What do you think?
Rate this book
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation
The classic story of Beowulf, hero and dragon-slayer, appears here in a new translation accompanied by genealogical charts, historical summaries, and a glossary of proper names. These and other documents sketching some of the cultural forces behind the poem's final creation will help readers see Beowulf as an exploration of the politics of kingship and the psychology of heroism, and as an early English meditation on the bridges and chasms between the pagan past and the Christian present. A generous sample of other modern versions of Beowulf sheds light on the process of translating the poem.
248 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
12 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
October 11, 2011
Had to reread Beowulf for my Tolkien class, so I thought I might as well go for a new translation. Liuzza's is very readable. I didn't want to read it aloud as much as I did Heaney's translation; on the other hand, I think I took more of it in because I wasn't focused on the poetry of it. My Anglo-Saxon is rusty, alas, so though I pulled up an online version to compare this translation with, most often I couldn't tell if I really agreed with Liuzza's choice of words. When I could tell, though, I would've gone for the same as Liuzza, which is probably a good sign (whether for my translation skills or for his is the question; it probably reflects well on me that I agree with him, rather than the other way round).
It's interesting reading it with Tolkien in mind... Worth a go, if you're a Tolkien fan. Heaney or Liuzza would probably serve you equally well in terms of a clear and fun translation. This edition includes a lot of extra stuff, which I didn't actually look at but which seems useful; the Norton Critical Edition of Heaney's translation has a similar amount of accompanying helpful material.
As for the poem itself -- well, I appreciate it a lot better now I've studied Anglo-Saxon and I know more about their history and culture. It's a lot more comprehensible with my undergraduate degree behind me. Tolkien's own essay on it, The Monsters and the Critics, is pretty illuminating too, especially when you think about seminal a piece of writing that was. I couldn't help but read it with Tolkien's voice in my ear, so to speak, particularly regarding the intentions of the writer re: Christianity/paganism. That man was pretty devastatingly smart.
I do find it a fun read, now I can relax and stop worrying about whether I need to remember So-and-So's name. After Icelandic sagas, Beowulf is easy.
It's interesting reading it with Tolkien in mind... Worth a go, if you're a Tolkien fan. Heaney or Liuzza would probably serve you equally well in terms of a clear and fun translation. This edition includes a lot of extra stuff, which I didn't actually look at but which seems useful; the Norton Critical Edition of Heaney's translation has a similar amount of accompanying helpful material.
As for the poem itself -- well, I appreciate it a lot better now I've studied Anglo-Saxon and I know more about their history and culture. It's a lot more comprehensible with my undergraduate degree behind me. Tolkien's own essay on it, The Monsters and the Critics, is pretty illuminating too, especially when you think about seminal a piece of writing that was. I couldn't help but read it with Tolkien's voice in my ear, so to speak, particularly regarding the intentions of the writer re: Christianity/paganism. That man was pretty devastatingly smart.
I do find it a fun read, now I can relax and stop worrying about whether I need to remember So-and-So's name. After Icelandic sagas, Beowulf is easy.
February 22, 2024
Used Liuzza's translation for help with the OE last year. A really excellent translation, very close to the text, with interesting & helpful notes. Useful for referencing the OE
October 11, 2019
it feels GOOD to finish a book y'all. i have no opinion for you at this time, just a word: academia. goodnight
Read
October 16, 2025The appendices on this translation are very helpful, good job Liuzza✨
Read
September 4, 2025Full to the brim with horror, mead, courage, boasting, fire, mail and blood. Notable as an example of the historical crashing together of Christian and pagan thought, which seems sometimes to sit comfortably, sometimes less so.
You can also sense a little of the influence this had on Tolkien.
Very readable translation, fun alliteration, sounds epic spoken aloud, and with lots of interesting background, commentary, comparative translation and historical documents for context.
Fun!
You can also sense a little of the influence this had on Tolkien.
Very readable translation, fun alliteration, sounds epic spoken aloud, and with lots of interesting background, commentary, comparative translation and historical documents for context.
Fun!
