saxon England more than a thousand years ago.

Beowulf is our only native English heroic epic. In the figure of Beowulf, the Scandinavian warrior, and his struggles against monsters, the unknown author depicts the life and outlook of a pagan age. The poem is a subtle blending of themes-the conflict of good and evil, and an examination of heroism. Its skillful arrangement of incidents and use of contrast and parallel show it to be the product of a highly sophisticated culture.

This version of Beowulf is the translation by Francis B. Gummere.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Mar 29, 2010
• ISBN: 9781400185993

Reviews for Beowulf

[ireadthereforeiam · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This translated version has the Olde English verse written on the left page, and the modern English verse on the right page. As Heaney states in the introduction, he has tried with this translation to keep the language simple and as the original intended the meaning to be. He favoured meaning over rhyme, and as a consequence there is little rhyme. But the rhythm is certainly there and it reads very well. I was surprised at how accessible the story was, and how drawn in I was. There seemed to be some glaringly obvious similarities in storyline to The Hobbit...I am unsure as to whether this has been stated before I came to the conclusion, but is seemed so to me. The parts of the story that did get complicated were the family lineages and connections. But that didn't detract from the legend of Beowulf being as grand and fearsome as ever

[catym_14 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Warrior Beowulf saves the Danes from the monster Grendel and then Grendel's mother and then many years later does battle against a dragon guarding a hoard of gold.I loved reading this. The poetry of the Heaney translation is very vivid and flowing, and creates a great atmosphere of fighting and carousing and boasting warriors and epic battle against mythical beasts. The story is dark and sometimes gruesome, and it is not at all hard to imagine the poem being recited around the fire by Anglo-Saxon warriors, passing round the cup of mead as the tale unfolds.I am definitely going to pick up a literal/glossed translation at some point and read it again, and try to make more sense of the original text.

[wealhtheowwylfing · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

By far my favorite translation, although the least faithful to the original text. Heaney was particularly good at preserving the alliteration, rhythm, and feeling of a fast-paced oral poem. It's not a perfect translation. Sometimes he added more archaic words to the mix (like his translation "tarn-hag" for mere-wif, when water-witch would do just as well; or "keshes" for fen-gelad, when I think just saying fen paths gives all the meaning one needs), which on the one hand, adds to the feel of the poem, but on the other, rather obscures the meaning. But this translation also has a beautiful mastery of metaphorical language, and an ability to convey mood and emotion like no other translation I've come across. An excellent example of this is lines 3143-55:
On a height they kindled the hugest of all
funeral fires; fumes of woodsmoke
billowed darkly up, the blaze roared
and drowned out their weeping, wind died down
and flames wrought havoc in the hot bone-house,
burning it to the core. They were disconsolate
and wailed aloud for their lord's decease.
A Geat woman too sang out in grief;
with hair bound up, she unburdened herself
of her worst fears, a wild litany
of nightmare and lament: her nation invaded,
enemies on the rampage, bodies in piles,
slavery and abasement. Heaven swallowed the smoke.
A fitting end to Beowulf the hero and king, and a wonderful read for any fan of epic tales.

[bezoar44 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This translation (by Seamus Heaney) of Beowulf has a plain-spoken elegance. The layout - original Anglo-Saxon on the left page, Heaney translation on the right -- makes it possible to read the original poem aloud for its gorgeous alliteration and rolling rhythm. Still, the world of the poem is dismal. Life is hard; death is fated. Men kill one another, or monsters kill them. Everyone is so poor (by modern standards) that an individual shirt of ring-mail is a family heirloom, handed down for generations, or given by a king to a follower as a major mark of favor. In such a world, listening to good poetry might be one of the few lasting pleasures. The story of Beowulf is tedious; the poetry, transcendent.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good introduction. The text has a facing prose translation, which will be helpful for the way I'm planning to use it -- for practising my Anglo-Saxon translations.

Heaney's translation would still be my pick for casual reading, though.

[neverstopreading-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have read Beowulf prior to this translation, and I've read Heaney prior to this. Coming into it I loved both story and translator. This is a very readable and poetic translation. It also contains the old English on the left, if you, like me, like to compare translations with the original.

[janepriceestrada · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This translation of Beowulf is excellent. It captures the spirit of the poetry without becoming too dense to read. I had read excerpts of the story for various classes and never enjoyed it. It is definitely something that you have to read the entire thing to find interesting.

[westfargolibrary · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Written between the 7th & 10th century in Old English, Heaney's translation brings this masterpiece to life! Beowulf is the story of a warrior who journeys from Sweden to rescue the Danes from the monster Grendel. This edition is beautifully illustrated with photos of ships, weapons, jewelry, and artwork.

