
Beowulf
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Narrated by:
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Seamus Heaney
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By:
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Seamus Heaney
About this listen
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.Listeners also enjoyed...
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"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)
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Story
Widely regarded as the first English novel, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is one of the most popular and influential adventure stories of all time. This classic tale of shipwreck and survival on an uninhabited island was an instant success when first published in 1719, and it has inspired countless imitations.
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Great story but with moments that made me cringe
- By Tad Davis on 10-25-12
By: Daniel Defoe
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Beowulf
- By: Frances B. Grummere - translator
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper
- Length: 3 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature, Beowulf is an epic poem that traces the exploits of the titular hero. After coming to the aid of the king of the Danes, whose mead hall is under constant attack by the monster Grendel, Beowulf slays Grendel's mother and goes on to become the king of the Geats.
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A Poetic Beowulf
- By Jon White on 02-16-21
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The Canterbury Tales
- A New Unabridged Translation by Burton Raffel
- By: Geoffrey Chaucer
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 22 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Lively, absorbing, often outrageously funny, Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a work of genius, an undisputed classic that has held a special appeal for each generation of readers. The Tales gathers 29 of literature's most enduring (and endearing) characters in a vivid group portrait that captures the full spectrum of medieval society, from the exalted Knight to the humble Plowman. This unabridged work is based on the new translation.
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Lack of coherant "chapters"
- By Jensophie on 02-24-10
By: Geoffrey Chaucer
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Gulliver's Travels: A Signature Performance by David Hyde Pierce
- By: Jonathan Swift
- Narrated by: David Hyde Pierce
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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A Signature Performance: Four-time Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce delivers an air of lovable self-importance in his rendition of the classic social satire that remains as fresh today as the day it was published.
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Loved every minute
- By Rose on 01-16-11
By: Jonathan Swift
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The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling
- By: Peter Ackroyd
- Narrated by: Keith Moore, Toby Leonard Moore, Colin McPhillamy, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Author Peter Ackroyd has won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Whitbread Novel of the Year, and the Guardian Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s immortal work, this retelling of The Canterbury Tales follows a party of travelers as they tell stories amongst themselves about love and chivalry, saints and legends, travel and adventure. Through allegory, satire, and humor, the tales help pass the time during their journey.
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WOW
- By Mitchell Drimmer on 02-25-15
By: Peter Ackroyd
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The Legacy of Heorot
- By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Steven Barnes
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling science fiction superstars Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle combine their talents with those of Steven Barnes in an extraordinary adventure of humankind’s first outpost in the farthest reaches of space. Light years from Earth, colonists land on a planet they name Avalon. It seems like a paradise—until native creatures savagely attack. It will take every bit of intelligence, courage, and military-style discipline to survive.
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Great read!
- By Thomas on 12-05-12
By: Larry Niven, and others
Why, oh, why is it abridged?
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Well Done
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Excellent but abridged, also lacks the introduction
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Anyone who loves a thrilling story should listen to this. It’s not a dry history lesson; it’s an exciting story of kings, monsters, and great battles.
Superb
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Fantastic Translation.
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4 Stars
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A little bit too abridged
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Brilliant on Every Level
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Abridged!
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And in fact, the more accessible translation made me realize just how alien this kind of story is to contemporary readers. If it had been written today, there would have been some kind of betrayal. Maybe Beowulf would have ulterior motives for going to aid Hrothgar. Maybe Hrothgar doesn't like the way his wife eyes the hero. Maybe the king promises a great prize if Beowulf kills Grendel, then reneges, and when Grendel's mother comes for her revenge, Beowulf refuses to protect the king and his people. But there would have been internal conflict, not just the trio of monsters who ravage the lands, but human conflict. Because our stories aren't simple anymore. Nobility seems almost suspect. I confess, I was waiting for Beowulf to kill Hrothgar and claim the throne, even though I knew better. (It was a lot like watching Ladyhawke for the first time and being sure that Navarre would start killing people randomly because I'd never seen Rutger Hauer as a truly good character.)
But as Heaney spins the tale, it's hard not to become carried away by the bravery and nobility of the people, and maybe the foolhardy nature of Beowulf -- he's a hero, of course he's foolhardy -- who not only decides to travel to another kingdom to help them defeat a monster no one else has been able to kill, but because that monster uses no weapons, he swears he will use none. It will be hand-to-hand between them, he says. When Beowulf returns home after his adventures, laden with material proof of Hrothgar's gratitude, he gives much of it to his king. He's not in this for the gold, but rather for the glory and to serve the greater good. And probably in no small part, for the sake of a good, dust-up with a worthy opponent. In spite of the overtly Christian elements of the story, there is more than a little about Beowulf that is godlike.
Though the translation is accessible, it's not dumbed down. Rather it's quite beautiful, rendered with a poet's graceful way with words. Heaney's narration is welcome, with his clear, softly Irish voice. Normally I listen to audiobooks at 1.5x because I'm impatient with most narrations, but for this one I slowed to normal speed in order to savor the sheer beauty of it.
If you've never read Beowulf, or have an wasn't wowed by it, please do try this translation.
Wonderful new translation, perfect narration
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