Thank you for the review. I've previously enjoyed Heather O'Donoghue's work on Old Norse-Icelandic literature and its influence; she's a good explainer. I'm glad to know this Beowulf book is out there.
Oh dear. I had no idea Beowulf - the work, not the man - struck terror in so many hearts. In my last year of primary school our teacher read us what must have been a heavily abridged version. I was on Grendel's side from the get-go. The despised outsider, peeking into the meadhall to watch a bunch of self-congratulatory party-goers: small wonder he wanted to rip their heads off. I felt for his mother, too. Then I read it at university as part of our Anglo-Saxon course, and added the Dragon to my much-wronged list. And of course I liked John Gardner's 'Grendel' - though I was peeved that I hadn't thought of telling Grendel's side of the story. Now I want to read it again, though these days I wouldn't have a show of doing it in Anglo-Saxon. I might try Seamus Heaney's translation.
I didn’t have room in the review but O’Donoghue rates Heaney’s translation highly. She translates words and lines herself but for longer passages it’s Heaney she quotes. And there’s an interesting section towards the end where she compares Heaney’s translation with William Morris’s in a discussion of different approaches to translation.
O’Donoghue doesn’t discuss it, but Heaney’s introduction is very good too. Tolkien’s essay ‘The Monsters and the Critics’ is terrific too. Heaney - rightly I think - identifies it as the single most influential essay on the poem.
Thank you for the review. I've previously enjoyed Heather O'Donoghue's work on Old Norse-Icelandic literature and its influence; she's a good explainer. I'm glad to know this Beowulf book is out there.
Thank you! I must read more of her work.
Oh dear. I had no idea Beowulf - the work, not the man - struck terror in so many hearts. In my last year of primary school our teacher read us what must have been a heavily abridged version. I was on Grendel's side from the get-go. The despised outsider, peeking into the meadhall to watch a bunch of self-congratulatory party-goers: small wonder he wanted to rip their heads off. I felt for his mother, too. Then I read it at university as part of our Anglo-Saxon course, and added the Dragon to my much-wronged list. And of course I liked John Gardner's 'Grendel' - though I was peeved that I hadn't thought of telling Grendel's side of the story. Now I want to read it again, though these days I wouldn't have a show of doing it in Anglo-Saxon. I might try Seamus Heaney's translation.
I didn’t have room in the review but O’Donoghue rates Heaney’s translation highly. She translates words and lines herself but for longer passages it’s Heaney she quotes. And there’s an interesting section towards the end where she compares Heaney’s translation with William Morris’s in a discussion of different approaches to translation.
O’Donoghue doesn’t discuss it, but Heaney’s introduction is very good too. Tolkien’s essay ‘The Monsters and the Critics’ is terrific too. Heaney - rightly I think - identifies it as the single most influential essay on the poem.
Thanks! I'll check out the Tolkien essay. I was hoping to listen to Heaney reading Beowulf, but the audio version's abridged.