Book Review: Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney

Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney

The epic tale of a Scandinavian hero is given new vividness in this verse translation of Beowulf. The outline of the story is familiar. Beowulf travels to relieve the persecuted Danes. Their great hall is attacked every night by Grendel, an abominous monster who kills at will. No Danish hero can vanquish Grendel--Beowulf beats him barehanded! After the defeat,  peace is restored until the night that Grendel's mother comes for vengeance and to take up where her offspring left off. Beowulf does not defeat her in the hall. He pursues her to an underwater lair and has another spectacular victory. Beowulf returns home to become king. He is a great and powerful lord. In his old age, he is called on once again to defeat a monster harrowing the innocent. This time a dragon has attacked his country's coast after someone stole a cup from the dragon's horde. This epic battle proves to be Beowulf's last, dying gloriously in vastly uneven combat.

I happened to read two other translations of Beowulf last year as part of anthologies of medieval texts (see here and here). This translation is by far the easiest to read and the most delightful. Heaney gives the text a very poetic flow. There's enough archaic words and sentence structure to make the verse feel classic, but not so much as to make it choppy or hard to follow. This translation has the Old English text on facing pages if readers want to try it. I occasionally looked over to see how names or epithets looked originally.

The introduction (which I read after reading the text) has the author explaining what inspired him to write it. He was originally commissioned for the work in the 1990s and did some preliminary work. The project waited a long time, which was for the best as Heaney's skill and understanding of the text, both in itself and as it related to his own experience of life and language, grew. The introduction is well worth reading, though I recommended reading the text first.

Scott and Julie at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast discuss this translation in episode 235.

Highly recommended.