Have you read Beowulf?

Seamus Heaney’s translation, that is. His introduction alone is worth the price of ten books.

Beowulf is a compelling read, poetry that’s rich in imagery, imagination and narrative drive, replete with graphic descriptions of a warrior culture enmeshed in tribal vengeance…“axe their bodies open, dangle them from the gallows…”

The tone is one of high seriousness. Because the original author is Christian, describing a pagan past, his words are given a necessary inwardness. Yes, Grendel’s bloody depredations, his mother’s monster-infested mere and the dragon’s scorching undulations are brilliantly depicted. But so are Beowulf’s heroism and basic goodness when he takes on, alone, the monstrous that
cross his life-path.

Alliteration abounds, yet Heaney does not allow himself to be overwhelmed by it. The narrative is straightforward. A father’s dirge for his dead son, a Geat woman’s dread-filled keening touch me today as they would have touched the listeners in their long-ago, fire-lit halls.

I was lucky enough to hear Seamus Heaney read, I think at St. Mary’s University in Halifax. His collection “North,” with the cycle of bog poems, is, to my mind, unforgettable: the poet, the scop, stands face to face with men and women slaughtered by the Danes, victims who were preserved in the bogs for over two millennia. Face to face with the ancient roots of our brutality…“the vent of his slashed throat…the frail rigging of her ribs…her blindfold a soiled bandage…” Art face to face with terror, Heaney’s language as stark and ancient as the dark, braided sinews of the dead; and this same quality infuses his translation of Beowulf.

• What drove the unnamed poet to compose Beowulf?
• Is it an allegory of the inevitable cycles of human violence?
• Is it trying to justify violence?
• Is it a plea for honourable and courageous behaviour when confronted, as inevitably we all are, by violence?

I can’t answer these questions. I’d welcome your thoughts.