Customer Reviews

Beowulf

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the book to read if you've ever read and liked JRR Tolkien's "Hobbit", "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King".I was in the middle of reading the above books for the second time when I started to read "Beowulf".Tolkien was a "scholar", if you will, of "Beowulf" and when you are finished reading it you will realize that all he did when he wrote the Hobbit books was to take this epic story, expand and add characters to it. I was very disenchanted with Tolkien's books after having read "Beowulf". "Beowulf" is a fantastic story and a classic that should be required reading for all.

An exciting world of courage, bravery, strength, and cunning in the face of untold dangers from blood thirsty dragons. This is the best of the epic poems, and the one I return to every ten years or so. The Kings anywhere don't get any braver, or more noble, than Beowulf; and the dragons don't get any more menacing or terrifying than Grendel.

GOOD STUFF!

Beowulf is a wonderful poem, not just because of the wondrous adventures of its heroes, but rather because it shows the courteous manner in which the Germanic kingdoms of the middle ages carried themselves. Some people may think the characters simple or lacking complexity, but that is because this poem is not trying to confound or illuminate: this was written for courtly recitation and illustrates courtly and courteous manners, rather than adventures.

I once made the joke that Grendel was the first beo-degradable monster in history...

GROAN!

When I gave this joke to an English professor, he used it in class, and promptly returned it to me.

Okay. I'll accept that. But, Beowulf deserves the kind of serious attention that would prompt people to want to make bad jokes about it (unimportant things are ignored; only important things are held up in jest).

Beowulf is an old poem--often considered the first in English. This is technically not true, for linguistic and other reasons (where the demarcations of English beginnings fall are debatable; also there is the fact that there are older poems, just not epic poems). An epic is a long, narrative poem, a literary form undervalued today, but which was probably the equivalent of a Cecil B. DeMille production in more ancient times. The Illiad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, Gilgamesh--all these are epic poems. Generally, they recount heroic deeds, and most often were composed and intended as oral history. Beowulf consists of 3182 existing lines.

Scholars also disagree on the 'British heritage' of the poem, many believing it more likely to be an import from Anglo-Saxon European homelands than a composition original to the Britain. The tale does portray two leaders, Hrothgar, leader of the Danes, and Beowulf, leader of the Geats, a Swedish tribe. These are interconnected through generations of family intermarriages, and Beowulf because of this loyalty takes his men to help defend Hrothgar's home against the monster Grendel.

The tale of Beowulf involves heroism, sacrifice, loyalty, warfare, conflict and resolution--all the elements that go into a good action feature. It also has moral overtones (so it was meant to educate and inspire as well as entertain). It carries the strong message that a fighting man's allegiance to the overlord and to God should be absolute (something that is often instilled in soldiers of today). It is almost decidedly Klingon in the glorification of battle (in fact, I've often wondered if the Star Trek universe took a leaf out of this epic to create the Klingon idea)--Beowulf fights three battles (a holy trinity of battles, almost), dying gloriously in the final battle with a great dragon, after having lived an honourable and courageous life.

This story contains elements of both early Christianity and late paganism, however in some cases the Christian aspects may be later additions by monks who transcribed the manuscripts (monks were noted for doing that in many circumstances, including Biblical texts). The oldest existing manuscript dates from about the tenth century and is preserved in the British Museum.

This particular translation is by Robert Kay Gordon, and was originally published as part of a collection on Anglo-Saxon poetry in 1926. This is more of an academic translation, with a great deal of attention paid to translating the fullness of each word (modern English is far more wordy than its Old English forerunner). This translation is done much more in the style of a prose-poem, which is entirely appropriate if one thinks about it - prose was virtually unknown to Old English literature, so anything that we might in our modern times think of as being appropriate to prose would still have had a poetic treatment at the time.

A great poem, and good translation in prose form, bridging the past and the present together in a good way. I will agree with another reviewer that Heaney's more recent translation is a better translation for today, but this affordable text is a useful one also for those who want to get yet more out of the tale of Beowulf.

[note: this is a review of the poem generally, not this particular translation]

Beowulf is one of those Medieval works of literature that many have heard about but few have read. However, it's worth reading, if only to experience a story so different from modern sensibilities. The poem extols Beowulf's physical courage and bravery against monsters and dragons. It's an odd mix of early Christian and warrior ethos. Beowulf is not a modern hero. There's not much to recommend him to modern readers - he's boastful, relies on brawn not brains, and his search for glory ends up putting his kingdom at risk. Still, it's fascinating to read this type of story and realize how far away it is from our own times.

Because this is a translation of an Anglo-Saxon poem, it's worth saying a word about the text itself. It's readable, but isn't smooth reading for the uninitiated. I'd say this - if you don't like reading English-language poetry, you probably won't enjoy reading this poem. If you do make the effort, I'd recommend really making the effort. Go slow and make sure you understand the story. Don't skip over a few lines thinking they're not as relevant.

So we all had to plow throught this poem wit its unpronounceable names, and far-off places that one on has ever heard of.

So why bother? I think that Joseph Cambell has made the point over and over again that there is more to these stories than mere entertainement. These legends were not only history, but they were also CULTURE, intended to CULTIVATE a civilization. We learn of order, honor, and duty as were read a rough legend as Beowulf. These legends held socitey togeather. We studied them in our English classes, but we should be reading them in our history, philosophy, and relgious classes too. Ther is more to these stories than a good time.

There are two main drawback to this translation. The first is that it is in prose form, rather than the poetic form, so we loose some of the majesty of the tale. The early classics were alays poems, not only toaid in memeory, but to set it apart from normal conversation. This was to be sacred words describing sacred events.

The second problem, is that the translation is very rough and wordy. The essence of poetry is is brevity--quick thoughts quickly spoken. The wordiness almosrt makes this poem a transliteration rather than a translation. It is not converational English, but sounds like it was done by a musty scholar to appease other musty scholars.

I reccomed Seamus Heaney's recent translation. The pome has been given a second birth by this smmmother and even poetric translation. His version is converational, firendly, and has the spark of genius that you woyuld expect from a Nobel lauriate.

This is a good vs evil story, in one sense. You have a dwelling full of people having a good time, but a monster decides to cause a bit of carnage.

This causes much cowering and wailing, until the intrepid hero Beowulf decides to see if he can go and inflict some steel based damage upon the unfortunate monster, Grendel.

The cover of the book, Beowulf, was most satisfactory for the story and charge for the book. Thank you.