Editorial Review:
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Composed toward the end of the first millennium, Beowulf is the classic Northern epic of a hero's triumphs as a young warrior and his fated death as a defender of his people. The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then having to live on, physically and psychically exposed in the exhausted aftermath. It is not hard to draw parallels in this story to the historical curve of consciousness in the twentieth century, but the poem also transcends such considerations, telling us psychological and spiritual truths that are permanent and liberating. In his new translation, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney has produced a work that is both true, line by line, to the original poem and a fundamental expression of his own creative gift. A New York Times bestseller, winner of the Whitbread Award.
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Reader Reviews for Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Bilingual Edition):
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: First-rate translation
Comment: This is a first-rate verse translation into a modern English heavily inflected by North Irish idioms, which will give an appropriately distant and foreign flavoring for most readers. Although the translation obeys the structural rules of the original verse to a very high degree, the result is extremely readable -- the poem can easily be read through in one or two sittings.
I docked a star out of irritation that no useful information about Old English is presented to assist the reader who might be interested in exploring the original text printed on the left-side pages. No pronounciation guide, no short listing of basic grammatical rules. I would also have greatly appreciated a Glossary of names with pronunciations -- the pronunciations Heaney had in mind. E.g., is "Geat" a one or two syllable word, and does it rhyme more closely with "beat" or "Fiat"?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beowulf: Do yourself a favor and read a great poem as a poem.
Comment: At the beginning of this year, I read a different translation and reviewed it. It was Beowulf: A Prose Translation, Second Edition (Norton Critical Editions). This is my review from that product, with comments after:
"After reading this version of Beowulf, I think it is a worthy
translation, so I am not really criticizing the translation. I'm sure
Donaldson's work is top notch. However, I did not enjoy the way the
story read.
Some opinions about work done on Beowulf that I've read by Beowulf
experts is that if you translate it in a prose form, so as to give a
more exact meaning to the original, you really are defaulting to a sort
of cop-out. It makes it appear that you really do not want to put the
hard work in to make a great poetic translation. I'm not sure I agree
with that assessment necessarily, but I understand the point.
Having read lines of Beowulf from Heaney's translation, and comparing it
to Donaldson's translation, I can say that Heaney's (and probably other
translators) brings so much more feeling to the poem. This may not mean
much, but after only reading the opening lines about Shield Sheafson
(spelled differently from Donaldson's), up to the point where it says
"that was one good king," Heaney's version brings tears to my eyes, it
is so moving.
There was not a single point in Donaldson's translation where I felt
that moved. That may not mean anything for most, because reading is a
very subjective experience, but for me, I will not likely read
Donaldson's translation again for enjoyment, but will keep it around as
a reference for comparison."
Now, after reading the Heaney translation (yes, finally got around to it), I must say my initial impressions are borne out. Heaney's translation is so much more enjoyable and is a fulfilling read as a work of art on its own, so one can imagine the wonder when it is a translation of an epic poem such as Beowulf.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beowulf
Comment: I bought this for my English 12 classes several years ago. We do not use the full epic so I did not use it. I gave it to another teacher who used it and said it was good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Do Not Buy Kindle Edition
Comment: I have the physical book edition of this wonderful work, and wanted to have it also with me on Kindle. However, without any indication at all, the Kindle edition is abridged. It is only the modern English translation and does NOT include the Anglo-Saxon text.
Amazon nis selling you half a book on Kindle, not the entire book. This is very deceptive and one wonders how many other Kindle books have been butchered by Amazon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great combination of eloquent English and Excellent translation.
Comment: What is remarkable in this Poem, which, in accord with English lore circa 8th Century, intends to narrate true events with stylish language, is what it narrates. Scholars note that Grendel's description causes difficulty unless one concedes dinosaurs or "dragons" were contemporaries with man at the time. According to this translation "the other, warped in the shape of a man, moves beyond the pale bigger than any man, an unnatural birth called Grendel by the country people in former days" and "Every nail, claw-scale and spur, every spike
and welt on the hand of that heathen brute was like barbed steel. Everybody said there was no honed iron hard enough to pierce him through, no time proofed blade
that could cut his brutal blood caked claw." The tiny arms are described as covered with scales and as like a serpent. The head is described as large and requiring four men to carry it. It is vaguely human in shape since it is bipedal and Peter Dickenson describes it as a bipedal dragon or dinosaur. Dickinson, Peter. The Flight of Dragons ch.10 "Beowulf" New English Library, 1979. Because of the myth of evolution, readers have been "blinded" and unable to see Grendel for what it is, a T-Rex. More evidence that dragons or "dinosaurs" coexisted with mankind recently and may still exist in remote parts of the world but for the extinction by men who encountered them as a menace to man and mammal and alike.
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