Beowulf edition by Anonymous Literature Fiction eBooks
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The oldest long poem in Old English, written about 1000 AD, Beowulf tells the story of a great warrior in Southern Scandinavia in both youth and maturity. The monster Grendel terrorises the Scyldings of Hrothgar's Danish Kingdom until Beowulf defeats him. As a result he has to face Grendel's enraged mother. Beowulf dies after a battle against a fierce dragon.
Beowulf edition by Anonymous Literature Fiction eBooks
The main purpose of this review is to compare the three free versions of Beowulf available for kindle. Which I actually did before, but then Amazon decided to re-version all the common domain books or something, so here we are...This version is a translation by Lesslie Hall. It's a very good re-telling of the poem--but it's hard to tell the difference between the margin notes and the text. Compared to what the formatting was when I read this version, this is great, with some linked notes, side-notes and foot-notes distinguished by different margin alignment, line numbers appearing in a reasonable location, and the text appearing as a poem. It's still a bit of a mess, though. And the text size is absurdly large. I did find it the best translation, however.
Another good thing about this version is the extras, which includes discussion, historical information, glossary, and a summary of the tale so you know what's going on. All of these feature active links within the text.
The next free version is Beowulf. It's the Gummere version, which isn't as good of a translation, but it's properly formatted, has a few linked notes, and only the bare minimum of extras (like story summary or glossary). It would probably be best if you just want to read the story, but not enjoy it.
The last version is a translation by William Morris and A.J. Wyatt: The Tale of Beowulf Sometime King of the Folk of the Weder Geats. It has more discussion and extras than the Gummere, but less than this one, and the text seems to be okay, although I didn't read as much of it.
Anyway, I hope this has all been helpful and informative and that you find the version of Beowulf that is right for you.
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Tags : Beowulf - Kindle edition by Anonymous. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Beowulf.,ebook,Anonymous,Beowulf,Naxos Audiobooks,POETRY Epic
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Beowulf edition by Anonymous Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews
So...as you can probably figure out from the rest of the reviews, this is the Gummere translation, which even I as a non-English-scholar can tell isn't the best translation.
BUT there are three different free versions of Beowulf on the kindle, and I'm actually writing this review to sort them all out. (which is why may be too generous in giving stars). First there is this unloved version by Gummere. It's just the poem with no frills or dazzles, and the notes that are there are properly end-noted and linked.
Then there is a translation by Lesslie Hall Beowulf An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem, which is quite good--but the formatting is...a challenge. All the side-notes and foot-notes are left in the text, which isn't formatted into a poem anyway, so if you just want to read the poem (like I did), well, good luck to you. It also has a bunch of informative things at the beginning; a discussion of the translation, character list, glossary, things like that.
The last version is a translation by William Morris and A.J. Wyatt The Tale of Beowulf Sometime King of the Folk of the Weder Geats. It has some informative things at the beginning and end, is formatted properly as a poem (though it seems to lack any in-text notes) and um... I haven't tried to read it yet, so I can't say how good or bad the translation is.
Anyway, I hope this has all been helpful and informative and that you find the version of Beowulf that is right for you.
Beowulf itself is one of the classics of epic poetry. This translation uses alliterative verse similar to the Old English original, and uses some words that are now (or perhaps always were) very obscure. I read this aloud to my son, who is very into monsters and knights and such, as bedtime reading and he loved it, despite the archaic language. So, as a translation of a poem intended to be recited aloud, it succeeds.
("You're reading Beowulf to a four year old?" said Relative X "It's above his grade level! And it's so violent!" Well, it's no more violent than many of the "kid's shows" Relative X lets him watch on TV., and maybe he'll learn some good vocabulary words, and he gets an appreciation that there are good stories to be found even in the old dusty books without pictures!)
The edition was formatted terribly, with the subheads in the same font and indentation as the actual poem. The end notes were also laid out very poorly.
Thus, 4 stars for the translation, 2 for the layout and an average of 3 stars.
(I had to order 2 of these, since the first one was full of notes and highlighting.) This unassuming little paperback is the best Beowulf translation ever written. Far superior to Heaney's. I once taught this book to a class of disaffected high school seniors, who were subsequently inspired to research Anglo-Saxon armor and weaponry, write comparisons with contemporary horror films and have animated class discussions about the limitations of heroism. Raffles' feel for his material is sheer genius.
The main purpose of this review is to compare the three free versions of Beowulf available for kindle. Which I actually did before, but then decided to re-version all the common domain books or something, so here we are...
This version is a translation by Lesslie Hall. It's a very good re-telling of the poem--but it's hard to tell the difference between the margin notes and the text. Compared to what the formatting was when I read this version, this is great, with some linked notes, side-notes and foot-notes distinguished by different margin alignment, line numbers appearing in a reasonable location, and the text appearing as a poem. It's still a bit of a mess, though. And the text size is absurdly large. I did find it the best translation, however.
Another good thing about this version is the extras, which includes discussion, historical information, glossary, and a summary of the tale so you know what's going on. All of these feature active links within the text.
The next free version is Beowulf. It's the Gummere version, which isn't as good of a translation, but it's properly formatted, has a few linked notes, and only the bare minimum of extras (like story summary or glossary). It would probably be best if you just want to read the story, but not enjoy it.
The last version is a translation by William Morris and A.J. Wyatt The Tale of Beowulf Sometime King of the Folk of the Weder Geats. It has more discussion and extras than the Gummere, but less than this one, and the text seems to be okay, although I didn't read as much of it.
Anyway, I hope this has all been helpful and informative and that you find the version of Beowulf that is right for you.
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