June 5, 2025
still lives up to the 1000 year old hype… a lot of good shit going on here. feels like an onion that gets easier to pull back the layers of as u get older and think about it more and more
Read
October 2, 2025ENGL214BE FA25
not 100% sure on this translation but it has also been a very long time since I read Heaney. Heimbuck's performance of this was spectacular. I LOVE ORAL STORYTELLING RAHHHHH
not 100% sure on this translation but it has also been a very long time since I read Heaney. Heimbuck's performance of this was spectacular. I LOVE ORAL STORYTELLING RAHHHHH
February 27, 2008
Liuzza's translation was my first exposure to Beowulf, and I like it very much. My sense is that he is more literal in his translation than Heaney, thus preserving more delightful idioms, and more willing to be ecstatic, as shown from the first word, translated "Listen!" in Liuzza and "So," in Heaney. Personally, I am drawn to that command: listen. And unless I am mistaken, Liuzza takes a position with that first word about the origins of this oldest piece of English literature, implying that it was in fact spoken out loud in bardic storytelling fashion, probably passed on through generations, and some scribe at some point took dictation. This rather than the idea that this author sat on an Middle-Earthian cliffside and wrote it straight to the page the way authors tend to nowadays. From what I know there is little proof either way, but this is a debate in the academic community. With his "So," Heaney seems to hedge his bets a little, appealing to both sides of the debate, as if to say, "Who cares? It's a story. Are you interested or not?" Would that I knew Old English and then I could have a really informed opinion, but I tend to believe in the primacy of the spoken word, Derrida be damned.
January 29, 2008
Quite faithful, but still readable translation. The appendices are packed with numerous roughly contemporary sources that illustrate the poem's historical (and legendary) context (including Widsith and the Fight at Finnsburh), and the comparison of twenty different translations of one particular passage of the poem is icing on the cake. My only complaint is that none of the Offa/Uffo stories told outside of Beowulf (er, and Widsith) made it into the appendices.
July 26, 2007
This 2000 translation by R. M. Liuzza is nothing short of stunning. If you haven't read the old poem for a while, give this version a read.
July 30, 2007
I mush prefer this edition over other translations.
August 12, 2023
my third beowulf translation and maybe my favourite??
December 18, 2024
Undoubtedly the best modern translation of Beowulf, faithful both to the tone and timbre of the original poem. The introduction and appendices are also excellent pieces of scholarship in themselves.
October 27, 2025
Of the six translations I’ve read this is my favorite. If we could give half star ratings I would put this one at 4.5 stars. The six that I spent a weekend comparing all came from the library or my streaming service but the only one I bought new to have in my library was this version by Liuzza (second edition, 2013). Liuzza gives us a version that has a clear narrative projection that will work well for the first-time reader. Some of the other versions got bogged down in awkward phrasing by attempting to be too literal. Yet, I believe Liuzza offers enough nuance and stylistic polish that repeat readings will be rewarded over the years.
As for the story, in any version, even in my favorite translation, I found the first two parts of the threefold tale rather one dimensional: brave warrior battling beasts sums it up. It was in the final third and final challenge to Beowulf that I found more philosophical nuance. This especially so with the thoughtful narrative voice found in Liuzza. Here we see the contrast of selfish greed versus fellowship and generosity of spirit. We also see that in easy time times when food and gifts flow freely that Beowulf has many friends and many who have sworn allegiance. Come troubled times there is only one compatriot who stands with Beowulf.
I could pull samples at random of the directness and easy comprehension of Liuzza against other versions, but here is just one:
Line 710-711, Liuzza: “Then from the moor, in a blanket of mist,
Grendel came stalking –"
Line 710-711, Raffel: “Then from the moorland, by misty crags,
With God’s wrath laden, Grendel came.”
Besides the excellent translation, Liuzza also includes a sampling of twenty-four other translations in the back of the book. From these samples, by Oden’s Spear, I have two more translations on order! But I’ll give myself a break for a few months so that I can approach them fresh. Now, onto Gilgamesh . . . -
As for the story, in any version, even in my favorite translation, I found the first two parts of the threefold tale rather one dimensional: brave warrior battling beasts sums it up. It was in the final third and final challenge to Beowulf that I found more philosophical nuance. This especially so with the thoughtful narrative voice found in Liuzza. Here we see the contrast of selfish greed versus fellowship and generosity of spirit. We also see that in easy time times when food and gifts flow freely that Beowulf has many friends and many who have sworn allegiance. Come troubled times there is only one compatriot who stands with Beowulf.