[jediliska · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's a classic! Who wouldn't love having this in their library?

[juva_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The classic epic about a warrior and monster-slayer. Beowulf is a powerful warrior that makes his name and fortune by slaying monsters. Finally in his old age he is killed by a dragon. That's right, Beowulf died in the coolest way imaginable. There is a lot of Nordic ass-kicking in this poem.

[joyhclark · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Words cannot express my hatred for this book. I've been forced to read it 3 times throughout high school and college. If I'm ever forced to read it again, I may have to poke my eyes out. Seriously, I hate it that much.

[jinjifore · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This review refers to the facsmile version of the Cotton manuscript of Beowulf.The text of Beowulf as we know it today is based on a single surviving manuscript, and that sole manuscript was damaged in a fire, to the extent that the last word or so of nearly every line of the poem was obliterated. This copy is a facsimile reproduction of that manuscript, with a facing-page transliteration by Norman Davis.This is, admittedly, not a version of the poem that will be useful to the majority of readers. For one thing, the text is transcribed but not translated, and the notes refer to the textual issues and not to the words of the poem itself. It's not even a particularly useful text for the purposes of translation, since, again, the notes do not refer to linguistic issues, but rather to issues of the text itself.But to a student of Old English who wishes to have a glimpse into the textual history of the most famous Old English poem, this is an invaluable work. The story of the Cotton manuscript is in itself an epic saga, and its narrow survival emphasizes the volumes of Old English literature that did not survive, and will always be lost to us.

[merechristian · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I have to hand it to J. R. R. Tolkien. Not only was he the author of such landmark works as The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, among others, but he had an ability that I freely admit I don't possess. That is the ability to appreciate a literary work even if he strongly disagrees with it. Tolkien was able to separate his obvious disagreement (obvious if you compare his ideas and themes in LOTR, and how they disagree with some of those in Beowulf, which is being reviewed herein), from his analytical and scholarly opinion. In fact, it was Tolkien's essay, “Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics”, that elevated the epic from a piece of literature often looked down upon, to the important piece of literature that is given much scholarly study the past seventy years.Beowulf tells us the story of the eponymous Geatish hero who slew many monsters and enemies. The epic is likely only part of a larger epic, the editor of my Barnes and Noble Classics edition says some have conjectured, and we only have the disparate surviving parts of the untitled manuscript, which we proceeded to name Beowulf after the main protagonist. The surviving pieces of whatever once was the epic Old English poem chronicle three different battles that Beowulf fights. These are the battle against two demonic, super-human monsters, Grendel and his mother, to aid a foreign king to whom he owes a debt for previous military service to his family, and then to save his realm (of which he eventually becomes king after the current king and his son are murdered) from the evil dragon that would destroy his people.I have to say that this work is one that I absolutely loathe. When I was younger, I loved it, but now, around sixteen years later, I can not see why I liked it so much. I can see why Professor Tolkien enjoyed it so much, as on the merits, it is well-written, and certainly pulls the reader into the tale of heroes, of a warrior for God who does manly deeds of valor, and yet has true humility.Tolkien used a number of ideas and references from Beowulf in his own works. I will not go into all of them that I noticed, or I could find examples of in other sources, but two such instances of Beowulf inspiring the Middle-Earth Legendarium are structure of the Rohirrim and the nation of Rohan in LOTR, and the dragon Smaug, his treasure-hoard, stolen cup, and so forth in the The Hobbit. Yet Tolkien clearly believed, as I do, that warfare was evil, though sometimes necessary, and that not fighting is preferable (but not cowardice), unless you have to. He also attacked the idea, through the characters of Boromir and Eowyn, the ideas of “glory in battle” or of war ever being “glorious”. Yet he was able to separate his views from his opinion of Beowulf. I can not do so.I hate violence. I loathe violence. I believe that violence is a necessary evil at times, but that it is still evil. The cause can be righteous, but violence never is. One ought to never feel anything but regret if they have to use violence, and should never enjoy violence. To enjoy violence or war is evil. To enjoy others' suffering is evil. If violence is necessary, it should be employed without hesitation, but it should be always regretted that we live in a sinful world where violence is necessary, and never enjoyed. Beowulf is an epic rife with references to the glory of battle, and the joy of fighting, and it morally makes me sick to my stomach. I can think nothing good of it for that reason, despite it having merits. I am not like Tolkien. I can not separate my personal moral views from the work in question. I can give leeway for a work if it is a myth (including modern fantasy works like The Wheel of Time, that has different mores, but in some areas, such as the ethics of war, I can not tolerate such (what I consider to be) evil views. I do not have this talent that Tolkien had for separating his views from his appreciation of a work, and I have no inclination to ever have said “talent”.

