Beowulf

By: Audio Book Contractors

Narrated by: Flo Gibson

This is an early translation from the Anglo-Saxon seventh-century epic poem, which is based on Norse legends of wars and monsters and tells of the heroic deeds of the warrior Beowulf.

Translated by A. Diedrich Wackerbarth.

©1999 Audio Book Contractors, Inc. (P)2007 Audio Book Contractors, Inc.

Very pretty, but you must not call it Beowulf

There is some pleasure to be had from this recording: I always enjoy listening to Flo Gibson, and you could make a reasonable argument that the comfortable rhyme employed by this translation substitutes for the less familiar technical aspects of Old English poetry. But ultimately it just doesn't do a very good job capturing the effect of the poem. It's less an heroic song than a winter's tale, told around the fire to children.

Interesting Early Translation

Wackerbarth’s translation is the first Modern English translation of the poem. It’s goal was to get as many people as possible to read the poem and instead of trying to imitate the poetic style of the original Wackerbarth put the poem in a style that was popular at the time. He hoped that his translation would be followed by more faithful ones in time and it certainly has been.

This is not a translation I would recommend to anyone looking for something that imitates the style of the original, and it’s probably been surpassed in terms of its original goal of making the poem accessible to a wider audience.

It is however and interesting translation for anyone curious to hear the story in another style and I was delighted to find a quality reading of it.