I could pull samples at random of the directness and easy comprehension of Liuzza against other versions, but here is just one:
Line 710-711, Liuzza: “Then from the moor, in a blanket of mist,
Grendel came stalking –"
Line 710-711, Raffel: “Then from the moorland, by misty crags,
With God’s wrath laden, Grendel came.”
Besides the excellent translation, Liuzza also includes a sampling of twenty-four other translations in the back of the book. From these samples, by Oden’s Spear, I have two more translations on order! But I’ll give myself a break for a few months so that I can approach them fresh. Now, onto Gilgamesh . . . -
May 29, 2017
For purposes of comparisons, I also read the older Norton Critical Edition of Beowulf, with a prose translation by E. Talbot Donaldson, and Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, with a prose translation by J.R.R. Tolkien. Unfortunately, I did not have a copy of Seamus Heaney's translation available for comparison.
I started out with no in-depth knowledge of the poem other than the barest outline (I had seen the animated/motion capture film starring Anthony Hopkins as Hrothgar); and so when I decided to finally make a stab at it, I thought I would compare the different translations of it that I had picked up over time, and perhaps be able to get rid of one or two of them. What I found was that each had their pros and cons, and each might serve as the 'best', depending on what initial perspective the reader was coming from.
I started out with Professor Tolkien's version, which was difficult for me at first, but not impossible, until I came to the digressions from the Beowulf/Grendel storyline. As this version is not annotated, the only sense I could make out of the digressions was to understand that the main characters were talking about something that had happened in the past. So I decided then to divvy up the poem into thirds, and to begin each new third from a different translation, in order to judge how the different versions struck me before becoming familiar with the poem through repetition.
So I read through the death of Grendel in the Tolkien, then the Liuzza, and followed it with the Donaldson. By the time I had made it through both the other two (which are both annotated to a degree, though the Liuzza more heavily), I felt that I had a good understanding of the references that I could only guess at before. For the middle third, I read the Liuzza first, then the Donaldson; for the final third the Donaldson, then Liuzza. In both those instances I read the Tolkien last, and because of the annotation in these other two, I felt that I had enough information to appreciate the Tolkien in a way that simply wouldn't have been possible for me before.
For myself, as a Beowulf tyro, I lean mostly toward the Liuzza as being best with which to start, and that has as much to do with its notes as the translation. Yet there were a few times when I thought that the meaning of the poem as translated by Donaldson was easier for me to grasp. No doubt the one played off the other--reading both in conjunction probably gave me the best chance at understanding than reading either of them separately would have. What I found also was that by saving the Tolkien till the end, I was able to find a charm in it over and above the other two--but only because they had prepared me for it.
As to the supplementary matter, again, it isn't easy to pick a distinct favorite. Liuzza has a nice introduction which neither of the other two provides in any real sense; it also has five appendices which contain several different examples from extant texts that reinforce, explicate, or enlarge upon Beowulf or the time period it covers, plus a sample paragraph from 20 different translators. The Norton Critical Edition, whose claim to fame is precisely this sort of background material and critical essays on the text, has two main sections: Backgrounds and Sources and Criticism. In the Backgrounds and Sources, two essays in particular are worth pointing out: one concerns an Old English poem called Widsith, which confirms some of the proper names that appear in Beowulf; and the other outlines the parallels between Beowulf and a Scandinavian saga called The Grettis Saga. But while the Norton edition carries essays concerning these two texts, it does not reprint the relevant sections--it only summarizes them for the reader. The Liuzza appendices do supply the actual sections for the reader, though there is much less commentary on them than in the Norton.
The Tolkien translation, on the other hand, reprints the professor's line by line commentary on the poem, which concerns to a large degree the reasoning behind his word choices, though there are other supplemental details that shed light on the poem itself as well. But it is the Norton which includes Tolkien's essay The Monsters and the Critics rather than the Tolkien volume, which surprised me.
