Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus HeaneyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Literature can be a form of social anthropology. Just as the Iliad can take you into the warlike mindset of the ancient Greeks; Beowulf takes you into the warlike mindset of the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain back in the days of Sutton Hoo. Not only is Beowulf a great piece of epic poetry – complete with super hero, fabulous monsters, and a killer dragon; it’s also a superb piece of cultural history – complete with great halls ringing with toasts of mead in horn cups and men who sleep fully armored and armed. The big problem with Beowulf in old English is that just as the culture is so remote and alien to be fascinating, the English language at the time is also utterly alien and incomprehensible. This was a quarter millennium before the Norman Conquest – the great fusion of Germanic and romance that would produce our language as we know it.
Previous translations – like the one I suffered through in Middle School, are stilted and arcane.
(Also did a role playing as well in my English class singing and dancing) They sacrifice narrative flow for a false kind of fidelity to the text. Seamus Heaney’s translation dances and sings. The language is lyrical and feels like epic poetry – but the narrative flow is easy and intuitive. With the difficulty of comprehension out of the way the story comes to the fore and what a story it is. This is the real root of Fantasy literature – a misty world of barbaric knights, monsters, magic, blood kinship and blood feud. The tale is familiar to most – the great Great hero comes to the aid of a distant king whose country is beset by a horrible monster; one immune to weapons… Ok, no spoilers. If you are interested in the roots of English literature, or in the culture of the dark ages Anglo Saxon, this book will illuminate like nothing else.
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