Beowulf: a new feminist translation of the epic poem

A GUARDIAN NEW STATESMAN SPECTATOR AND IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR A new feminist translation of Beowulf by the author of the acclaimed novel The Mere Wife.Nearly twenty years after Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf ― and fifty years after the translation that continues to torment students around the world ― there is a radical new verse interpretation of the epic poem by Maria Dahvana Headley which brings to light elements never before translated into English.A man seeks to prove himself as a hero. A monster seeks silence in his territory. A warrior seeks to avenge her murdered son. A dragon ends it all. These familiar components of the epic poem are seen with a novelist’s eye towards gender genre and history. Beowulf has always been a tale of entitlement and encroachment ― of powerful men seeking to become more powerful and one woman seeking justice for her child ― but this version brings new context to an old story. While crafting her contemporary adaptation Headley unearthed significant shifts lost over centuries of translation. Review ‘Allied to a cunning ear for alliteration this makes for a text of rollicking restless verve. The masculine boasting besting and butchering are duly in place but Headley adds a sharp focus on the actions and motivations of the female characters ... Maria Dahvana Headley’s radical translation of Beowulf sets out to make you look again at the Norse epic … If you’ve ever struggled with the poem this is the retelling for you its ferocious clarity turning Beowulf into a Hollywood superhero.’ -- Rishi Dastidar ―The Guardian‘[The Mere Wife] includes some tantalising snippets of Beowulf as translated by Headley. Now we have the full version and it is electrifying … It is brash and belligerent lunatic and invigorating with passages of sublime poetry punctuated by obscenities and social-media shorthand … With a Beowulf defiantly of and for this historical moment Headley reclaims the poem for her audience as well as for herself.’ -- Ruth Franklin ―The New Yorker‘Bold … Electrifying.’ -- Ron Charles ―The Washington Post‘There is a glory and thrill to her verse which brings the blood fire and youthful energy of the original to the surface … a gift.’ -- Hetta Howes ―TLS‘Maria Dahvana Headley’s decision to make Beowulf a bro puts his macho bluster in a whole new light.’ -- Andrea Kannapell ―The New York Times‘Maria Dahvana Headley has made an enthralling scalding contemporary epic; she combines newly-wrought ancient kennings with US street slang and lights up the women in the poem with unusual sympathy.’ -- Marina Warner ―New Statesman Books of the Year‘Her verse has a swaggering street-smart bite.’ -- Alex Diggins ―The Sunday Telegraph‘An iconic work of early English literature comes in for up-to-the-minute treatment … Headley’s language and pacing keep perfect track with the events she describes … [giving] the 3182-line text immediacy without surrendering a bit of its grand poetry. Some purists may object to the small liberties Headley has taken with the text but her version is altogether brilliant.’ STARRED REVIEW ―Kirkus Reviews‘Beowulf is an ancient tale of men battling monsters but Headley has made it wholly modern with language as piercing and relevant as Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning album DAMN. With scintillating inversions and her use of au courant idiom ― the poem begins with the word ‘Bro!’ and Queen Wealhtheow is ‘hashtag: blessed’ ― Headley asks one to consider not only present conflicts in light of those of the past but also the line between human and inhuman power and powerlessness and the very nature of moral transformation the ‘suspicion that at any moment a person might shift from hero into howling wretch.’ The women of Beowulf have often been sidelined. Not so here.’ -- Danielle Trussoni ―The New York Times Book Review‘Move over Tolkien and Heaney. This translat