by anonymous
8th-11th century AD
translated by Burton Raffel
The edition I read also had a lengthy afterword by Robert P. Creed.
The poem itself was great stuff, epic in the Homeric sense, full of
lengthy monologues and side stories in the midst of bloody action. It
was also surprisingly subtle (for instance, the contrast of Beowulf's
personality from the Grendel stage to the dragon-slaying, elderly
stage). Raffel's intro was basically an ad for the poem, while Creed's
essay was first an ad for Raffel's translation (and he made a great case
for its quality), and in its second part an interesting description of
the style, intent and ability of the historical poem-singers of sixth
century England.
four stars
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