Beowulf: A New Translation

Beowulf: A New Translation - Paperback

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$17.00
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Beowulf: A New Translation
  • Beowulf: A New Translation
Beowulf: A New Translation - Paperback

Beowulf: A New Translation - Paperback

by Maria Dahvana Headley
$17.00
$17.00

Book Overview

Named one of the Best Poetry Books of 2021 by The Guardian

Longlisted for the 2021 National Translation Award in Poetry. Picked for Kirkus Reviews' Best Fiction in Translation of 2020. Named a Book of the Year by NPR, Vox, and The New Statesman. Picked for Loyalty Books' Holiday List.

A new, feminist translation of Beowulf by the author of the much-buzzed-about novel The Mere Wife

"Brash and belligerent, lunatic and invigorating, with passages of sublime poetry punctuated by obscenities and social-media shorthand." --Ruth Franklin, The New Yorker

"The author of the crazy-cool Beowulf-inspired novel The Mere Wife tackles the Old English epic poem with a fierce new feminist translation that radically recontextualizes the tale." --Barbara VanDenburgh, USA Today

Nearly twenty years after Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf--and fifty years after the translation that continues to torment high-school students around the world--there is a radical new verse translation of the epic poem by Maria Dahvana Headley, which brings to light elements that have never before been translated into English, recontextualizing the binary narrative of monsters and heroes into a tale in which the two categories often entwine, justice is rarely served, and dragons live among us.

A man seeks to prove himself as a hero. A monster seeks silence in his territory. A warrior seeks to avenge her murdered son. A dragon ends it all. The familiar elements of the epic poem are seen with a novelist's eye toward gender, genre, and history--Beowulf has always been a tale of entitlement and encroachment, powerful men seeking to become more powerful, and one woman seeking justice for her child, but this version brings new context to an old story. While crafting her contemporary adaptation of Beowulf, Headley unearthed significant shifts lost over centuries of translation.
ISBN9780374110031
Author Maria Dahvana Headley
PublisherMCD X Fsg Originals
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedAugust 2020
LanguageENG- English
Pages176
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

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More by Maria Dahvana Headley

Beowulf: A New Translation

Beowulf: A New Translation - Paperback

Beowulf: A New Translation - Paperback

By Maria Dahvana Headley

About Maria Dahvana Headley

Maria Dahvana Headley is the author of several fantasy novels for young adults as well as adults. Her works include Queen of Kings: A Novel of Cleopatra, the Vampire, The Year of Yes, and The End of the Sentence. She resides in New York.

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