Beowulf

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What to expect

The oldest long poem in Old English, written about 1000 A.D., Beowulf tells the story of a great warrior in Southern Scandinavia in both youth and maturity. The monster Grendel terrorises the Scyldings of Hrothgar’s Danish Kingdom until Beowulf defeats him. As a result he has to face her enraged mother. Beowulf dies after a battle against a fierce dragon. The tale is powerfully performed here by Crawford Logan in a lively modern verse translation from the original West Saxon dialect by Benedict Flynn.

Critics Review

Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award
The Great warrior-king sallies forth against Grendel, Mama Grendel and an unnamed dragon in a worthy addition to the dozen extant audio versions of the Old English epic poem. This vigorous translation amply conveys the dignity, stylisation and swift flow of the 1,000-year-old original. Crawford Logan uses his virile, seasoned baritone well, reciting sonorously in cadences that smooth the difficult locutions, all the while sustaining a grave tone and a steady, unhurried pace. He husbands his energy, never going full throttle and sometimes flagging, particularly while circumnavigating the poem’s more digressive passages. Like the author, he pays little attention to characterisation. So while he has not made our hero’s exploits as interesting as perhaps he could have, he has made them admirably clear and mellifluous.

Y.R., AudioFile

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