Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
best translation i've read, October 18, 2000
This review is from: Beowulf: A Prose Translation (Penguin Classics)paperback (Mass Market Paperback)
My professor recomended this translation to me, and even as a novice in medieval studies, I still think it is far better than what I read in high school. Wright offers fascinating historical information at the beginning and termination of the story that give the non professional reader good insights and background on the implications and circumstances surrounding obscure events in the plot. A reader can walk away with both a great story and a better understanding of the complex time called the Dark Ages.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A terrific prose translation, May 18, 1999
This review is from: Beowulf: A Prose Translation (Penguin Classics)paperback (Mass Market Paperback)
David Wright has provided the reader with an excellent prose translation of the oldest known epic of any Teutonic people and the first important poem in Old English. It deals primarily with two central events in the life of the Geatish hero Beowulf. The first is concerned with his victory over the monster Grendel who had been attacking Heorot, the mead hall of the Danish king Hrothgar (John Gardner published a novel, "Grendel", in 1971, that takes Grendel's side in the story). The next day, Beowulf slays Grendel's mother who is attempting to try and avenge her son. In the second major event, taking place fifty years later, Beowulf fights a dragon; both are mortally wounded. Hygelac, King of the Gelts, is identified with the historical Chochilaicus, who raided the lower Rhine about 512 A. D. A young Beowulf was in that raid. When Chochilaicus was killed in a battle with the Franks about 520, he was succeeded by his son Heardred. This poem shows the importance, in a warrior society, of the relationship between the warrior and his lord. The poem, even though it contains threads of Christian commentary, is also concerned with the pagen view of immortality: the memory of a warrior's heroic acts. Also: that fate can be swayed by courage. "Fate often saves an undoomed man when his courage is good."
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not exactly Whistlers mother...., October 7, 2009
This review is from: Beowulf: A Prose Translation (Penguin Classics)paperback (Mass Market Paperback)
This tale is one of the oldest in Western Europe and has been converted into at least two movies - the quality of which is irrelevant here - and contains many elements familiar to modern day readers and movie goers such is its of so many well worn plot devices.
For the uninitiated the story here can basically be boiled down to the concept of a young warrior and his band of merry men plundering away in search of fame and fortune. Beowulf himself would love to become a king by his own hand and any treasures and pleasurable bed partners that come along with the deal would be just fine thanks very much. So our hero ye verily and forsooth fetches up to the shores of modern day Denmark to find out that a kingdom there is beset by a monster. At which point our hero figures that plunging a few feet of steel into the aforesaid beasty would probably help him upon his chosen career path. Things take a twist regarding how he must slay the foe, more complications arise from plot threads such as cranky mothers of recently deceased monsters, curses and some intrigue at the palace.
Overall the whole thing seems ridiculously simple but within that so much of human ambition is laid bare. The concept that victory may only be ashes in your mouth and the fallibility of even great men is something that resonates to us down the ages and is comprehensible to both modern day readers as well as this epics original audiences.
If you can get across the format of the story and the way in which things are expressed you will find a rich core story here and that is why this classic has endured down the centuries from its inception 1200-1300 years ago (depending on who you ask/read). As such it would make a fine addition to any `classics' library you are building up for yourself. As to those people who have given this particular version of the story a poor rating based on translation issues, they are quite possibly right - I don't speak Old English nor have any desire to - but they are also perhaps coming from a more academic bent than most who will approach this tale.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
@Eazy-B Uh oh. Grendel’s mom showed up. She is really pissed. Wait. Monsters have feelings? 
