Beowulf

A widely celebrated translator's vivid, accessible, and elegantly concise rendering of an ancient English masterpieceBeowulf tells the story of a Scandinavian hero who defeats three evil creatures-a huge, cannibalistic ogre named Grendel, Grendel's monstrous mother, and a dragon-and then dies, mortally wounded during his last encounter. If the definition of a superhero is "someone who uses his special powers to fight evil," then Beowulf is our first English superhero story, and arguably our best. It is also a deeply pious poem, so bold in its reverence for a virtuous pagan past that it teeters on the edge of heresy. From beginning to end, we feel we are in the hands of a master storyteller.   Stephen Mitchell's marvelously clear and vivid rendering re-creates the robust masculine music of the original. It both hews closely to the meaning of the Old English and captures its wild energy and vitality, not just as a deep "work of literature" but also as a rousing entertainment that can still stir our feelings and rivet our attention today, after more than a thousand years. This new translation-spare, sinuous, vigorous in its narration, and translucent in its poetry-makes a masterpiece accessible to everyone.  

ISBN:	9780300236668
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Imprint:	Yale University Press
Published date:	30 Oct 2018
DEWEY:	821.1
DEWEY edition:	23
Language:	English
Number of pages:	264
Weight:	290g
Height:	196mm
Width:	126mm
Spine width:	18mm

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