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B06=Stephen Mitchell
B06=Stephen sm@stephenmitchellbooks.com Mitchell
beasts
Category1=Fiction
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=FA
Category=FBA
Category=FN
Category=FQ
Category=FW
Category=FYT
Category=HRCV
Category=QRMP
classic literature
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
dragon
energy
epic poetry
epic quest
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_philosophy-religion
grendel
grendels mother
Language_English
literary epics
masterpiece
monsters
mortally wounded
mythology
myths and legends
new translation
ogre
old english
PA=Available
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
robust masculine music
scandinavian hero
softlaunch
superhero story
vitality
warrior
Product details
- ISBN 9780300236668
- Weight: 295g
- Dimensions: 140 x 210mm
- Publication Date: 30 Oct 2018
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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A widely celebrated translator’s vivid, accessible, and elegantly concise rendering of an ancient English masterpiece
Beowulf tells the story of a Scandinavian hero who defeats three evil creatures—a huge, cannibalistic ogre named Grendel, Grendel’s monstrous mother, and a dragon—and then dies, mortally wounded during his last encounter. If the definition of a superhero is “someone who uses his special powers to fight evil,” then Beowulf is our first English superhero story, and arguably our best. It is also a deeply pious poem, so bold in its reverence for a virtuous pagan past that it teeters on the edge of heresy. From beginning to end, we feel we are in the hands of a master storyteller.
Stephen Mitchell’s marvelously clear and vivid rendering re-creates the robust masculine music of the original. It both hews closely to the meaning of the Old English and captures its wild energy and vitality, not just as a deep “work of literature” but also as a rousing entertainment that can still stir our feelings and rivet our attention today, after more than a thousand years. This new translation—spare, sinuous, vigorous in its narration, and translucent in its poetry—makes a masterpiece accessible to everyone.
Beowulf tells the story of a Scandinavian hero who defeats three evil creatures—a huge, cannibalistic ogre named Grendel, Grendel’s monstrous mother, and a dragon—and then dies, mortally wounded during his last encounter. If the definition of a superhero is “someone who uses his special powers to fight evil,” then Beowulf is our first English superhero story, and arguably our best. It is also a deeply pious poem, so bold in its reverence for a virtuous pagan past that it teeters on the edge of heresy. From beginning to end, we feel we are in the hands of a master storyteller.
Stephen Mitchell’s marvelously clear and vivid rendering re-creates the robust masculine music of the original. It both hews closely to the meaning of the Old English and captures its wild energy and vitality, not just as a deep “work of literature” but also as a rousing entertainment that can still stir our feelings and rivet our attention today, after more than a thousand years. This new translation—spare, sinuous, vigorous in its narration, and translucent in its poetry—makes a masterpiece accessible to everyone.
Stephen Mitchell’s many books include Tao Te Ching, which has sold over a million copies, The Gospel According to Jesus, Bhagavad Gita, The Book of Job, Gilgamesh, and The Iliad.
