Chris Vinsonhaler: Beowulf, Kartoniert / Broschiert

Klappentext

Challenging the longstanding view of Beowulf as a praise poem for heroes, this groundbreaking translation reveals a riddling design in which the mirroring resemblance between the monsters and the Scandinavian heroes serves as a scathing indictment of heroic ideologies. Even more provocatively, it reveals a subtle web of clues that indicts the heroes in crimes against kinsmen. King Hrothgar's rise to power is shadowed by hints of his brother's proxy murder, while Beowulf's heroic allure proves the false front of a criminal mastermind who slays his king, orchestrates the murder of his prince, and misleads his countrymen to their deaths, even as he continues to mislead the poem's readers to this day.

Forthcoming in May 2026, with a preface by Heather O'Donoghue, Professor Emerita, Norse-Icelandic Literature, Oxford University.

Praise for Beowulf: An Epic Enigma

"Chris Vinsonhaler's exciting new translation of Beowulf is a groundbreaking work, combining taut renderings of the Old English verse with succinct and insightful commentary to guide the reader through this famously challenging text. The innovative division of the text into passages of narrative voice (the story) and reflective voice (the narrator speaking to the audience) brings into focus the moralistic and dramatic dimensions of this strange but endlessly fascinating poem. Most strikingly, Vinsonhaler presents startling new evidence for the poem's 'enigmatic design, ' in which the presentation of 'good kings' such as Beowulf and Hrothgar is repeatedly complicated by allusions to kin-murder, vengeance, the sacking of mead halls, and the lust for treasure-bringing these seemingly admirable characters ever closer to the world of the monsters they confront."

• Francis Leneghan, Professor of Old English, University of OxfordAuthor, The Dynastic Drama of Beowulf