I hope I can be excused for not saying too much about the poem itself--I'd be hesitant too, given my inexperience with it up to this point. I will say that with reading the three versions as well as the supplementary material, I enjoyed it a great deal, though it did take some effort to fully extract the events mentioned in the poem. Effort, but not more than any reasonable reader could bring to the task. What seemed rather impenetrable at first opened up rather easily, once I had someone to give me the proper context and history.
Given the fact that the Seamus Heaney translation was the only one I knew of before I started this endeavor, and that it is now the translation used by the newest Norton Critical Edition, I will certainly keep an eye out for that one as well. Curiosity, at this point, makes me eager to see if it is substantially better than any of these three.
I started out with no in-depth knowledge of the poem other than the barest outline (I had seen the animated/motion capture film starring Anthony Hopkins as Hrothgar); and so when I decided to finally make a stab at it, I thought I would compare the different translations of it that I had picked up over time, and perhaps be able to get rid of one or two of them. What I found was that each had their pros and cons, and each might serve as the 'best', depending on what initial perspective the reader was coming from.
I started out with Professor Tolkien's version, which was difficult for me at first, but not impossible, until I came to the digressions from the Beowulf/Grendel storyline. As this version is not annotated, the only sense I could make out of the digressions was to understand that the main characters were talking about something that had happened in the past. So I decided then to divvy up the poem into thirds, and to begin each new third from a different translation, in order to judge how the different versions struck me before becoming familiar with the poem through repetition.
So I read through the death of Grendel in the Tolkien, then the Liuzza, and followed it with the Donaldson. By the time I had made it through both the other two (which are both annotated to a degree, though the Liuzza more heavily), I felt that I had a good understanding of the references that I could only guess at before. For the middle third, I read the Liuzza first, then the Donaldson; for the final third the Donaldson, then Liuzza. In both those instances I read the Tolkien last, and because of the annotation in these other two, I felt that I had enough information to appreciate the Tolkien in a way that simply wouldn't have been possible for me before.
For myself, as a Beowulf tyro, I lean mostly toward the Liuzza as being best with which to start, and that has as much to do with its notes as the translation. Yet there were a few times when I thought that the meaning of the poem as translated by Donaldson was easier for me to grasp. No doubt the one played off the other--reading both in conjunction probably gave me the best chance at understanding than reading either of them separately would have. What I found also was that by saving the Tolkien till the end, I was able to find a charm in it over and above the other two--but only because they had prepared me for it.
As to the supplementary matter, again, it isn't easy to pick a distinct favorite. Liuzza has a nice introduction which neither of the other two provides in any real sense; it also has five appendices which contain several different examples from extant texts that reinforce, explicate, or enlarge upon Beowulf or the time period it covers, plus a sample paragraph from 20 different translators. The Norton Critical Edition, whose claim to fame is precisely this sort of background material and critical essays on the text, has two main sections: Backgrounds and Sources and Criticism. In the Backgrounds and Sources, two essays in particular are worth pointing out: one concerns an Old English poem called Widsith, which confirms some of the proper names that appear in Beowulf; and the other outlines the parallels between Beowulf and a Scandinavian saga called The Grettis Saga. But while the Norton edition carries essays concerning these two texts, it does not reprint the relevant sections--it only summarizes them for the reader. The Liuzza appendices do supply the actual sections for the reader, though there is much less commentary on them than in the Norton.
The Tolkien translation, on the other hand, reprints the professor's line by line commentary on the poem, which concerns to a large degree the reasoning behind his word choices, though there are other supplemental details that shed light on the poem itself as well. But it is the Norton which includes Tolkien's essay The Monsters and the Critics rather than the Tolkien volume, which surprised me.
I hope I can be excused for not saying too much about the poem itself--I'd be hesitant too, given my inexperience with it up to this point. I will say that with reading the three versions as well as the supplementary material, I enjoyed it a great deal, though it did take some effort to fully extract the events mentioned in the poem. Effort, but not more than any reasonable reader could bring to the task. What seemed rather impenetrable at first opened up rather easily, once I had someone to give me the proper context and history.
