Beowulf

The poem "Beowulf" is one of the glories of European literature. It was composed in Anglo-Saxon verse early in the eighth century, probably in the Northumbria of the Venerable Bede and the Lindisfarne Gospels, and it has come down in just one surviving manuscript, made around the year 1000. This is the text which Julian Glover has taken for this prestigious edition, while also drawing on the work of several of the foremost translators, in particular Michael Alexander's widely read "Penguin Classic" text. Here is a tale that was told in the mead hall, by a resident or travelling storyteller over several days of drunken revelry, which recounts tales of long battles, of celebrated heroes and monsters, and of the passions of warriors fighting for survival. Beowulf is presented here in a form which is as closely in sympathy with the original oral tradition as possible. Magnus Magnusson's Introduction sets the poem in context for the modern reader, while Sheila Mackie's intricate and vibrant paintings evoke the Anglo-Saxon culture in which the epic poem was first performed.