Beowulf

Author: Unknown

Written: Unknown

Translator: E. Talbot Donaldson

Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company (2002 Edition)

Bought from: Book Depository

Introduction

Beowulf is the longest and one of the oldest extant poems written in Old English. No one knows exactly who wrote it, when or where. The poem survives in a single manuscript, now housed in the British Library. Experts think the manuscript was written between the 8th and early 11th century.

What is it about?

Beowulf is set in Scandinavia around 500 AD. The story can be divided into 2 parts. In the first half, the protagonist Beowulf travels from his native Geatland in modern Sweden to Denmark to defeat the monster Grendel and later Grendel's mother. The second half takes place 50 winters later when Beowulf is king of Geatland. Beowulf kills a dragon that is burning Geatland but he is mortally wounded.

It is interesting that all the antagonists appear to have been provoked by some human action. Grendel attacks the Danes in the great hall of Heorot only after enduring painful hardship due to the sound of merry-making coming from those people. Later, Grendel's mother attacks the same building to avenge her son's killing. The dragon, in turn, is provoked out of 300 hundred years of co-existence with the humans by the theft of a plated cup from its hoard. Modern readers may read this as mother nature hitting back at humans who have abused it.

The poem is not a long, only about 3,100 lines (cf the Iliad which contains over 15,000 lines). As such, the characters including Beowulf himself are not well developed. It is also hard to find a theme for the poem. Maybe the writer was just interested in composing an entertaining poem.

What about the book?

Donaldson's prose translation is written in modern English but it does contain the odd sentence construction that will seem peculiar to the casual reader. This translation is part of the Norton Critical Edition series so it comes with a wide range of additional materials, grouped under "Background and Contexts" and "Criticism". In fact, the total number of pages of additional materials is more than twice that of the text itself. In general, the essays in the Criticism section is too much for the casual reader.

Finally ...

The story is recommended. One day, I will try a different translation, maybe Seamus Heaney's.