Beowulf discussion

Lazy...very lazy...
Read it...or at least google it.
Or even read the reviews here...

This translation is very simple and easily understood. Read it.

King has monster trouble. Hero rocks up and kills monster by pulling off an arm. Monster's mum goes mad and is in turn killed by hero. Dragon turns up and roasts hero. In Saxon.

Tallburt wrote: "King has monster trouble. Hero rocks up and kills monster by pulling off an arm. Monster's mum goes mad and is in turn killed by hero. Dragon turns up and roasts hero. In Saxon."

nailed it

Tallburt wrote: "King has monster trouble. Hero rocks up and kills monster by pulling off an arm. Monster's mum goes mad and is in turn killed by hero. Dragon turns up and roasts hero. In Saxon."

Like a sir.

Beowulf is a pretty brief read to begin with, and this Seamus Heaney translation that everybody (myself included) is reading is both very beautiful and very easy to understand.

If you still have trouble, SparkNotes is your friend.

Hello,

Beowulf is an excellent book - please, for your own sake do not sparknotes it! While the plot of Beowulf is quite simple, its themes are that of duty, change, courage,and weregild (man-price) are certainly not.

When reading it, think primarily to the role weregild plays in causing the events of the plot.

Here. Pick one. Several of these are free .pdf downloads.

http://www.heathengods.com/library/be...

READ IT.

Read it alone on a dark night.

Excellent to see the article in the Mpls. Star Tribune about Beowulf a couple of weeks ago - just as I was teaching the value of this epic as a window into the Anglo-Saxon culture. I had just shown the Seamus Heaney translation when the article appeared in the paper. I brought it in, and so did one of my students. To miss the value of this work is to misunderstand the value of story and what it shows us about culture, beliefs, language.

Awesome book! I recommend the version by Seamus Heaney.

Hey Yzanne,

First, it's an epic poem. Second, why not just "read it."

The amount of time querying Goodreads for plot summaries, etc., you could use reading the actual poem.

And, the Heaney translation, mentioned here, is a more "compact" translation—very readable.

And, if you're still pressed for time, how about Wikipedia? Or Google?

I am sorry; but, I echo "Old Barbarossa's" post.

Not too long ago I read this book. And I'm very impressed. Beowulf is a very cool book! Before reading the book, I read many essays about it on https://tooly.io/beowulf/. Here I found many interesting, and most importantly, qualitative essays related to this book. It was very convenient. Personally recommend.