Publisher's Synopsis
In his new verse translation of Beowulf, Irish poet Seamus Heaney has created a modern masterwork from one of Europe's most ancient texts. Written between the 7th and 10th centuries, Beowulf was not meant to be read on the page, but to be heard. Heaney's majestic reading draws the listener into an exhilarating, deeply moving story of humankind's struggle with the monstrous. The result is an epic of absolute contemporary relevance, springing from mythic and poetic roots that reach into the bedrock of the English language itself.