Beowulf (Bilingual Edition) - Seamus Heaney

Beowulf (Bilingual Edition)

By Seamus Heaney

  • Release Date: 2001-02-17
  • Genre: Poetry
Score: 4
4
From 254 Ratings

Description

New York Times bestseller and winner of the Costa Book Award.

Composed toward the end of the first millennium, 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 beginning of the twenty-first century, Nobel laureate 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.

Reviews

  • Good epic tone and wording

    5
    By magical ballllll!
    Much better than the modern translation. This older translation provides a sense that you vividly experienced a hero’s life, where as modern translation is just like looking through bird view.
  • Unrealistic

    5
    By hylN ca hoed
    I personally believe that the story is unrealistic and that Beowulf wouldn’t have beat a real life dragon.
  • Terrible

    1
    By elijahtrogers
    Terrible
  • Great text, worthless copy

    2
    By Fishforfeet
    This E-book is worthless. It lost track of my place every time I closed it once I got the the English translation. I had to highlight a word to keep track. When I had about 50 pages left, it thought the book was complete and popped up adds for other books every few page flips. Maddening.
  • Beowulf Sample

    1
    By Xyz123:)
    I wanted to read a sample of Healey’s translation. BUT the sample reading was 37 pages of the introduction. I never got a chance to actually read the text.
  • Good modern translation

    5
    By TacoMauri_96
    Very easy to digest I loved it 😍😍😍
  • They have fixed the missing Old English part

    5
    By Rebecita
    This is awesome! I couldn't get through the version in my textbook, and this one made me read it for fun.:) By the way, this book does now include the old English.
  • Where's the "bilingual" part?

    1
    By Mudflaps
    It's touted as a "bilingual" edition. It isn't. The sample only shows the introduction. If you're looking for the Old English like in the print edition, it isn't here. Disappointing and false advertising.
  • Beautiful

    5
    By Sadie Baby 98
    The sheer awesomeness that an unknown author can weave into this awe inspiring epic is sheer genius! I know that their is an author listed but he is actually only the translator. The author is unknown! It's too bad because I wish I knew who to thank for this incredible piece of art! I normally put up a wall when a story grows sad so I don't cry! But alas I sat in european literature class and cried my eyes out! Mascara ran down my face when the book drew to an end! It was beautifully done to a point where when it grew sad I didn't want to throw the book away! In would tell you why I was crying but I wish not to spoil the ending for all you currently reading or soon to read.
  • I hate books, this is my one exception

    5
    By Noldyb
    Loved it, I hate books, I want to punch myself in the face right now, but I loved it

Comments