"Beowulf," composed between the 7th and 10th century, is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and later, from Grendel's mother. He returns to his homeland and dies at an advanced age in a vivid battle against a dragon. The poem deals with confronting the monstrous, with its defeat, and with life continuing in the exhausted aftermath. Heaney's famous translation honors what is remote and intuits what is remarkably familiar, at the end of the twentieth century, in this foundational masterpiece of English poetry. For the first time, the Old English text - which survives only in a damaged manuscript, now housed at the British Museum - can be read alongside the translation on opposite pages.

Pages: 256, Dimensions: 13.7x13.7cm