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reads's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
damc's review
5.0
amazing, beautiful, informative, varied illustrations in this edition of heaney's masterful translation. i will definitely be using this edition next time i teach this poem.
octavii42's review
adventurous
challenging
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Brilliant poem! Beautifully translated by Heaney.
juniper_sedai's review
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
oldpondnewfrog's review
4.0
I LOVE the lookout. He's so plain and honest. Almost usurping the narrative because he doesn't realize he's in a story in which his role isn't that important. "It is time for me to go. I'm away to the sea, back on alert against enemy raiders." Like a friendly robot. "I have been stationed as a lookout on this coast for a long time. My job is to..."
He's great.
I took a lot of notes on this one. Lot of clippings. "But it was mostly beer that was doing the talking."
I like Heaney's style 90 percent of the time, and a third of that I really like it. Which works out to be a lot. 10 percent of it felt a little high-flown, but that was probably mostly in comparison to the background radiation of solid Anglo-Saxon matter-of-factness. But honestly, I laughed surprisingly often. I hope Heaney's OK with that. "It was the worst trip the terror-monger had taken to Heorot"—like normally his trips are nice sightseeing adventures. Beowulf was "not inclined to allow his caller to depart alive." I see that some of these are, perhaps, the fault of the alliterative verse.
But other times that type of false casualness has a sharper effect: "So, after nightfall, Grendel set out for the lofty house to see how the Ring-Danes were settling into it after their drink." It sounds just as lighthearted as the ones above, think I'll pop on by, see what's up, but because of the juxtaposition of what we know about Grendel's intentions and murderousness it becomes really chilling. More like Hannibal.
I was surprised by the text's religiousness. The Lord this, the Lord that. All glory credited to God. I wonder how much that belonged to the original oral tradition, and how much of it belonged to the monastic scribes who were the ones who wrote the thing down and fixed it in the form we know it by. But even then, I think the primacy of the natural world slips through; of Grendel's actions, for instance, the narrator once said "and given offense also to God," as if that were only a tertiary complaint, not the main crime. Or, "the forthright Unferth, admired by all for his mind and courage although under a cloud for killing his brothers"—but he's great, really, they'll come round!
I noticed a flood myth rearing its head somewhere. And Cain. For some reason I had not associated Beowulf with the Christian tradition before.
One line stuck with me and I'm not sure why:
Lots of new words: thole, graith, hirpling, keshes, brehon, sept, bawn, howe, hoked. Not too many kennings, though. Wave-vat. Bone-cage. The gannet's bath. Maybe that's a good thing that there weren't too many. And not really a kenning, but I have to pin up the disgusting "wound-slurry."
I noticed the biblical "children of men" pop up. There's a wide range of registers. "Now we who have crossed the wide sea have to inform you that we feel a desire to return to Hygelac." And then the narrator's folksy "I have heard." "I heard four horses were handed over next." And, at times, breaking the caesura with the surprising fluency of Hrothgar's Sermon or the Father's Lament:
Beowulf has great boasts. "No sword blade sent him to his death, my bare hands stilled his heartbeats and wrecked the bone-house. Now blade and hand, sword and sword-stroke, will assay the hoard." "To see which one of us is better in the end at bearing wounds."
I liked Wiglaf's long speech saying basically "we should go and help him" while the action is frozen between Beowulf and the dragon. I imagine Beowulf over there saying, hurry up, man. Reminds me of Sam, though: Of course you are. And I'm coming with you. Rereading those lines now, I don't really feel it, but I did at the time.
The best marginal gloss in my edition was Bedtime in Heorot.
I liked the pictures, too, in my edition. Especially the photographs of Danish or Swedish nature, to help place you. The archeological sites, the waves, the thickets, the rocky coasts, the sun shining on the water, the sunset over Beowulf's barrow.
He's great.
I took a lot of notes on this one. Lot of clippings. "But it was mostly beer that was doing the talking."
