Beowulf - Translated by Seamus Heaney

⭐9/10

Beowulf has been on my radar for years. I mean, what a cool name right? But my bigger thing was that if it's good enough for Tolkien then it's good enough for me. This is an Old English poem written by a now unknown source, the oldest known "English" piece of writing we have. For centuries it's been studied by scholars, but then in the 30s Tolkien began to shift the thinking that this shouldn't just be ancient literature to be studied, but rather should be art to be celebrated and enjoyed. 

I picked up the Tolkien translation years ago but admitted defeat pretty quickly. A nearly 100 year old translation of a 1000 year old story was not doing much for me, and so I put it aside, and so something that should have not been forgotten was lost and passed out of all knowledge until when chance came, I found this much more modern translation at the bottom of a river (a shelf at Value Village). I had lower expectations this time around, but I gotta say - I really dug it! It's not terribly long to read (3000 lines) but I got through it in a few days, and that magic I so often associate with Tolkien or Arthurian legend was in me! I think this translation strikes that perfect balance between being readable but also holding that timeless quality, the language never being too contemporary. 

It's pretty standard as stories go. It's an ancient story, but also a period piece on an older (and weirdly Christian) Scandinavia. Various villainous monsters are terrorizing the land, and so the noble prince who bears no flaw must defeat them. There are only minor twists and turns, the characters have zero depth or unique traits, and one can't really go looking for nuance or interesting themes in a 1000 year old story. So you obviously have to approach this story in a different way and meet it on its own terms. With that in mind, you get a timeless tale of good versus evil, of selfless courage, and of grand and epic heroism. It's great to cheer for Beowulf because you know he won't let you down! 

The influence on Tolkien is immediately clear. It's more Children of Hurin than LOTR, though you see elements of this story in all of his writing. Aside from the plot, the heroism, the good vs evil, it's also speech patterns, the focus on friendship and loyalty, and how kingdoms thrive when their king has the fortitude to inspire his men to goodness. For what it's worth, I began reading Tolkien's Beowulf immediately after, and it's so much more accessible now that I already know the story. 

While I enjoyed reading through, it's obviously not your ideal reading experience. My eyes would glaze over a dozen lines and I'd find my mind drifting often before going back. But an odd quality I noticed during my reading is that I often went back and loved what I glazed over? But there are also some narrative choices that are naturally bizarre by modern standards, lots of "poem within the poem" digressions, lots of speeches and recaps. Beowulf slays his first enemy within 30 pages and spends the next 70 pages receiving praise and gifts from the grateful king. I will also say the values are hilariously old school, like Beowulf chastising the king for mourning his friend and telling him to man up and focus on revenge instead. I mean, it's a 1000 year old story, but I found the ability to jump into a different time and place to be super valuable. 

So in the end it's pretty much impossible to put a score on something like this, but you know me, I'll put a score on anything, and I did have a genuinely fun time reading. I think a big factor is that it's short, and I'm not sure it would have held my attention were it much longer. But it's epic, it's heroic, and I could never give a low score to something Tolkien loved.