The Old English epic poem Beowulf has an established reputation as a canonical text.
And yet the original poem has remained inaccessible to all but experienced scholars of Old English. This book aims to present the poem to readers who want to know what makes it such a remarkable work of art, and why it is of such cultural significance.
Most readers will only have encountered Beowulf through one of its many translations or adaptations; others have had to take on this unique survivor from a past era as a challenging translation exercise, part of their academic study of the poem. This book sidesteps scholarly debates about the poem's unknowns - its date, provenance or author - and focusses instead on its poetic artistry, its interleaving of heroic pasts and Christian present, and its poet's extraordinary breadth of reference, from biblical history to Old Norse myth. But the strange intricacies of Old English metre and poetic language are explained, and the poet's evocation of the ethics and material world of an imagined pre-Viking Scandinavia is explored.
Beowulf: Poem, Poet and Hero follows the story of the poem through its many interwoven voices from different times and places, and the poem emerges as a work of reflective beauty, its human characters full of touching pathos and wisdom, its notorious monsters still speaking to our own societies' abiding insecurities. The final section, on post-medieval responses to Beowulf, shows how the poem has been taken up as a European cultural icon. This book restores its status as a literary masterpiece.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
There is something refreshing about an experienced scholar's decision to push aside peer-reviewed articles, commentaries and editions in order to speak frankly about what she finds so rewarding in the text. Her zeal is palpable ... Her book-length commentary, freed from scholarly apparatus, is itself a sort of translation of Beowulf, which will lead readers to a deeper understanding of this "magnificent literary achievement". * Times Literary Supplement * [Beowulf] shines a light on the Old English epic poem's artistry and details its breadth of reference. Beautifully written, it carefully explains why the intricate text still speaks to us today. * This England magazine * Heather O'Donoghue has done a great service to Beowulf, confidently navigating ongoing debates about authorship, date, provenance and structure to produce a highly readable, accessible and original vision of the poet as a learned synthesizer of biblical story, Norse myth and Scandinavian royal legend. This book provides an invaluable introduction to the most famous Old English poem, and will be essential reading for students and scholars alike. * Francis Leneghan, Professor of Old English, University of Oxford, UK * What makes Prof O'Donoghue's book so readable is the fact that, despite years of analysing it, she clearly still loves the poem, which she describes as being 'by turn thrilling and reflective, crudely violent and delicately emotional', and her enthusiasm is infectious. * Country Life * [O'Donoghue] writes with a reassuring directness and authority ... The book is a tour de force of accessible scholarship, bringing what is arguably the most forbidding text in English literary history to life in all its supple, dark complexity. * Engelsberg Ideas * [O'Donoghue] writes with a reassuring directness and authority ... The book is a tour de force of accessible scholarship, bringing what is arguably the most forbidding text in English literary history to life in all its supple, dark complexity. * Engelsberg Ideas *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Zielgruppe
Für höhere Schule und Studium
Maße
Höhe: 254 mm
Breite: 162 mm
Dicke: 2 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-78831-288-2 (9781788312882)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Heather O'Donoghue is Professor Emeritus of Old Norse at University of Oxford, UK. Her publications include Old Norse Icelandic Literature: A Short Introduction (2004), English Poetry and Old Norse (2014), Narrative in the Icelandic Family Saga (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021) and From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths (2nd Edition, Bloomsbury Academic, 2024). She has also broadcast with the BBC on the topic of the Norse Gods.
Autor*in
University of Oxford, UK
Introduction
Part One: The Storyworld
1. The Setting
2. The Human Characters
3. The Monsters
Part Two: Poet, Narrator and Scop
4. A Christian Poet
5. An Old Norse Scholar
6. The Narrator
7. The Scop
Part Three: Post-Medieval Meanings
8. Earliest Audiences
9. Early Modern Audiences
10. Translations
11. Contemporary Meanings
Further Reading
Index
