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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beowulf, December 30, 2010
The main purpose of this review is to compare the four free versions of Beowulf available for kindle.
This version is a translation by Lesslie Hall. It's a very good re-telling of the poem--but the formatting is...a challenge. It's not formatted properly for a poem; line breaks were removed so it looks like prose. This makes it hard to find the rhythm--and what's an epic poem without rhythm? Then the side-notes and end-notes were left in the text, so you get a paragraph of text with line-numbers interrupting it, and when you reach the end of the paragraph you get a bunch of parentheses and notes and non-poem bits. I found this very distracting and was very disappointed because the parts of this translation that I bothered picking out were actually really good, and I enjoyed the glossary and discussions that came before the poem...I just couldn't handle the wonky formatting. EDIT: I went back and read this version anyway, so it's not entirely unreadable, you just have to either love the notes or read around them...
So I went and found another free version to read! The next one actually comes in two nearly-identical forms: Beowulf and Beowulf. It's the Gummere translation, which isn't nearly as good, but it IS formatted properly (looks like a poem; notes properly linked and end-noted).
The last version, which I found today in preparing for this comparison review-a-thon is a translation by William Morris and A.J. Wyatt: The Tale of Beowulf Sometime King of the Folk of the Weder Geats. It has slightly less extensive informative bits at the beginning and end (glossary, discussion of translations, ect), is formatted properly as a poem (though it seems to lack any in-text notes) and um... I haven't really tried to read it yet, so I can't say how good or bad the translation is.
Anyway, I hope this has all been helpful and informative and that you find the version of Beowulf that is right for you.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great intro to medieval literature., June 14, 2003
My 6 1/2 year old liked this from start to finish. The book is easy for a young kid to read, though there are some harder vocabulary words, such as "forfeit," "burnished," and "precipice." Her favorite part was the section where Grendel takes a victim: "Grendel . . . lurched towards the nearest man, a brave Geat called Leofric, scooped him up and, with one ghastly claw, choked the scream in his throat. Then the monster ripped him apart, bit into his body, drank the blood from his veins, devoured huge pieces . . . swallowed the whole man, even his feet and hands." There is a nice Glossary at the end, telling the reader how to pronounce the English and Danish names (and names of swords!). If you are a parent, why teach your kid about King Arthur and Robin Hood, and stop there? There are other fine tales about knights, et al., i.e., Beowulf. The illustrations are stylized pen and ink, that is, they tend not to be literal representations of monsters and dragons. If you are teaching your kid about early English history, e.g., about William the Conqueror or about King Henry II, then this version of Beowulf makes a good accompaniment. Another excellent book, which narrates relationships more subtle than monster-hunting, is Canterbury Tales, retold by Geraldine McCaughrean (this is not a typo) with delightful illustrations by Victor G. Ambrus. None of Chaucer's baudy tales are in this kids' version. Instead, you'll find tales of faith, devotion, and trickery, all suitable for the age of five and up.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
great story, bad adaptation, December 10, 2010
Beowulf is an amazing story, no doubt. But this Kindle edition wasn't good. It's hard to read and is formatted in a strange way.
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