[katieloucks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

pretty decent - I probably wouldn't have read it if I weren't in some college classes that went over it, but I like it

[michael5rimmer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Adapted by actor Julian Glover as a one-man show he could put on between film roles, this is an abridgement of the Old English poem. Glover has pared away much of the peripheral material (genealogies, etc.) and presents the core of Beowulf's adventures: the battles with Grendel, Grendel's mother and the dragon.

This is a good, modern abridgement and as an introduction to the full poem is excellent. I saw a televised performance of the show a couple of years ago and it was very effective.

The text is illuminated with illustrations by Shelia Mackie, which enrich the text with depictions of Anglo-Saxon artefacts, animals and monsters.

[carlym_35 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Seamus Heaney's translation made me understand why this story has survived this long. He gives it vigor, something that translated works often lack, and this makes reading it a pleasure.

[catherinestead · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Warrior Beowulf saves the Danes from the monster Grendel and then Grendel's mother and then many years later does battle against a dragon guarding a hoard of gold.I loved reading this. The poetry of the Heaney translation is very vivid and flowing, and creates a great atmosphere of fighting and carousing and boasting warriors and epic battle against mythical beasts. The story is dark and sometimes gruesome, and it is not at all hard to imagine the poem being recited around the fire by Anglo-Saxon warriors, passing round the cup of mead as the tale unfolds.I am definitely going to pick up a literal/glossed translation at some point and read it again, and try to make more sense of the original text.

[jrissman_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"Beowulf" is an old English poem written some time between the 8th and 11th centuries. It tells of Beowulf, a great hero among the Geats, who travels to assist the Danish king Hrothgar in defeating a monster that has been killing and eating his warriors. I won't discuss the poem's plot or content here, as plenty of summaries are available elsewhere. I will briefly comment that the plotline was solid and Beowulf was both moral and heroic, even by modern standards, which was contrary to my expectations. I anticipated a meandering plot and glorification of violence against humans, which were both features of the "Saga of the Volsungs," an Icelandic epic about the warrior Sigurd that dates from several hundred years after Beowulf.I picked the translation by Seamus Heaney after researching all of the in-print options, including one by J.R.R. Tolkien released in 2014. Heaney has translated the poem into verse, and he provides a lengthy introduction to the work that includes some details on choices he made in the course of translation. He has done a marvelous job: the text is exciting and flows smoothly and naturally. It is comfortable to read, and it goes quickly (maybe a few hours of reading), as the poem is not overly long.I can unhesitatingly recommend "Beowulf" to fans of old legends and myths, as well as to modern Fantasy readers and even gamers who like Norse-inspired settings. It is easy to see how Beowulf has influenced modern works such as "The Hobbit" (particularly as pertains to the dragon Smaug) and computer games such as the "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" (which is set in a Norse-inspired fantasy world, complete with a king named Hrothgar in a Heorot-like mead hall).

[ecataldi-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't think I have read Beowulf since high school so this was a real treat - I LOVED this translation. Bro, fuck this shit, #blessed, you had me at the start. Minus the few words I just said - it doesn't read too modern - it's certainly no longer in Old English, but it doesn't feel "too" modern - just a touch. I also loved the introduction, Maria Dahvana Headley seems like one cool motherf-er and I would love to hang out with her. I mean, hell, she named her kid Grimoire! I am not a scholar - but I appreciated learning more about the history behind different translations and it was nice to re-visit this classic.

[kslade-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really good. Makes me want to learn the original language.

[greeniezona · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Okay, I had absolutely no prior experience with the Beowulf story somehow before this book. I knew there was a monster? That the original was Old English and it took place in the North? That was really somehow it. I'd always intended to read the Seamus Heaney translation someday, but when I heard there was a radical new (feminist?) translation out there, I impulsively bought a copy.I had a lot of fun with this. I loved the swagger and the Bro! of it. I have spent some serious tie thinking about whether I could censor out the incest on the fly and read this aloud for family story time. I think this would be so much fun to read out loud. There is so much alliteration and rhythm and other good fun stuff to sink my teeth into. I am sure this translation wouldn't be for everyone, but it did certainly work for me!

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I actually explored several different translations and this was the final one I read. Interesting translation; very modern with lots of swearing. I enjoyed studying Beowulf and the varieties of thoughts on this Old English, probably the first English work. A clash of pagan and Christian. The time period is shortly after the fall of Rome. Involves the Anglo Saxon, the Danes. Battles with Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon, much of which brings to mind the Hobbit. Tolkien was one of the translators of Beowulf and it strongly influenced his own works.

