Beowulf

Book excerpt: This acclaimed modern verse translation of the timeless epic of bravery and battle captures the drama and tone of the Old English narrative poem. Here is the stirring legend of Beowulf, the great hero who saves the Danish king from the monster Grendel—only to face the avenging wrath of Grendel’s Mother. The first masterpiece of English literature, it has survived for centuries, passed down across generations through numerous versions. In this modern verse translation, Frederick Rebsamen conjures both the excitement of Beowulf’s adventures and the richness of the Old English poetic form. “No self-respecting college professor will want his students to be without it . . . With the subtle rules of alliteration, stress, and pause in place—and with a translator bold enough to invent his own vigorous and imaginative compound nouns—the poem suddenly takes flight and carries us to the highest mountains of achievement.” —Booklist “There are lots of translations of Beowulf floating around, some prose, some poetry, but none manages to capture the feel and tone of the original as well as this one.” —Dick Ringler, Professor of English and Scandinavian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison