Beowulf, more than history. (Beowulf - Seamus Heaney)

Member Name: derpigeon

Product:	Beowulf - Seamus Heaney
Date:	21/11/00 (140 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: gripping tale, brilliant translation

Disadvantages: the original text isn't included

Seamus Heany’s poetry is full of Irish bile, his poems are in raw contact with what he believes to be the peaty past of Ireland, bog land held, for him, the frozen past of a possible future for Ireland.
In his translation of Beowulf he reaches new heights in the connection with his Irish ancestry and the ancient Nordic bards, from whence the tail descends. The story of the vanquishing of Grendal and his mother is as grippingly epic as ever. And the grandiose sweeping imagery and deliciously lush text are very much like the peat that so obsessed Heany. The reader is drawn in, inescapably, as a thousand years of storytelling is refined yet left un-compromised in an image of purity that has made many regard his translation as the finest on record.
The narrative is gorgeous, a tale which seems to be logged within our cultural memory, told in all its glory, Heany manages to confer on each stanza a new meaning, a modern outlook yet, the imagery is still something apart, the feudal world of warring Danes is brought to life in a new Technicolor.
The book is a short saga; a delightful juxtaposition of ideology, the atmosphere is pervasive and telling, grippingly real while enjoyably fantastic. A must read for those who wish to broaden their historical and literary views. Read it, it’s more than worthwhile.

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