[dbsovereign · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An awakening for me, this book has opened up the classic and made it very accessible. My purist literature professor friend refers to it as an abomination since she can read it in its original. I, on the other hand, am most appreciative of this new translation and am loving it...[[in progress]]

[seriousgrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Everyone raves about Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf and I have to wonder, is it just the translation or could the accompanying gorgeous illustrations and photography have something to do with it? Everyone knows the story of Beowulf the mighty warrior from an English lit class. As a poem, it is the courageous story of a man who learns of a King's annual nightmare. A monster named Grendel destroys fifteen knights a year without fail and has been doing so for the past twelve years. Beowulf, upon hearing this sad tale, takes it upon himself to vanquish Grendel only to face Grendel's vengeful mother. Yeah, he kills her, too. Then there's the fire-breathing dragon (think Bilbo Baggins) who tragically wins over Beowulf. In truth, I had forgotten the graphic violence of men being mauled by the monster Grendel. The clash is pretty dramatic. It would make a great movie. Wait. Knowing my knowledge of movies...it probably is.

[yarb_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Heaney is a poet I admire and enjoy in small doses rather than inhale, but his Beowulf is unputdownable. His feel for the texture, tenor and tempo of the Anglo Saxon is just spot-on, and reading this I noticed the correspondences with his own poetry, like that weighty, measured pacing, and the way his images unfold gradually. As a bonus he throws in a handful of Ulster dialect words like "bawn" (castle/fort/hall) and "graith" (gear, equipment) which feel totally apt and give a sense of the original's otherness. Overall the impression is of a great poet in his element.As for Beowulf itself, it's a simple tale, isn't it? Boy meets monster, boy grapples monster, boy meet's monster's mom... I'd forgotten that Grendel, along with all trolls and their ilk, is asserted by the poet to be the offspring of Cain. I'd also forgotten all about the climactic battle with the dragon, which is described much more clearly than are Grendel or his mother, and conforms (unsurprisingly given the intermediation of Tolkien) near-identically with the traditional fantasy image of the fire-breathing, treasure-hoarding, poison-breathing, winged serpent.

[books9n9pickles · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After reading The Mere Wife, of course I had to go back and read Beowulf! I originally read most of it in high school, though I'm pretty sure we left out the digressions. I can still remember the way Ms. Philbin said "Grendel's mother!" and I actually still have her drawing of Grendel in my scrapbook of things-that-used-to-hang-on-my-walls.

It was interesting to have the old English and the modern side by side, as I was occasionally able to pick out words that seemed almost identical to what they are today, or spot similarities. I was annoyed, however, by Heaney's decision to use some of his family's old Celtic words in the text--wasn't the whole point of the translation to make this epic accessible to a modern audience?

Anyway, I couldn't flag passages because this was a library book, so no quote roundup this time. Though I do remember that the phrase "bone-house" was used several times to, it seemed to me, refer to the body, or at least the rib cage. I absolutely love the imagery, so it stuck!

And now back to The Mere Wife for my second reading!

[sunyidean · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Stunning, subversive, and beautiful. I loved Heaney's version of Beowulf but this was truly lovely and wild, with all the piss taking braggadaxious rollicking humor and bittersweet angry tragedy of the original. In an academic sense this is a brilliant translation. And in a literary sense it's an enormously enjoyable read.

I would LOVE to see this done as a play or performance. I can envision it so easily in my head. Definitely going to read The Mere Wife.

[tobinelliott · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The last of my four "classic" tales (the others being The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aenead).

I think I enjoyed this one more than The Aenead, simply because it was more to the point, however despite the brevity of this story overall, it still seemed to ramble.

Oh, and Beowulf takes on a dragon? Who knew? Not I!

Once again, I find myself "knowing" the story of Beowulf, until I go through the narrative and—in this case—realize I knew the first half only. The parts where Beowulf kicks Grendel's ass, then Grendel's mother's ass. I thought that was where it ended, to be quite honest.

(Sidenote: after having read this, does anyone else have a hankering for Weird Al Yankovic to take on Fountain's of Wayne's Stacy's Mom song and change it to a parody called Grendel's Mom? End of sidenote.)

After the big, glorious battles of The Iliad and The Odyssey, I found, what should have been the most epic of battles here somewhat...truncated? Short? Underwhelming?

So, overall, while I'm very glad I know the full story now, and I'm glad I went through this epic poem, I was hoping for a bit more.

[dandelionroots · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was aight, ancient, anonymous verse.

[terence_johnson-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thoroughly enjoyed this modern translation, was fun hearing the characters speak in today's language.