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Beowulf

Beowulf

A New Verse Translation
By&
PoetryClassicsFolklore
Pages
243
Published
2000
Language
English

Synopsis

This epic poem tells the story of Beowulf, a mighty warrior who travels to Denmark to battle the monstrous Grendel and his vengeful mother. After his triumphs, he returns home to face a final, deadly challenge from a fearsome dragon. It's a timeless tale of heroism, confronting evil, and the struggles that follow great deeds.

Prose complexity
7/10

Vibe

DarkEmotionalReflectiveThought-Provoking
QuestRevenge

Genres

Classics Folklore Mythology Poetry

About the author

S
Seamus Heaney

Seamus Justin Heaney MRIA (/ˈʃeɪməs ˈhiːni/; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is Death of a Naturalist (1966), his first major published volume. Heaney was and is still recognised as one of the principal contributors to poetry in Ireland during his lifetime. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats", and many others, including the...

Characters

BeowulfProtagonist
GrendelAntagonist
Grendel's MotherAntagonist
All characters in Beowulf

Frequently asked questions

  • Who wrote Beowulf, and when?

    Beowulf is an anonymous Old English epic poem — its author is unknown. Scholars date its composition anywhere from the early 8th century to the early 11th century; the poem's sole surviving manuscript was copied around the year 1000. This edition on Seekquel is Seamus Heaney's acclaimed modern-English verse translation, first published in 1999, which won that year's Whitbread Book of the Year Award.

  • Is this the original Old English poem, or a translation?

    This is a translation. Seamus Heaney translated the original Old English epic into modern English verse; several editions print his translation alongside the Old English text (a "bilingual edition"). The poem itself predates Heaney's translation by roughly a thousand years.

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