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Interviews | July 4, 2009

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luisalbertourreaLuis Alberto Urrea is a poet, novelist, journalist, and essayist who has been writing about the relationship between the United States and Mexico,... Continue »
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Beowulf: A New Verse Translation

by Seamus Heaney

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

A brilliant and faithful rendering of the Anglo-Saxon epic from the Nobel laureate.

Composed toward the end of the first millennium of our era, Beowulf is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and, later, from Grendel's mother. He then returns to his own country and dies in old age in a vivid fight against a dragon. The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then having to live on in the exhausted aftermath. In the contours of this story, at once remote and uncannily familiar at the end of the twentieth century, Seamus Heaney finds a resonance that summons power to the poetry from deep beneath its surface.

Drawn to what he has called the "four-squareness of the utterance" in Beowulf and its immense emotional credibility, Heaney gives these epic qualities new and convincing reality for the contemporary reader.

Review:

"[Heaney is] the one living poet who can rightly claim to be the 'Beowulf' poet's heir."--Edward Melson, The New York Times Book Review

Synopsis:

This brilliant and faithful rendering of the Anglo-Saxon epic has been revamped for the contemporary reader by Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney.

About the Author

Seamus Heaney lives in Dublin and teaches at Harvard University. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. His most recent book of poems is Opened Ground (FSG, 1998).

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
argylsok, July 7, 2008 (view all comments by argylsok)
Mr. Heaney has written a superb translation of Beowulf, with a poet's sensibility toward the Anglo-Saxon compound words that made this epic so rich. (E.g., the Anglo-Saxon 'bone cage' = our 'skeleton.')

Having the original Anglo-Saxon text on the facing page is a gift for those who have encountered the original work.

It is Heaney's gift for narrative that shines. This is the most readable version of Beowulf that I have encountered.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780374111199
Subtitle:
A New Verse Translation
Author:
Heaney, Seamus
Publisher:
Farrar Straus Giroux
Location:
New York :
Subject:
Poetry
Subject:
Poetry (poetic works by one author)
Subject:
English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
Subject:
Heroes
Subject:
Monsters
Subject:
Dragons
Subject:
Ancient, Classical & Medieval
Subject:
Epic poetry, English
Subject:
General Poetry
Edition Number:
1st ed.
Edition Description:
Trade Cloth
Series Volume:
160
Publication Date:
February 2000
Binding:
Hardcover
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Notes
Pages:
213
Dimensions:
9.25 x 6.13 in

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