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A review by sydsnot71
Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo
4.0
"His life may be over, they said, but his name and his deeds would live on as long as his tale was told."
Last night I finished 'The Farthest Shore'. The final book in the Earthsea trilogy. I highlighted a single line - "I have seen dragons on the winds of morning" - as having a real impact on me. I also noted that the story, like many stories, was one that pointed out the futility of fighting death. That death was an inevitable part of life. Beowulf is also a story like that.
Death is everywhere in Beowulf. It is sometime horrible and nasty. Even though this was written as a Young Adult or Middle Grade version of Beowulf it doesn't particularly stint on the blood and guts. Beowulf is a mighty warrior. The mightiest of warriors. But as Hrothgar, King of the Danes, says to him at their parting: "Know, mighty Beowulf, that even with you the end must come, flesh and strength will fail...Death awaits us all."
There is something in the myths of the North that focuses on carrying on even as you know your doom is coming. Courage that outlives hope. I think it is part of the appeal of these myths to Tolkien. And the death-dragon of Beowulf with his great hoard of gold is clearly Smaug from The Hobbit. But also you can find it in the Rohirrim and in Théoden. The scene where Théoden addresses the riders before battle could have come out of Beowulf.
For a fighting man like me, daring is everything. How else will a fighting man be remembered if he does not dare?"
But these stories were told for a long time before they were written down. Told in the mead halls described in the book. They were only written down by Christians and Christianity seeps in, but doesn't quite overwhelm the story. God is a capital G. Grendel and his mother are referred to as 'Satan's children'. Yet as the quote above suggests Beowulf doesn't talk like a Christian and neither, really, does anyone else. This is a Germanic paganism give a gentle sheen of Christianity.
This is the second version of Beowulf I've read. The first being Seamus Heaney's excellent translation. This one is simpler and - mostly - less poetic but it feels like a story you could read out loud as it was meant to be read.
Having said that this book comes with some wonderful illustrations by Michael Foreman. One of which reminded me of Blake's 'Saturn Devouring His Son'. This means that although the page count is 150-ish pages in reality the large text and the illustrations means this is probably nearer 100 pages. Maybe less.
So, once more I have seen a dragon on the winds of morning. Once more I have read a story about the inevitability of death, even for the greatest of heroes. And this is shortly after I read 'The Epic of Gilgamesh', the OG of the warrior and inevitability of death stories.
Last night I finished 'The Farthest Shore'. The final book in the Earthsea trilogy. I highlighted a single line - "I have seen dragons on the winds of morning" - as having a real impact on me. I also noted that the story, like many stories, was one that pointed out the futility of fighting death. That death was an inevitable part of life. Beowulf is also a story like that.
Death is everywhere in Beowulf. It is sometime horrible and nasty. Even though this was written as a Young Adult or Middle Grade version of Beowulf it doesn't particularly stint on the blood and guts. Beowulf is a mighty warrior. The mightiest of warriors. But as Hrothgar, King of the Danes, says to him at their parting: "Know, mighty Beowulf, that even with you the end must come, flesh and strength will fail...Death awaits us all."
There is something in the myths of the North that focuses on carrying on even as you know your doom is coming. Courage that outlives hope. I think it is part of the appeal of these myths to Tolkien. And the death-dragon of Beowulf with his great hoard of gold is clearly Smaug from The Hobbit. But also you can find it in the Rohirrim and in Théoden. The scene where Théoden addresses the riders before battle could have come out of Beowulf.
For a fighting man like me, daring is everything. How else will a fighting man be remembered if he does not dare?"
But these stories were told for a long time before they were written down. Told in the mead halls described in the book. They were only written down by Christians and Christianity seeps in, but doesn't quite overwhelm the story. God is a capital G. Grendel and his mother are referred to as 'Satan's children'. Yet as the quote above suggests Beowulf doesn't talk like a Christian and neither, really, does anyone else. This is a Germanic paganism give a gentle sheen of Christianity.
This is the second version of Beowulf I've read. The first being Seamus Heaney's excellent translation. This one is simpler and - mostly - less poetic but it feels like a story you could read out loud as it was meant to be read.
Having said that this book comes with some wonderful illustrations by Michael Foreman. One of which reminded me of Blake's 'Saturn Devouring His Son'. This means that although the page count is 150-ish pages in reality the large text and the illustrations means this is probably nearer 100 pages. Maybe less.
So, once more I have seen a dragon on the winds of morning. Once more I have read a story about the inevitability of death, even for the greatest of heroes. And this is shortly after I read 'The Epic of Gilgamesh', the OG of the warrior and inevitability of death stories.