I like Heaney's style 90 percent of the time, and a third of that I really like it. Which works out to be a lot. 10 percent of it felt a little high-flown, but that was probably mostly in comparison to the background radiation of solid Anglo-Saxon matter-of-factness. But honestly, I laughed surprisingly often. I hope Heaney's OK with that. "It was the worst trip the terror-monger had taken to Heorot"—like normally his trips are nice sightseeing adventures. Beowulf was "not inclined to allow his caller to depart alive." I see that some of these are, perhaps, the fault of the alliterative verse.
But other times that type of false casualness has a sharper effect: "So, after nightfall, Grendel set out for the lofty house to see how the Ring-Danes were settling into it after their drink." It sounds just as lighthearted as the ones above, think I'll pop on by, see what's up, but because of the juxtaposition of what we know about Grendel's intentions and murderousness it becomes really chilling. More like Hannibal.
I was surprised by the text's religiousness. The Lord this, the Lord that. All glory credited to God. I wonder how much that belonged to the original oral tradition, and how much of it belonged to the monastic scribes who were the ones who wrote the thing down and fixed it in the form we know it by. But even then, I think the primacy of the natural world slips through; of Grendel's actions, for instance, the narrator once said "and given offense also to God," as if that were only a tertiary complaint, not the main crime. Or, "the forthright Unferth, admired by all for his mind and courage although under a cloud for killing his brothers"—but he's great, really, they'll come round!
I noticed a flood myth rearing its head somewhere. And Cain. For some reason I had not associated Beowulf with the Christian tradition before.
One line stuck with me and I'm not sure why:
Whoever she was who brought forth this flower of manhood, if she is still alive, that woman can say that in her labor the Lord of Ages bestowed a grace on her.It just keeps ringing around in my head.
Lots of new words: thole, graith, hirpling, keshes, brehon, sept, bawn, howe, hoked. Not too many kennings, though. Wave-vat. Bone-cage. The gannet's bath. Maybe that's a good thing that there weren't too many. And not really a kenning, but I have to pin up the disgusting "wound-slurry."
I noticed the biblical "children of men" pop up. There's a wide range of registers. "Now we who have crossed the wide sea have to inform you that we feel a desire to return to Hygelac." And then the narrator's folksy "I have heard." "I heard four horses were handed over next." And, at times, breaking the caesura with the surprising fluency of Hrothgar's Sermon or the Father's Lament:
That offense was beyond redress, a wrongfooting of the heart's affection; for who could avenge the prince's life or pay his death-price? It was like the misery felt by an old man who has lived to see his son's body swing on the gallows. He begins to keen and weep for his boy, watching the raven gloat where he hangs; he can be of no help. The wisdom of age is worthless to him. ... Alone with his longing, he lies down on his bed and sings a lament; everything seems too large, the steadings and the fields.As I mentioned earlier, beautiful matter-of-factness. I don't know why some plain lines feel so good to me when I read, but I always notice them. "I barely survived the battle under water." That feels good. "The old lord gazed sadly at the gold." "I can hold out no longer." "There was panic after dark, people endured raids in the night."
Beowulf has great boasts. "No sword blade sent him to his death, my bare hands stilled his heartbeats and wrecked the bone-house. Now blade and hand, sword and sword-stroke, will assay the hoard." "To see which one of us is better in the end at bearing wounds."
I liked Wiglaf's long speech saying basically "we should go and help him" while the action is frozen between Beowulf and the dragon. I imagine Beowulf over there saying, hurry up, man. Reminds me of Sam, though: Of course you are. And I'm coming with you. Rereading those lines now, I don't really feel it, but I did at the time.
The best marginal gloss in my edition was Bedtime in Heorot.
I liked the pictures, too, in my edition. Especially the photographs of Danish or Swedish nature, to help place you. The archeological sites, the waves, the thickets, the rocky coasts, the sun shining on the water, the sunset over Beowulf's barrow.
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