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Composed toward the end of the first millennium of our era, 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 end of the twentieth century, 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.… (més)
Weasel524: Embodies and champions the same spirit/ideals commonly shared by norse mythology, scandanavian sagas, and northern germanic folklore. Significantly longer and different in structure, should that be of concern
PaulRackleff: Michael Crichton had written "Eaters of the Dead" as a means to show Beowulf's story value. The character names and plot line are very similar. Though Crichton changed some elements to make it more interesting than just a copy of Beowulf.
I once had to learn Anglo Saxon in order to study this in the original. I regret that I didn't apply myself to it. Whatever I learnt I've now forgotten. A shame because it would have helped me get my tongue around many of the names. It would also have helped me fully appreciate Heaney's translation. Such a treat; compelling and alive with lashings of mythic import. Heaney skilfully makes it feel like the oral story that it is, invested with lineage and recapitulations. While I love the murky sense of mead-hall there is a spareness to the poem that gives little insight into the humanity that feeds on such epics. The poem feels slightly bastardised as if sections have been omitted and others added. The Christian allusions are so completely out of place and tacked on that surely this must once have been a more ancient story. Re-told or sung in the mead-halls. Unless, it was originally a millennial attempt by Christians to fake an archaic and grounded story. So, unfairly, I've given it merely 4 stars. That said, there is something quite wonderful and enchanting about reading a thousand-year-old poem.
How many wars have been put to rest in a prince’s bed? Few. A bride can bring a little peace, make spears silent for a time, but not long.
I had read only a section of this epic poem about 50 years ago, when I was young and did not really grasp its significance. I chose the audio version for this "read" for a reason: Given that is believed to have been composed in the 8th century about events in the 6th century (though uncertain and surely before the beginning of the 11th century, as I learned the Beowulf manuscript is dated around 1000 A.D., and the poem was not printed until the early 19th century), it is a tale that likely would was told orally over and over before it was written down, in the tradition of the bards of those eras. It's a class good vs. evil saga involving a hero's quest and many of the other elements of a heroic tale: war, pride, courage, hubris. ( )
An astounding poem presenting perfectly England's northern german and nordic heritage. It is a truly epic tale that captures both history and the imagination. Its themes and ideas echo throughout the rest of English literature and fantasy. It is a story that speaks from our bones and I'm glad it now sings through mine. ( )
I read this as part of a three-night read-aloud activity at a cabin-camping event.
Friday night, we read and heard the tale of Beowulf vs. Grendel (Spoiler Alert (SA): Countless sleeping spearmen and Grendal die). The reading lasted about an hour and a half.
Saturday night we read and heard the tale of Beowulf vs. Grendel's mother (SA: Grendel's mother dies). That reading lasted about an hour.
Sunday night concluded the poetry reading with the fight between Beowulf and the Dragon. (SA - Beowulf and the dragon both die). It also took about an hour. During the height of the key battle scene, roars from the far end of the hall (gamers celebrating good fortune) added to, rather than detracted from, the drama of the scene. The group reading experience was pure delight.
Translation Notes: The original tale would have been told aloud in a manner that spoke to the Saxons in their own story-telling tradition. It would feel modern to the original audience, but feels more ancient and rather foreign to an audience of the 21st century, speaking a different language. Most translations, like Burton Raffel's (the version I first read and still love) try to stay true to the style of language and word choice in the single surviving copy of the poem. So the translation feels wondrous, archaic, and a bit foreign.
This translator aimed their work for a different feel. This translator wanted the audience to understand and feel an immediacy, in a very contemporarily modern use of language that brings the reader into the story. It is as if someone in their circle of friends was passing on what just happened, not some musty old-fashioned geek using arcane ways of speaking to convey what some other ancient geezers had said and done.
Thus, the famous first word of the original, "Hwæt!", traditionally rendered variously as "Listen!" or "What!" or "Lo!" , in this translation is "Bro!"
Results: 1-Conversations sparked by this adventure tended to include the observation that "The original author kept throwing in digressions. He couldn't seem to tell the story without interrupting himself with a tangential story."
2- I reveal myself as a bit of a musty old-fashioned geek here, because this very modern retelling was more au courant in language usage than I am. If the slang had echoed the 1970s or 80s, I'd have understood immediately. But young people these days have their own way of talking....
Conclusion: This was an absolutely amazing way to read a book jointly with a dozen other people, as both reader and listener. It provoked fascinating conversations and provided insights into an impromptu storytelling tale.
At only three and a half hours, this was also way shorter than the modern current-events-audio book I'm in the midst of.
