18/45 books read in 2017. 9/23 bookshelf read in 2017. 3,5 stars with round up.
I'm having such a hard time rating this book. It is great for studying (the original text, background information & references to more study materials), but to say I fully enjoyed reading this... It is a little bit too much work for me, I guess ;)
The best scholarly edition of the original text. It is a must read for anyone doing scholarship on this great Old English poem.
The edition however, like all editions, is not without its problems. The interests of the three editors are very clear throughout the whole Commentary and Introduction. This is not to say that it is not helpful, but that other interesting and important points have been set aside. But, overall, this is the best edition available at present.
translated & read this version of beowulf for college--there's a reason why it's a classic. the editors did a great job of patching up the missing sections of the poem (esp the part concerning the unknown thief) and providing commentary in the notes about the discourse surrounding sections and specific words. beowulf itself is quite a beautiful poem in the original old english, and there are quite a few descriptors that have stuck with me for a while ("beortre bote" from around line 158, and "heofon réce swealg" from the end-ish of the poem are incredible in terms of descriptors and furthering themes). wished the glossary put all of the "ge-" words under the "g" section, instead of treating it like a prefix, but you win some, you lose some.
This review is for the edition specifically: There are some interesting contradictions between the goal laid out by the editors in the long introduction and what they wind up doing to the manuscript in the actual poem. Some of their editorial choices are a little strange (turning nouns into names/etc.), and some of their glosses are over-determined while others are simply missing (at least twice, looking up a word in the glossary returns a simple "?" or "see note," the latter of which is extremely unhelpful for the average student, rather than scholar, of the period -- the footnotes in general are all but useless for casual study).
Wrenn's introduction is a thorough walk-through of the history of the history of the study of Beowulf to his time analysis of the features and issues of the text. It is well-written and enjoyable. The rest of the text is the Anglo-Saxon text to Beowulf and I can't offer a qualified opinion on it as opposed to any other.
Translating Beowulf from the Old English into Modern English was some of the most fun I ever had as an undergraduate. If you've got the time and energy to spend learning Old English, I'd recommend it!
Studied and translated. Third edition. My copy is marked up, and well worn. The classic. It could not be in paperback for me. The joy was in the holding and declaiming.