Beowulf: A New Verse TranslationComposed toward the end of the first millennium of our era, Beowulf is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and, later, from Grendel's mother. He then returns to his own country and dies in old age in a vivid fight against a dragon. The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then having to live on in the exhausted aftermath. In the contours of this story, at once remote and uncannily familiar at the end of the twentieth century, Seamus Heaney finds a resonance that summons power to the poetry from deep beneath its surface. Drawn to what he has called the "four-squareness of the utterance" in Beowulf and its immense emotional credibility, Heaney gives these epic qualities new and convincing reality for the contemporary reader.--Book jacket. |
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Common terms and phrases
6aer 6aes aefter aenig aldre baer baes baet battle beah bearn beer Beowulf blade bonne Breca cyning cynnes daeg Daet Danes death dragon dryhten eald ealdre eall Ecgtheow Eofor eorl eorla faeder faeh6e faest fela feor feorh feorran folces for6 Geata Geats gefremede gemunde geseah geweald gode gold Grendel gumena haefde hall Healfdenes heard Heardred helm helmet Hengest heold Heorogar Heorot Herebeald Heremod hine hoard hord Hrothgar Hrunting hwaet hwile hwilum Hygd Hygelac hyne hyrde king land leode leodum lord lord’s mabelode maeg maegenes manna meahte mihte monig Naes niht ofer Ohthere Onela Ongentheow Pa‘er paem paer paes paet paet hie poem Pone ponne prince saecce sceal scolde Scyld Scyldinga secg secgan shield si6e sword swylce syb6an thanes treasure Unferth waes waeter warrior wear6 weard Wedera Weohstan Wiglaf wiht wolde word wordum wyrd wyrm