Book Review
Jul. 17th, 2007 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariBeowulf
Translation by Seamus Heaney
Why do we still read this work, well over a thousand years since it was written down? Because it's damn good. Heaney's translation is great - he makes Beowulf a pleasure to read without sacrificing its old, Agnlo-Saxon flavor. If you like fantasy, particularly the old school Tolkien-esque stuff, this should be high on your list. Tolkien clearly took a lot of inspiration from Beowulf, on many levels.
Don't neglect Heaney's introduction. I don't usually read intros or forewords (at least not before reading the work itself), but since I started this on the plane back from Oregon and thus had plenty of time, I went ahead and read it. It was the best introduction to a work of great literature I have ever come across. Heaney is a marvelous writer and his prose is gorgeous.
Translation by Seamus Heaney
Why do we still read this work, well over a thousand years since it was written down? Because it's damn good. Heaney's translation is great - he makes Beowulf a pleasure to read without sacrificing its old, Agnlo-Saxon flavor. If you like fantasy, particularly the old school Tolkien-esque stuff, this should be high on your list. Tolkien clearly took a lot of inspiration from Beowulf, on many levels.
Don't neglect Heaney's introduction. I don't usually read intros or forewords (at least not before reading the work itself), but since I started this on the plane back from Oregon and thus had plenty of time, I went ahead and read it. It was the best introduction to a work of great literature I have ever come across. Heaney is a marvelous writer and his prose is gorgeous.
