Customer Reviews

Klaeber's Beowulf, Fourth Edition

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

 

 

being recently retired, i decided to actually read all the books i only read parts of in my college days (meaning homer/s illiad & odyssey in greek & virgil/s aeneid in latin). after 9 years of latin and quite a few of greek, i thought my one semester of old english would get me thru beowulf pretty fast. i was *wrong*. it/s more complicated than that. klaeber/s edition (i have 2 copies, one i mark up, and one is pristine) has *almost* everything you need to translate it for yourself. while it strives for completion (and almost reaches it), you are still going to need clark hall & merrit/s dictionary, and a good grammar. this is one of the great books in any language. almost everything you ever wanted to know about the poem is here. hey, i may buy a *third* copy, just because it is *that* good !

I have reduced to tatters two copies of Klaeber's third edition, a text I have literally lived with since 1977. This fourth edition, which I am now working my way through in preparation for teaching the poem in the coming academic year, is a worthy successor to the third.

The discussion of the manuscript and its hands is clear and balanced. The treatment of the analogues and sources may strike some as conservative, but appears to me exactly the line to take. The glossary - for which generations have students and their teachers have been profoundly grateful - has been enriched by reference to the half century or more of scholarship that has accumulated since the last revision.

I look forward to working through Beowulf 4 (with Beowulf 3) to see what Klaeber himself hoped to see - the ongoing recovery and elucidation of a noble text.

I think Klaeber himself would be pleased.

Although I believe he would have recalled that the Cotton emperors have among them the fascinating Cleopatra, p. xxvi footnote 5

This new edition of the classic text by Klaeber is the logical choice for students of Beowulf. The notes and the glossary are invaluable; to use the latter, one needs to have some prior background in Old English grammar. I just wished the book were in a little larger format--the extensive introduction uses a very small font size--perhaps the hardcover is better in this respect. But, for Beowulf lovers, a must-have.

I am satisfied with this book. The only criticism I have is that for the first 1000 lines or so, the text is messed up. Its as though they tried to print 2 pages on the same page. Other than that, I am thrilled with my copy.