Beowulf: A New Verse Translation

I have read other reviewers at this site discrediting Seamus Heaney due to this very reason, but in my view if a translator doesnt add passion to his translation then it is a waste of time to translate at all. It may not be exactly true to the text, but true enough. One thing I love most about his translation is the fact that he stays true to the meter. With four alliterations per line, he provides the feel of the original text upon the reading.

Another thing I loved about this translation is the very first line. He makes (a true) comment that while previous versions begin the entire text with a "Lo!" or a "Hark!" or a "Behold!", Seamus Heaney starts off with the simple yet modern "So." -- with a period -- not even an overused and ecstatic exclamation mark.

Finally, for those who dont dabble in the egoism of stuffy "scholarly" expectations will also enjoy glancing at the original text that displays directly next to the translation. Here you get the feel of Seamus Heaneys decision to translate the way he did. You wont understand the original text, yet with the translation sitting next to it, you will.

Written in England sometime between the seventh and tenth centuries, the legend recounts events set in Scandinavia, where the hero Beowulf delivers the land of the Danes from a monster named Grendel. This edition presents the original Anglo-Saxon Old English text on the left-hand pages with Heaneys modern English translation on the right.

The cultures described in the poem have recently encountered Christianity, and the author reframes their mythic worldview in light of the Christian story. Grendel, as the embodiment of evil, is identified as a descendant of Cain. Beowulfs battle accounts are oddly Christianized; at one point he declares, "I praise God in His heavenly glory that I lived to behold this head dripping blood."

But a surprising theme that emerges is the providence of God. Interspersed throughout the text are such affirmations as "The truth is clear: Almighty God rules over mankind and always has." Beowulf compellingly portrays a primeval world of both brutality and heroism where paganism and Christianity intersect.

For a modern reader with little knowledge in early English literature, this poem, although surprisingly easy to read (thanks to Heaneys work), is a difficult book to write about. This is because (in my amateur opinion) the story is, though beautifully rendered, fairly simple and primitive in terms of its narrative elements (whats there to write about?). Its about courage, loyalty, friendship, battle, and everything else highly regarded in an early medieval European society. Most of all, though, Beowulf is about confronting the monstrous outside forces that threaten to destroy our way of life. In doing so, we must muster enormous courage and strength in spite of our fear of those unknown beasts that haunt our worst nightmares. And this poem is, if only for brief moments, haunting enough to give Stephen King a shudder. Every time the Geats or the Danes settle down in hopes of peace, some long-brooding evil that lurks the surrounding countryside after dark comes to eat villagers and destroy buildings. There isnt anything much more nightmarish than that. The dark, foreboding tension matches Tolkien at his best (see the chapter entitled Shadow of the Past in LoTR). Heres a sample from Grendels first attack:

So times were pleasant for the people there
Until finally one, a fiend out of hell,
Began to work his evil in the world.
Grendel was the name of this grim demon
Haunting the marches, marauding round the heath
And the desolate fens; he had dwelt for a time
In misery among the banished monsters...