Beowulf: A Verse Translation: A Norton Critical Edition / Edition 1 available in Paperback
Beowulf: A Verse Translation: A Norton Critical Edition / Edition 1
Beowulf: A Verse Translation: A Norton Critical Edition / Edition 1
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Overview
A rich selection of materials on Anglo-Saxon and early northern civilization provides undergraduate readers with Beowulfs cultural and historic context. Included are relevant excerpts from Genesis, The Exeter Book, the Icelandic saga "Grettir the Strong and the Trollwoman," and the Old English "Frisian Slaughter." Also here are excerpts from works by Alcuin, Gregory of Tours, and William of Malmesbury. An extensive collection of illustrations -- thirty-six in all -- along with genealogies and a list of kingdom and tribal names, is included. In addition, Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson write on the Beowulf manuscript, and R. D. Fulk and Joseph Harris discuss Beowulf's name.
Critical interpretations are offered by J. R. R. Tolkien, John Leyerle, Jane Chance, Roberta Frank, Fred C. Robinson, Thomas D. Hill, Leslie Webster, and Daniel Donoghue. These essays have been chosen for their relevance to undergraduate readers. Donoghue's essay includes a full discussion of Heaney's engagement with the Beowulfian conventions throughout his poetic career.
A Glossary of Personal Names and a Selected Bibliography, including the Web address for Heaney's reading of six hundred lines from his translation on BBC audio, are also provided.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 2900393975801 |
---|---|
Publication date: | 12/18/2001 |
Pages: | 304 |
Product dimensions: | 5.10(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
Seamus Heaney (1939—2013) was an Irish poet, playwright, translator, lecturer and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born at Mossbawn farmhouse between Castledawson and Toomebridge, County Derry, he resided in Dublin until his death.
Read an Excerpt
Beowulf
A Verse TranslationBy Seamus Heaney
W. W. Norton & Company
Copyright ©2001 Seamus HeaneyAll right reserved.
ISBN: 0393975800
Chapter One
So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns.
There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes,
a wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes.
This terror of the hall-troops had come far.
A foundling to start with, he would flourish later on
as his powers waxed and his worth was proved.
In the end each clan on the outlying coasts
beyond the whale-road had to yield to him
and begin to pay tribute. That was one good king.
Afterwards a boy-child was born to Shield,
a cub in the yard, a comfort sent
by God to that nation. He knew what they had tholed,
the long times and troubles they'd come through
without a leader; so the Lord of Life,
the glorious Almighty, made this man renowned.
Shield had fathered a famous son:
Beow's name was known through the north.
And a young prince must be prudent like that,
giving freely while his father lives
so that afterwards in age when fighting starts
steadfast companions will stand by him
and hold the line. Behaviour that'sadmired
is the path to power among people everywhere.
Shield was still thriving when his time came
and he crossed over into the Lord's keeping.
His warrior band did what he bade them
when he laid down the law among the Danes:
they shouldered him out to the sea's flood,
the chief they revered who had long ruled them.
A ring-whorled prow rode in the harbour,
ice-clad, outbound, a craft for a prince.
They stretched their beloved lord in his boat,
laid out by the mast, amidships,
the great ring-giver. Far-fetched treasures
were piled upon him, and precious gear
I never heard before of a ship so well furbished
with battle tackle, bladed weapons
and coats of mail. The massed treasure
was loaded on top of him: it would travel far
on out into the ocean's sway.
They decked his body no less bountifully
with offerings than those first ones did
who cast him away when he was a child
and launched him alone out over the waves.
And they set a gold standard up
high above his head and let him drift
to wind and tide, bewailing him
and mourning their loss. No man can tell,
no wise man in hall or weathered veteran
knows for certain who salvaged that load.
Then it fell to Beow to keep the forts.
He was well regarded and ruled the Danes
for a long time after his father took leave
of his life on earth. And then his heir,
the great Halfdane, held sway
for as long as he lived, their elder and warlord.
He was four times a father, this fighter prince:
one by one they entered the world,
Heorogar, Hrothgar, the good Halga
and a daughter, I have heard, who was Onela's queen,
a balm in bed to the battle-scarred Swede.
The fortunes of war favoured Hrothgar.
Friends and kinsmen flocked to his ranks,
young followers, a force that grew
to be a mighty army. So his mind turned
to hall-building: he handed down orders
for men to work on a great mead-hall
meant to be a wonder of the world forever;
it would be his throne-room and there he would dispense
his God-given goods to young and oldbut
not the common land or people's lives.
Far and wide through the world, I have heard,
orders for work to adorn that wallstead
were sent to many peoples. And soon it stood there,
finished and ready, in full view,
the hall of halls. Heorot was the name
he had settled on it, whose utterance was law.
Nor did he renege, but doled out rings
and torques at the table. The hall towered,
its gables wide and high and awaiting
a barbarous burning. That doom abided,
but in time it would come: the killer instinct
unleashed among in-laws, the blood-lust rampant.
Continues...
Excerpted from Beowulf by Seamus Heaney Copyright ©2001 by Seamus Heaney. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations | vii | |
Preface | ix | |
Acknowledgments | xiii | |
Old English Language and Poetics | xv | |
Translator's Introduction | xxiii | |
The Text of Beowulf | 1 | |
Contexts | 79 | |
The Beowulf Manuscript | 81 | |
Genesis 4.1-16 Cain and Abel | 84 | |
Hall-Feasts and the Queen | 85 | |
Grettir the Strong and the Trollwoman | 86 | |
The Frisian Slaughter: Episode and Fragment | 89 | |
Alcuin "What has Ingeld to do with Christ?" | 91 | |
Gregory of Tours History of the Franks [Hygelac's Raid into Frisia] | 93 | |
William of Malmesbury [Genealogy of the Royal Family of Wessex] | 93 | |
On the Wars between the Swedes and the Geats | 94 | |
Genealogies of the Royal Families in Beowulf | 95 | |
The Kingdoms and Tribes of Beowulf | 96 | |
Map: The Scandinavian Setting of Beowulf | 97 | |
Beowulf's Name | 98 | |
Criticism | 101 | |
Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics | 103 | |
The Interlace Structure of Beowulf | 130 | |
The Structural Unity of Beowulf: The Problem of Grendel's Mother | 152 | |
The Beowulf Poet's Sense of History | 167 | |
The Tomb of Beowulf | 181 | |
The Christian Language and Theme of Beowulf | 197 | |
Archaeology and Beowulf | 212 | |
The Philologer Poet: Seamus Heaney and the Translation of Beowulf | 237 | |
Glossary of Personal Names | 248 | |
Selected Bibliography | 251 |