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Beowulf  By  cover art

Beowulf

By: Seamus Heaney
Narrated by: Seamus Heaney
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Publisher's summary

Translated and read by Seamus Heaney.

New York Times best seller and Whitebread Book of the Year, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney's new translation of Beowulf comes to life in this gripping audio. Heaney's performance reminds us that Beowulf, written near the turn of another millennium, was intended to be heard not read.

Composed toward the end of the first millennium of our era, Beowulf is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and, later, from Grendel's mother. He then returns to his own country and lives to old age before dying in a vivid fight against a dragon.

The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then having to live on in the exhausted aftermath. In the contours of this story, at once remote and uncannily familiar at the end of the twentieth century, Seamus Heaney finds a resonance that summons power to the poetry from deep beneath its surface.

©2000 Seamus Heaney (P)2000 Penguin Books Ltd., by arrangement with the BBC. Published by arrangement with W. W. Norton.

Critic reviews

"The classic eighth-century English poem is strikingly presented, making accessible the story of a young man's heroic journey to find and slay two monsters." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Beowulf

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Even better when listening to Medieval Music

A great narration and an even greater story. Compelling to the very last words. The second it was over, I was ready to read it again. Highly recommended

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Could do better

The reader missed lines in the book got very hard to stay focus on the book

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Marvelous Story of Heroism

Beautifully written ancient take of the Hero Beowulf. Seamus' narration is superb and catches you from the first line of this epic tale!

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Pour yourself a glass of mead and enjoy.

This was my first Beowulf experience and I was really impressed that I stayed captivated and engaged throughout the whole story until the very end. Amazing and perfectly read, it makes you feel like Seamus Heaney is reading this to you in front of a crackling fire in an old castle somewhere.

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Totally epic!

Always a favorite to listen or read when the first snow of the winter season hits.

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Classic story, well presented.

Well known classic story presented well. I enjoyed it very much. I will listen again.

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Well Done!

I will need to read this many times over but it was well done here in this version

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Glad to hear it again!

I had forgotten the story - wonderful reading of his own very accessible translation. Great epic story.

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Thank God for Seamus Heaney!

It takes someone of his stature to make me revisit the things I remember reading in college. I can count on one hand the number of poems I've read in the past decade. This is one. And it is breath-taking and wonderfully read. Why haven't I made a greater effort to find these things?! Why haven't I read more?! Thank you for reminding me, Seamus Heaney!

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Superb!

The best reading of the best translation of Beowulf available in English. Seamus Heaney, Nobel prize-winning poet, is wonderful with Beowulf.

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