The earliest extant heroic epic in any European vernacular, Beowulf is considered the most important poem in Old English. The title character is a warrior of superhuman strength who accomplishes glorious deeds to honor his king. He also represents the ideal lord and vassal, generous to his own men while fulfilling all the forms of courtesy at court. The narrative itself falls into two parts: Beowulf first rescues the royal house of Denmark from two marauding monsters; then, after having ruled his people peacefully for fifty years, he is called upon to combat a dragon that is terrorizing the countryside.
Combining mythical elements with actual historical figures and events, the narrative ranges from fierce action sequences to and detailed portrayals of court life and earnest considerations of social and moral dilemmas, all in a tone of sustained grandeur.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
very entertaining story, great reading:
I wanted to read Beowulf before seeing the movie, so I decided to listen to this audio edition of it, and I really liked it. It has all the elements of a great fantasy story such as great heroes and kings and horrible monsters. The performance by Robertson Dean was excellent. His voice matched the story perfectly. I had a little trouble with all the names, though. But that didn't make it impossible to follow the story.
Cover of Book and Material:
The cover of the book, Beowulf, was most satisfactory for the story and charge for the book. Thank you.
Free SF Reader:
This is a good vs evil story, in one sense. You have a dwelling full of people having a good time, but a monster decides to cause a bit of carnage. This causes much cowering and wailing, until the intrepid hero Beowulf decides to see if he can go and inflict some steel based damage upon the unfortunate monster, Grendel.
A solid prose translation of a great epic:
I once made the joke that Grendel was the first beo-degradable monster in history... GROAN! When I gave this joke to an English professor, he used it in class, and promptly returned it to me. Okay. I'll accept that. But, Beowulf deserves the kind of serious attention that would prompt people to want to make bad jokes about it (unimportant things are ignored; only important things are held up in jest). Beowulf is an old poem--often considered the first in English. This is technically not... more info
