Beowulf (8th Century?)Beowulf is the oldest existing poem in any modern European language. Written in Old English & dating from around the 8th century, just one copy survived Henry VIII's dissolution of the Catholic monasteries. The well known story is pretty straightforward; when Hrothgar (a Danish king) is confronted with Grendel, a monster who has taken to attacking his hall Herot, Beowulf of the Geats (Southern Sweden) comes & slays Grendel. Subsequently, Beowulf must slay Grendel's mother and towards the end of his own life, must battle a dragon. Everyone who has ever taken a survey of English Literature course probably started with Beowulf. One can only hope that they read this 1963 translation by Burton Raffel. He has taken this great epic & provided it with a worthy translation. Here is a sample: ..And after that bloody
(Reviewed:) Grade: (A+) Tweet Websites:-Beowulf Resources -Original Text -ONLINE STUDYGUIDE: Beowulf by Anonymous. (SparkNote by Amanda Davis) -EXCERPTS: A New 'Beowulf' SEAMUS HEANEY selections from Seamus Heaney's new translation of Beowulf, with excerpts from Mr. Heaney's introduction, NY Review of Books -ESSAY: How Myth, Poetry and Literature Helped Create Early Medieval England: Marc Morris on the Origins of the Anglo-Saxons (Marc Morris, June 27, 2022, LitHub) - -REVIEW: F.W. Bateson: Grendel and Beowulf Were Two Pretty Boys, NY Review of Books Beowulf translated with an Introduction and Afterword by Burton Raffel Grendel by John Gardner and illustrated by Emil Antonucci -LETTER: Burton Raffel: BEOWULF IN AMERICA, NY Review of Books -REVIEW: of Beowulf Translated by SEAMUS HEANEY (RICHARD EDER, NY Times Book Review) -REVIEW: of THE MONSTROUS RACES IN MEDIEVAL ART AND THOUGHT By John Block Friedman (John Leonard, NY Times) -REVIEW: Ted Hughes: Tricksters And Tarbabies, NY Review of Books Literature Among the Primitives by John Greenway The Primitive Reader edited by John Greenway -ESSAY: ON CAMPUS: THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS (James Atlas, NY Times Book Review) -REVIEW: D.S. Carne-Ross: Horacescope, NY Review of Books The Complete Works of Horace translated by Charles E. Passage The Essential Horace: Odes, Epodes, Satires, and Epistles translated by Burton Raffel -REVIEW: Joseph Brodsky; Barry Rubin (translated by): Beyond Consolation, NY Review of Books Hope Abandoned by Nadezhda Mandelstam and translated by Max Hayward Osip Mandelstam: Selected Poems translated by Clarence Brown and W.S. Merwin Complete Poetry of Osip Emilevich Mandelstam translated by Burton Raffel Osip Mandel'shtam, Selected Poems translated by David McDuff -REVIEW: Name game Heaney's Beowulf, Merwin's Dante (Jeffrey Gantz, Boston Phoenix) -ESSAY: Beowulf vs. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin Who will layeth the smack down? (Jim Rasenberger, Salon) -ESSAY: “Beowulf” & history: On men and monsters in the great Anglo-Saxon epic (Jacob Howland, June 2020, New Criterion) -REVIEW: Beowulf the Bro: A new translation finds Beowulf comfortably at home in the 21st century (Laura Varnam, 3 March 2021, History Today) |
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