Beowulf

Rating: ★★★

Method of Reading: Personally owned paperback novel read for AP literature class, 128 pages
Dates of Reading: August 26, 2011-September 8, 2011
Author: Original author(s) unknown; development attributed to the many scopes of early Anglo-Saxon oral traditions. The living manuscript was written by two monks, generally called Scribe A and Scribe B, and translated by Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin. The version I own was translated by Burton Raffel.
Publication Year: Written between the 8th and 11th centuries. First modern copy printed: 1815.
Recommended to: If you liked The Odyssey, you'll probably like this.
Quotes:
Movie: Multiple.

Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf
Link: http://www.google.com/search?sourceif=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4DKUS_enUS280US280&q=Beowulf

My View: I suppose I can only call it a great monster story. It was interesting to look at from a criticism and analysis perspective, but I knew that in class we were ascribing subtleties far more weight than they were ever intended to have. On the surface, as-written, it is simply a heroic tale, too dense and told in too challenging a style for many modern readers to care to pick up. It's an English teacher's dream, though, since it's mostly a blank rock to pull meaning from.


Always,
Your Bibliomaniac

Bibliographic info:
Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000. Print.