Thanks to a friend’s recommendation and some excerpts he posted online, I decided to take a look at Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf. It turned out to be astonishing — I couldn’t put it down. The narrative skills of the original (anonymous) poet and Heaney’s dynamic modern-English verse combine to make for a thrilling read. The work is well over a thousand years old and it’s still a page-turner.
It’s gorgeous, isn’t it? That’s how it strikes me anyhow. And did you know that he recorded his translation for CD? Let me know if you want to hear it and can’t find a copy.
He also translated Antigone in a version called “The Burial at Thebes.” I saw it in Dublin in 2004. But his Beowulf is the one that slays me – bad pun unintended!
YouTube has a number of clips of Heaney’s reading of “Beowulf”, and I’ve listened to a few. I’ll check out his translation of “Antigone” one of these days — right now I’m immersed in the Viking world!