Beowulf

[Finmandos12]

What a great book! A work of literary majsety, like the Sil. ( If anything can be compared to it, this it) I read it in like, 2 days. Nothing like it, no nothing like it, uhuh! (Sorry, it comes from just reading the Grapes of Wrath.)

[IronParrot]

I bought the new Seamus Heaney translation sometime last year, but I've never gotten around to it...

It's one of the "founding fathers" behind the mold Tolkien was going after, that's for sure.

[Finmandos12]

That's the translationI read! Read it quickly!

[Renille]

I read Beowulf a long time ago...I didn't really like it. Maybe if I read it again, it would seem more interesting, but I'm not sure.

[Pippin Skywalker]

I read that about a year ago! It was the Seamus Heaney translation (I believe he is also a poet). Read it quickly too; three days. :)

[Earniel]

My sister gave me the translation of Seamus Heaney. I think it is awesome, I had read another translation before that but it doesn't compare. Heaney's translation was so good I could picture all the scenes in detail. Go read it, it's VERY good!

[galadriel]

Haven't read it yet, but my English teacher was going on and on about how great the new Seamus Heaney translation was.... Unfortunately, our school still has the old translations, so we're stuck reading those :mad:

[Comic Book Guy]

Seamus Heaney is an Irish Poet, apparently he is the most Famous living poet according to my English Teacher, his poems are rather good and personal, My favourite poem by Heaney is "Mid-Term Break", a poem about the death of his younger brother.


I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying--
He had always taken funerals in his stride--
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand

And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four foot box, a foot for every year.


I've never read any Beowulf translation, but I suppose the Seamus Heaney translation is on my "To-Read" list.

[FrodoFriend]

Nice poem, Comic Book Guy.

I have the Seamus Heaney translation, but have only read about half of it so far.

[Khamûl]

Since someone else mentioned this, I thought I'd bring this thread back up.

It's weird that I'm replying to this thread today because I took a test on it today in English Lit. We didn't read the whole thing, only some excerpts. It was awesome and I might have to find the whole thing and read it. We only read about Beowulf's fight with Grendel, his fight with Grendel's mother, and his fight and death with the dragon.

Great story.

[Elbereth]

I read Seamus Haney's translation about two weeks ago. It was the first translation of Beowulf I've ever read, but I've been looking at other translations since then, and one thing that really annoys me is that they always leave out the part where the harper sings the song about Finn. This is one of the best parts in the whole piece.

[galadriel]

Now I've read it, and this is my opinion.

Good writing. Gorgeous writing, in fact. And sure, there were some cool scenes: Beowulf's last stand with the dragon, and the powerful descriptions at the beginning of the king's burial ship floating off... but as a whole, it didn't interest me. I guess I didn't really care about Beowulf as a character, so him killing things didn't do anything for me.

[Khamûl]

I just picked up the Seamus Haney translation at the public library today. It's cool because it has the original Old English on the page facing the same verses, only translated. I'm reading it right now.

[markedel]

I had the read the whole thing for my first year English class. A great work and an excellent translation.

[Erawyn]

I just bought the Seamus Heaney translation, and Grendel. Has anyone read Grendel?

[galadriel]

I read Grendel and I LOVED it! We read that right after we read Beowulf in school. It was a very nice mixture of humor and drama, and the writing style was cool.

[Earniel]

Where is Grendel different from Beowulf? Is it another adaptation of the myth?

[galadriel]

Grendel is a modern adaptation of the Beowulf story told from *Grendel's* point of view. It's hilarious, and surprisingly poignant. Definitely a must-read if you like Beowulf. (For that matter, I didn't like Beowulf and I liked it!)

[Earniel]

Grendel's point of view? Is it something like "Beowulf tore my arm off the other night. Stupid Beowulf." :) No just kidding.

But it sounds interesting. Who wrote it?

[galadriel]

Uh... it was written by John Gardner. I can't believe I remember that.

The book focuses mostly on Grendel's life before meeting Beowulf, so it's a lot more interesting than you'd expect.

Also, Unferth's in it, and I Heart Unferth! :rolleyes:

[Earniel]

Thanks, I'll try to remember that for when I visit the bookstore again.

[BeardofPants]

I picked up a cheap copy of Michael Alexander's translation of Beowulf. I'm still reading the intro, but it looks good so far. :)

[Lief Erikson]

I read a fairly new translation of Beowulf, and I greatly enjoyed it. An excellent story, that one :).