“Beowulf is, of course, one of the greatest pieces of our language's heritage. Seamus Heaney's translation is the first and only one I have read, so I cannot compare it with other versions. All I can say is that the story is fraught with high and noble words, infused with a formal and fierce and grim sensibility that is one of the things which fascinates me so much not only with this epic but also with Norse and Anglo Saxon history and culture in general. The rhythm of this translation is inexact, but still remains part of the experience. Which is why, as the translator states in his introduction, this poem was meant to be read aloud, to be performed. I frequently found myself speaking the verses as I read, or if I wasn't alone, whispering them under my breath. Anyone who looks at this epic poem as a musty relic not fit for study or pleasure in this day and age is missing out on truly great things. For it is, as Heaney's coda states, "an inheritance, rudimentary, unshiftably planked in the long ago, yet willable forward again and again and again." ”
Michael wrote this review Sunday, August 10 2008.
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