Author Description

The three translations of Beowulf in this anthology are available elsewhere in paperback. I have included all three together in one paperback volume. The translations in this work were not merely downloaded from public domain sources, pasted together in a document, had a price affixed, and published, as other editors seem to have done. I made a careful decision of where to place the caesura, pause mid-line, artfully between syllables, added the mid-line's punctuation and also punctuated the end-of-line in 9,610 lines of epic poetry. I did this to indicate where pauses should occur in reading and vocal performance. I also included a pronunciation guide and internet study links to help teachers and students of the epic. Many modern prose versions of Beowulf don't exhibit the rhythm, fire, and dramatic drive the original listeners experienced. The original orators of the epic performed Beowulf aloud as a spoken word performance and public entertainment. This re-edited version gives more closely the original experience of line pairs with distinctive pauses and rhythmic repetitions of syllable sounds. In the ancient tradition the audience of tribe members enjoyed this entertainment through long winters around wood fires in their dark, smoky longhouses. They heard a cyclical, driving rhythm. I imagine a drumbeat and the plucking of the strings of a lyre helped to draw the listeners out of their daily existences and into the many tales of high adventure of which we now have but a few remaining examples in writing. There was boasting, bragging, aggressive speech, and celebration of the warrior's spirit. It was the pounding rhythm of a warrior society living on the edge every day, living each day as if it could be their last. Here is a preview from the Gummere translation. Grendel the Murderer.THEN from the moorland,||by misty crags,With God's wrath laden,||Grendel came.The monster was minded,||of mankind now,Sundry to seize,||in the statel