Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by UnknownMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
After reading The Mere Wife, of course I had to go back and read Beowulf! I originally read most of it in high school, though I'm pretty sure we left out the digressions. I can still remember the way Ms. Philbin said "Grendel's mother!" and I actually still have her drawing of Grendel in my scrapbook of things-that-used-to-hang-on-my-walls.
It was interesting to have the old English and the modern side by side, as I was occasionally able to pick out words that seemed almost identical to what they are today, or spot similarities. I was annoyed, however, by Heaney's decision to use some of his family's old Celtic words in the text--wasn't the whole point of the translation to make this epic accessible to a modern audience?
Anyway, I couldn't flag passages because this was a library book, so no quote roundup this time. Though I do remember that the phrase "bone-house" was used several times to, it seemed to me, refer to the body, or at least the rib cage. I absolutely love the imagery, so it stuck!
And now back to The Mere Wife for my second reading!
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