At the beginning of the new millennium, one of the surprise successes of the publishing season is a 1,000-year-old masterpiece. The book is ''Beowulf,'' Seamus Heaney's modern English translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic, which was created sometime between the 7th and the 10th centuries.
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And now this is 'an inheritance' - Upright, rudimentary, unshiftably planked In the long ago, yet willable forward
Again and again and again.
(Seamus Heaney ed., 1999).
Dedicatòria
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In memory of Ted Hughes
Seamus Heaney (1999)
To Kate, Julie, and Ben
For Brian and Blake
Burton Raffel (1963)
In memory of Joseph and Winifred Alexander
Michael Alexander (1973)
For Grimoire William Gwenllian Headley, who gestated alongside this book, changing the way I thought about love, bloodfeuds, woman-warriors, and wyrd.
Maria Dahvana Headley (2020)
Primeres paraules
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Hwæt we gardena in geardagum þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Preface
This book is meant to make Beowulf available as poetry who have not studied Old English (Anglo-Saxon) before and to those who have only a rudimentary knowledge of it.
Bro! Tell me we still know how to speak of kings! In the old days, everyone knew what men were: brave, bold, glory-bound.
(translated by Maria Dahvana Headley, 2020)
Introduction
Beowulf is written in the unrhymed four-beat alliteratie meter of Old English poetry.
Of the strength of the Spear-Danes in days gone by we have heard, and of their hero-kings: the prodigious deeds those princes perfomed!
So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness. We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns.
(translated by Seamus Heaney, 1999)
Listen! We have heard of the glory of the Spear-Danes
Hear me! We've heard of Danish heroes, Ancient kings and the glory they cut For themselves, swinging mighty swords!
(translated by Burton Raffel, 1963)
Attend! We have heard of the thriving of the throne of Denmark, how the folk-kings flourished in former days, how those royal athelings earned that glory.
(translated by Michael Alexander, 1973)
How that glory remains in remembrance, Of the Danes and their kings in days gone, The acts and valour of princes of their blood!
(translated by Edwin Morgan, 1952)
Lo! we have heard the glory of the kings of the Spear-Danes in days gone by, how the chieftains wrought mighty deeds.
(translated by R. K. Gordon, 1926)
Yes, we have heard of the glory of the Spear-Danes' Kings in the old days -- how the princes of that people did brave deeds.
(translated by E. Talbot Donaldson, 1966)
Yes! We have heard of years long vanished how Spear-Danes struck sang victory-songs raised from a wasteland walls of glory.
(translated by Frederick Rebsamen, 1991)
Citacions
Darreres paraules
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... And so Beowulf's followers Rode, mourning their beloved leader, Crying that no better king had ever Lived, no prince so mild, no man So open to his people, so deserving of praise.
This was the manner of the mourning of the men of the Geats, sharers in the feast, at the fall of their lord: they said that he was of all the world's kings the gentlest of men, and the most gracious, the kindest to his people, the keenest for fame.
So the Geat-people, his hearth-companions, sorrowed for the lord who had been laid low. They said that of all the kings upon the earth he was the man most gracious and fair-minded, kindest to his people and keenest to win fame.
Thus the Geats all grieved and lamented the noble lord whom they so loved. They cried out that he was, of all the world's kings, the kindest and most courteous man, the most gracious to all, and the keenest for glory.
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This work is any complete, unabridged translation of Beowulf. The Seamus Heaney translation is not a separate work from the other complete, unabridged translations. To quote the FAQ on combining - "A work brings together all different copies of a book, regardless of edition, title variation, or language."
Based on currently accepted LibraryThing convention, the Norton Critical Edition is treated as a separate work, ostensibly due to the extensive additional, original material included.
The Finnsburg fragment is NOT part of the actual Beowulf - it's a separate text that has, unfortunately, not survived if full
Please see the LT Combiners' discussion at http://www.librarything.com/topic/508... before combining the Howell Chickering translation of Beowulf with other editions of the original work on LT. Thank you.
This is NOT an abridged edition. DO NOT combine with the abridged edition by Crossley-Holland or any other abridged edition.
Reserve this for dual-language texts (Anglo-Saxon and modern English) regardless of translator.
This is an unabridged translation of Beowulf, and should NOT be combined with abridged editions, regardless of translator.
Editor de l'editorial
Informació del coneixement compartit en anglès.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
Composed toward the end of the first millennium of our era, 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 end of the twentieth century, 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.
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Group Read: Beowulf - Seamus Heaney (spoilers)
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