Beowulf: A New Verse Translation

Beowulf a poem written at the turn of the first century is an elegiac account of the exploits of the Scandinavian hero Beowulf who defends the Danes from the terrifying Grendel and later from Grendels mother. After returning home he engages in a vivid battle with a dragon before passing away in old age. The poem is about coming upon the terrible killing it and then having to continue living in its worn-out wake. Seamus Heaney the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature discovers a connection that draws strength to the poetry from deep inside in the contours of this story which is both remote and uncannily similar at the start of the twenty-first century.