I once had to learn Anglo Saxon in order to study this in the original. I regret that I didn't apply myself to it. Whatever I learnt I've now forgotten. A shame because it would have helped me get my tongue around many of the names. It would also have helped me fully appreciate Heaney's translation. Such a treat; compelling and alive with lashings of mythic import. Heaney skilfully makes it feel like the oral story that it is, invested with lineage and recapitulations. While I love the murky sense of mead-hall there is a spareness to the poem that gives little insight into the humanity that feeds on such epics. The poem feels slightly bastardised as if sections have been omitted and others added. The Christian allusions are so completely out of place and tacked on that surely this must once have been a more ancient story. Re-told or sung in the mead-halls. Unless, it was originally a millennial attempt by Christians to fake an archaic and grounded story. So, unfairly, I've given it merely 4 stars. That said, there is something quite wonderful and enchanting about reading a thousand-year-old poem.

How many wars have been put to rest in a prince’s bed? Few. A bride can bring a little peace, make spears silent for a time, but not long.

( )

I had read only a section of this epic poem about 50 years ago, when I was young and did not really grasp its significance. I chose the audio version for this "read" for a reason: Given that is believed to have been composed in the 8th century about events in the 6th century (though uncertain and surely before the beginning of the 11th century, as I learned the Beowulf manuscript is dated around 1000 A.D., and the poem was not printed until the early 19th century), it is a tale that likely would was told orally over and over before it was written down, in the tradition of the bards of those eras. It's a class good vs. evil saga involving a hero's quest and many of the other elements of a heroic tale: war, pride, courage, hubris. ( )

An astounding poem presenting perfectly England's northern german and nordic heritage. It is a truly epic tale that captures both history and the imagination. Its themes and ideas echo throughout the rest of English literature and fantasy. It is a story that speaks from our bones and I'm glad it now sings through mine. ( )

I read this as part of a three-night read-aloud activity at a cabin-camping event.

Friday night, we read and heard the tale of Beowulf vs. Grendel (Spoiler Alert (SA): Countless sleeping spearmen and Grendal die). The reading lasted about an hour and a half.

Saturday night we read and heard the tale of Beowulf vs. Grendel's mother (SA: Grendel's mother dies). That reading lasted about an hour.

Sunday night concluded the poetry reading with the fight between Beowulf and the Dragon. (SA - Beowulf and the dragon both die). It also took about an hour. During the height of the key battle scene, roars from the far end of the hall (gamers celebrating good fortune) added to, rather than detracted from, the drama of the scene.
The group reading experience was pure delight.

Translation Notes: The original tale would have been told aloud in a manner that spoke to the Saxons in their own story-telling tradition. It would feel modern to the original audience, but feels more ancient and rather foreign to an audience of the 21st century, speaking a different language. Most translations, like Burton Raffel's (the version I first read and still love) try to stay true to the style of language and word choice in the single surviving copy of the poem. So the translation feels wondrous, archaic, and a bit foreign.

This translator aimed their work for a different feel. This translator wanted the audience to understand and feel an immediacy, in a very contemporarily modern use of language that brings the reader into the story. It is as if someone in their circle of friends was passing on what just happened, not some musty old-fashioned geek using arcane ways of speaking to convey what some other ancient geezers had said and done.

Thus, the famous first word of the original, "Hwæt!", traditionally rendered variously as "Listen!" or "What!" or "Lo!" , in this translation is "Bro!"

Results:
1-Conversations sparked by this adventure tended to include the observation that "The original author kept throwing in digressions. He couldn't seem to tell the story without interrupting himself with a tangential story."

2- I reveal myself as a bit of a musty old-fashioned geek here, because this very modern retelling was more au courant in language usage than I am. If the slang had echoed the 1970s or 80s, I'd have understood immediately. But young people these days have their own way of talking....

Conclusion: This was an absolutely amazing way to read a book jointly with a dozen other people, as both reader and listener. It provoked fascinating conversations and provided insights into an impromptu storytelling tale.

At only three and a half hours, this was also way shorter than the modern current-events-audio book I'm in the midst of.

Some of the language is wonderful: a great mix of modern and ancient-sounding. ( )