Reviews

Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell by J.R.R. Tolkien

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jfaberrit's review against another edition

4.0

Reviewing Beowulf itself seems kind of foolish to be honest, as it's over 1000 years old and just about the oldest living document in English. If you don't like it, take it up with your great, great, great, etc. grandparents or their northern European neighbors.

Instead, the modern elements can be reviewed:

The Translation: It's rather great. The "good parts" are good, and the parts between them are good. It feels modern, energetic, and reads really well.

The notes: A complete disaster, unless you happen to be an Oxbridge Olde English scholar. While there is a very brief explanation of the verse structure, it deserves much more discussion, rather than 30 pages aimed at the handful of people who have probably had to read the poem already in their coursework, rather than the general audience for the book.

olivehunter's review against another edition

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4.0

I really liked the first 3/4. The last bit was a little tiring and slow after the banquet and after the dragon part

witchfynder_finder's review against another edition

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adventurous funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

[Might come back to fill this in later but running a blank on anything actually interesting to say right now]

sschaut's review against another edition

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Assigned reading for class. Honestly, not fully what I expected. Thankfully, we read a translated version. Since reading excerpts of The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer in the original Middle English, I’m very grateful to not try and read an even older text in its original form. Though, I still enjoyed the little translated words/phrases — shoutout to “whale-road.”

Def thought that the Grendel plot would’ve been a larger part of the epic, was proven wrong relatively quickly lol. I think the earlier sections of the poem were more interesting than the latter half, when Beowulf returns to his homeland, but that’s just me

brendini's review against another edition

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5.0

Beowulf is a classic of the (old) English language and Heaney’s translation, to my mind, remains the best. Where other translators have sought to provide a literal translation, Heaney seeks here to bring forth the poetic nature of the work. He also makes it less formal, littering the work with “Ulsterisms” and other vernacular that gives it the feel of a story being told in a small rural pub rather than a king’s hall. In so doing, rather uniquely, Heaney has not so much translated this work as he has made it his own.