Good introduction. The text has a facing prose translation, which will be helpful for the way I'm planning to use it -- for practising my Anglo-Saxon translations.

Heaney's translation would still be my pick for casual reading, though.

Read this in two different college classes, the first with a terrible professor and I hated it, the second time with a wonderful professor and I loved it! There is something to be said for teaching style.

Adapted by actor Julian Glover as a one-man show he could put on between film roles, this is an abridgement of the Old English poem. Glover has pared away much of the peripheral material (genealogies, etc.) and presents the core of Beowulf's adventures: the battles with Grendel, Grendel's mother and the dragon.

This is a good, modern abridgement and as an introduction to the full poem is excellent. I saw a televised performance of the show a couple of years ago and it was very effective.

The text is illuminated with illustrations by Shelia Mackie, which enrich the text with depictions of Anglo-Saxon artefacts, animals and monsters.

Another re-read prompted by the desert island books conversation. this is just fabulous. I know the original derives from a oral tradition, and I feel that this is designed to be read aloud, not to oneself. the meter is unlike the iambic rhythm we're so used to now, but the alliteration works and the lines sort of trip of the tongue. It's never a dull "te tum te tum te tum" thing - the words almost have a life of their own.
Add to that it's a swashbuckling story from the heroic to the unbearably sad and it just sweeps you away. Takes a bit of concentration, but that's no bad thing in a book.

I read this the first time in college. Then, I enjoyed the incredible rush of the adventure. This time around reading it, I ignored the forest to focus on the trees; I inhaled the beautiful poetry of the language. A wonderful, timeless adventure.

If you are like me, you haven't read Beowulf since high school and your memory of the story is probably pretty bad. I found reading this translation very enjoyable, and I loved having the "original" version printed opposite the translation (even though I couldn't read it).

So, I found this version of Beowulf in the clearance bin of a used book store. I picked it up thinking this is a book I should read - and, it surpassed all expectation.I read the initial part of Beowulf in highschool - wear he fights Grendel and his mother. At the time, I wasn't interested. It was hard going, and it didn't really stick with me. But this new translation maintained the verse form while keeping mostly true to the original translation (this is my non-expert opinion. I don't read old English, so can't really say). It totally opened my eyes into the world of England in the year 1000 or so, with knights and armour, and chivalry and all that. Its fun, its exciting, and totally a different age and values than what I am used to.Highly recommended.

This translation (by Seamus Heaney) of Beowulf has a plain-spoken elegance. The layout - original Anglo-Saxon on the left page, Heaney translation on the right -- makes it possible to read the original poem aloud for its gorgeous alliteration and rolling rhythm. Still, the world of the poem is dismal. Life is hard; death is fated. Men kill one another, or monsters kill them. Everyone is so poor (by modern standards) that an individual shirt of ring-mail is a family heirloom, handed down for generations, or given by a king to a follower as a major mark of favor. In such a world, listening to good poetry might be one of the few lasting pleasures. The story of Beowulf is tedious; the poetry, transcendent.

I have to hand it to J. R. R. Tolkien. Not only was he the author of such landmark works as The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, among others, but he had an ability that I freely admit I don't possess. That is the ability to appreciate a literary work even if he strongly disagrees with it. Tolkien was able to separate his obvious disagreement (obvious if you compare his ideas and themes in LOTR, and how they disagree with some of those in Beowulf, which is being reviewed herein), from his analytical and scholarly opinion. In fact, it was Tolkien's essay, “Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics”, that elevated the epic from a piece of literature often looked down upon, to the important piece of literature that is given much scholarly study the past seventy years.Beowulf tells us the story of the eponymous Geatish hero who slew many monsters and enemies. The epic is likely only part of a larger epic, the editor of my Barnes and Noble Classics edition says some have conjectured, and we only have the disparate surviving parts of the untitled manuscript, which we proceeded to name Beowulf after the main protagonist. The surviving pieces of whatever once was the epic Old English poem chronicle three different battles that Beowulf fights. These are the battle against two demonic, super-human monsters, Grendel and his mother, to aid a foreign king to whom he owes a debt for previous military service to his family, and then to save his realm (of which he eventually becomes king after the current king and his son are murdered) from the evil dragon that would destroy his people.I have to say that this work is one that I absolutely loathe. When I was younger, I loved it, but now, around sixteen years later, I can not see why I liked it so much. I can see why Professor Tolkien enjoyed it so much, as on the merits, it is well-written, and certainly pulls the reader into the tale of heroes, of a warrior for God who does manly deeds of valor, and yet has true humility.Tolkien used a number of ideas and references from Beowulf in his own works. I will not go into all of them that I noticed, or I could find examples of in other sources, but two such instances of Beowulf inspiring the Middle-Earth Legendarium are structure of the Rohirrim and the nation of Rohan in LOTR, and the dragon Smaug, his treasure-hoard, stolen cup, and so forth in the The Hobbit. Yet Tolkien clearly believed, as I do, that warfare was evil, though sometimes necessary, and that not fighting is preferable (but not cowardice), unless you have to. He also attacked the idea, through the characters of Boromir and Eowyn, the ideas of “glory in battle” or of war ever being “glorious”. Yet he was able to separate his views from his opinion of Beowulf. I can not do so.I hate violence. I loathe violence. I believe that violence is a necessary evil at times, but that it is still evil. The cause can be righteous, but violence never is. One ought to never feel anything but regret if they have to use violence, and should never enjoy violence. To enjoy violence or war is evil. To enjoy others' suffering is evil. If violence is necessary, it should be employed without hesitation, but it should be always regretted that we live in a sinful world where violence is necessary, and never enjoyed. Beowulf is an epic rife with references to the glory of battle, and the joy of fighting, and it morally makes me sick to my stomach. I can think nothing good of it for that reason, despite it having merits. I am not like Tolkien. I can not separate my personal moral views from the work in question. I can give leeway for a work if it is a myth (including modern fantasy works like The Wheel of Time, that has different mores, but in some areas, such as the ethics of war, I can not tolerate such (what I consider to be) evil views. I do not have this talent that Tolkien had for separating his views from his appreciation of a work, and I have no inclination to ever have said “talent”.

This was a surprisingly speedy, easy and enjoyable read--for which Heaney, the translator, deserves a lot of credit. Especially given this is a verse translation. I've found that I have preferred prose translations of Homer and Dante because those trying to be true to alliteration, meter and rhyme often feel forced, awkward and occlude the meaning. It probably helped that Heaney is a distinguished poet in his own right; his translation was fluid, with a rhythm and tone somewhere between Homer and Tolkien in feel. And the story is fun, a Pagan tale set mostly in Dark Ages Denmark with Christian interjections by the original poet who probably was a monk writing anywhere between the mid-seventh to the end of the tenth century. There are monsters, notably Grendel and a dragon with his horde. What's not to love?And a translation is needed. I read a bilingual edition, with the original Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and modern English translation side by side. Knowing Spanish I often can make out the gist of passages in Portuguese, Italian or even French. And though it's not easy, I can get Chaucer, in Middle English, even if I prefer a translation there too. I was surprised really at how indecipherable I found the Anglo-Saxon of Beowulf. All the more reason to appreciate Heaney's achievement.