This presentation of the translation and the Old English Text on facing pages allows the reader to approach the first major poem in English literature in a fresh and exciting new way. Includes a Guide to Reading Aloud, Introduction, Commentary and notes for translation from the original.

Presents a new translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic chronicling the heroic adventures of Beowulf, the Scandinavian warrior who saves his people from the ravages of the monster Grendel and Grendel's mother.

This dual-language edition of Beowulf is for the general readers’ enjoyment of the poem as well as a study guide for students of English language and literature. To meet this dual purpose, the book provides the two texts running in parallel. The general readers can enjoy the poem by reading the translation; but the serious students of English can lean on the translation as a prop while studying the original text line after line. For the students of Old English, who wish to attain a thorough understanding of the original lines, the Textual and Explanatory Notes will be an indispensable apparatus: these notes discuss diverse scholarly interpretations on the problematic phrases and lines before the translator offers his own opinion.

Beowulf is the longest and finest literary work to have come down to us from Anglo-Saxon times, and one of the world's greatest epic poems. This acclaimed translation is complemented by a critical introduction and substantial editorial apparatus.

Translations of the Old English poem Beowulf proliferate, and their number continues to grow. Focusing on the particularly rich period since 1950, this book presents a critical account of translations in English verse, setting them in the contexts both of the larger story of recovery and reception of the poem and of perceptions of it over the past two hundred years, and of key issues in translation theory. Attention is also paid to prose translation and the the creative adaptations of the poem that have been produced in a variety of media, not least film. The author looks in particular at four translations of arguably the most literary and historical importance: those by Edwin Morgan (1952), Burton Raffel (1963), Michael Alexander (1973) and Seamus Heaney (1999). But, from an earlier period, he also gives a full account of William Morris's 1895 version.

A lengthy introduction discussing historical background accompanies the poem about the monster slayer Beowulf.