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/lit/ - Literature

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8602703 No.8602703 [Reply] [Original]

Best translation of Beowulf? I happen to have the Tolkien translation on my shelf and idk if it's worth reading

>> No.8602715

Tolkien SUCKS
Seamus or bust

>> No.8602721

>>8602715
To his defence, he never meant for it to be published.

>> No.8603461
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8603461

>>8602703
They're all worth reading. I can read the original, but I still enjoy finding new versions of that poem. Here's my Beowulf-related stack.

>> No.8603480

Heaney is the one that undergrads are made to read.
Michael Swanton is the most beautiful and scholarlyly relevant.

>> No.8603534

Heaney is fantastic and was most enjoyable for me. Just be aware of the 'Heaneywulf' academic stuff out there. Regardless, it appears to be still the most commonly recommended translation by Anglo-Saxon scholars.

Michael Alexander's is good too. A little more difficult but perhaps more accurate. He also has a glossed version if that's something that may interest you in future, and he translated a great selection of Anglo-Saxon poetry and fragments too.

My final word goes to Donaldson's prose translation. Still used by scholars, more accurate and consistent in it's translation than Heaney. Obviously it's prose not verse but still very enjoyable to read. I'd probably recommend it for a second reading after Heaney probably.

>> No.8603550

This site is useful if you want to make a personal choice.

http://www.paddletrips.net/beowulf/

>> No.8603883

>>8602715
Heaney's work is not as accurate as I would like, but it definitely preserves the form the best.