Beowulf: A Verse Translation (Norton Critical Editions)

I loved the Heaney translation and will pass this book along in the same respectful condition.

The included criticisms and expert opinions really helped me view this ancient tale in a new light, and I would recommend it to any of my high-school peers who need a copy of this book for their classes.

I've always loved this epic. This version is very helpful in making sure you understand it in all of the different aspects.

Heaney succeeds in turning Beowulf into poetry again, and so then makes it an excellent read... only it's his poetry, not the text's. For instance, take his famous (or infamous) translation of the opening word. "Hw[a]t" (I'd type an ash if my keyboard had one) is the Old English way of saying a combination of "Everyone in the mead hall, shut up and listen!" and "Once upon a time" and "Here's what happened," among other things. Heaney translates this as "So," because that's how his father would preface his stories. Interesting, but it's his word, not the poem's.If you're looking for a translation that'll keep you awake and enjoying the poem and you can't read Old English (I'd highly recommend this to high school English teachers seeking to teach the poem, since maintaining attention here is probably more important than anything) this is a great choice. If you're looking for something that gets more at the text, look elsewhere.

Easy and smooth translation of a complicated text. It reads nice and is a great edition of the book, with added essays on Beowulf, such as from Tolkien and Leslie Webster.

it was for school assignment

Perfect copy of the book for my Son's school requirements!

I didnt really read this book but skimmed it for college class, still got an A. Therefore, 5 stars.

A great translation! The notes are also useful to understand Gaelic words which have been kept and to get implicit references the characters make :)

This is the edition to buy.Beowulf is one of the most important foundation stones in the history of literature and language. The Old English poets were known as “scops” for good reason. They sculpted poetry with the sole purpose of spreading joy. The most moving moment in Beowulf is not in the defeat of Grendel or Grendel’s mother, or even Beowulf’s tragic demise following the showdown with the mighty dragon. Instead, it occurs moments before Beowulf is to face this greatest and most powerful of opponents, the darkest manifestation of humanity’s fears. Whether the dragon is fear itself or an embodiment of human sin and violence does not alter its raw power to enthrall. No, what is far more poignant is Beowulf’s sudden moment of reflection as he reaches the dragon’s barrow. He pauses on the brink of chaos, informs his company he will face the dragon alone, and, a Homeric interlude if ever there was one, becomes lost in poignant contemplation.As Tolkien has argued, Beowulf itself is like one of its own lines written large. That distinctive Old English with the prominent caesura chopping each line in half and the alliterative repetition represents the entire story. The rise and the fall, innocence to experience, like two hinged mirrors. In this frame of profound reflection Beowulf thinks about his foster father, Hrethel, and we learn a truly tragic story that casts the hero in a whole new light. King Hrethel was driven to death by all-consuming grief after his son, Haethcyn, killed his eldest son, Herebauld, in a freak accident involving a misfired arrow. Unable to inflict revenge on a son he could never love as the warrior’s code of vengeance in this heroic age demands of him, he succumbs utterly to his broken heart.Original: "Donne he gyd wrece, sarigne sang, donne his sunu hangao hrefre to hroore ond he him help ne maeg, eald ond infrod, aenige gefremman."Beowulf is a masterpiece. With four thousand vocabulary entries in its lexicon for three thousand lines, its poet was truly the greatest of his or her time and it is a tragedy indeed that their name and identity has been lost. These Old English scops, from the Greek ‘scieppan’, to make or shape, fused together half-lines by their stressed alliteration, they literally built poetry. Texture and diction itself suggests meaning, a similar sensory pleasure as poems about the sea that emulate waves. These fusions, creating thousands of variations of a single idea, such as a hilde-leoma or battle-flame for a sword, have been called the very soul of Old English poetical style.Ultimately, Beowulf is an exploration of the human condition itself. The monsters represent the impermanence of human life, the mortal enemy that can strike at the heart of everything we hold dear. The transience of humanity, it is a bitterly poignant and yet preeminently elegant thing.As Tolkien wrote, “Those days were heathen – heathen, noble, and hopeless… The author rehandles in a new perspective an ancient theme: that man, each man and all men, and all their works shall die.”

Ich brauchte das Buch für die Uni und hätte es mir so nicht gekauft. Mit dem Service bin ich zufrieden. Die enthaltenden Kommentare sind hilfreich und eigentlich auch nötig.

En vez de llévame Eka última edición que aparece me ha llegado una edición anterior, tenía que hábleme quejado antes pero me urgía el libro para un examen

I found this an extremely readable work. Seamus Heaney's brief introduction is well worth reading before the poem as it explains the challenge of translating from the Old English whilst retaining the metre and alliteration of the original work. The poem itself is wonderful and atmospheric, and I would imagine this editions would be invaluable for anyone who was studying the poem and trying to get to grips with the story in Old English. I would also recommend it for those who simply want to enjoy reading the story without the need to continually refer to footnotes or explanations, as I found that there was only the very occasional line I ever needed to read over again. The poem itself takes up a relatively small section of the book, and there are a number of essays and additional notes giving information about the poem's context and the manuscript, as well as an essay by JR Tolkien. A good choice of book if you want to read Beowulf.