Given the fact that the Seamus Heaney translation was the only one I knew of before I started this endeavor, and that it is now the translation used by the newest Norton Critical Edition, I will certainly keep an eye out for that one as well. Curiosity, at this point, makes me eager to see if it is substantially better than any of these three.
March 5, 2025
i actually really enjoyed this despite the relatively weak plot, so much other stuff to unpack e.g. allusions to Germanic folklore, chronotopes (cavern/hall), decisions concerning the depiction of violence, etc etc. also this translation is great, v helpful footnotes
February 18, 2024
what.
Read
March 8, 2024This is probably a good translation for people to read —not poetic like the Heaney, but maintains alliterations. Beowulf is not my favorite thing to read as far as medieval lit, though
Want to read
June 19, 2024thank you to my OE tutor for giving me an excuse to buy another edition of beowulf.
August 30, 2024
ha ha ha!!!! what fun!!!
August 31, 2024
Used Liuzza's translation for help with the OE last year. A really excellent translation, very close to the text, with interesting & helpful notes. Useful for referencing the OE
December 16, 2024
Admittedly the only translation I've read but I really enjoyed it, very accessible and lots of helpful context provided. Is Beowulf the og himbo? perhaps
January 26, 2025
It's a classic for British literature for a reason, though why did they have to kill our man like that.
February 4, 2025
I had to read this for my medieval literature class and actually kinda enjoyed it. those people were so weird i swear to god
Read
July 22, 2025I know it isn’t a competition……. but I like Gilgamesh way more. Not that I never enjoyed this! I’d like to read a diff translation also
August 6, 2025
Awesome!
December 11, 2025
Excellent translation!
July 7, 2021
I have always found Beowulf hugely evocative, even after several rereads. The misty moors, clashing sea cliffs, high-roofed mead halls thronged with warriors, monsters and dragons and fabled swords...these all scream 'legendary' to me, and all are present in this epic poem. Perhaps it is because of Beowulf that these motifs resonate so deeply with me, having read it so young with the understanding that it formed part of my own cultural heritage. Or perhaps it is because these themes, images and even names have been recycled and reused over the centuries, in everything from the Lord of the Rings to Skyrim.
The best-known part of the story, the attacks of Grendel upon the great hall Heorot, only really make up the first third of the poem. It is slightly less engaging afterwards, but I still find much to enjoy on an intellectual level. You can notice the interplay between the pagan story and the Christian monk transcribing it; the difficult political tensions between the Geats, Danes and Swedes during the period in which the story is set; the surprising maturity in some of the characterisations, and the pervading sense of melancholy in the whole thing, as though the author knew he wrote of a world that was fast fading into history.
I've always loved how the poem brings that era to life so vividly, and this volume in particular I find excellent, containing both a very readable translation, and interesting contextual information and alternate versions of some passages.
The best-known part of the story, the attacks of Grendel upon the great hall Heorot, only really make up the first third of the poem. It is slightly less engaging afterwards, but I still find much to enjoy on an intellectual level. You can notice the interplay between the pagan story and the Christian monk transcribing it; the difficult political tensions between the Geats, Danes and Swedes during the period in which the story is set; the surprising maturity in some of the characterisations, and the pervading sense of melancholy in the whole thing, as though the author knew he wrote of a world that was fast fading into history.
I've always loved how the poem brings that era to life so vividly, and this volume in particular I find excellent, containing both a very readable translation, and interesting contextual information and alternate versions of some passages.
December 31, 2022
This is the most beautiful arrangement of words I have ever read, though admittedly I haven't read much poetry... but now I'm thinking I should start. Initially I started Beowulf with Seamus Heaney's translation but quickly gave up. I just couldn't tell what the eff was going on in Heaney's verse. Much later, I tried again with R.M. Liuzza's, whose translation is more direct. As it turns out the original poet nailed it, though it saddens me that we will never truly know the entirety of Beowulf. It only exists as a single manuscript that miraculously survived through a fire to the present day. And even then, that manuscript was copied from another source where amendments were probably made to align the characters more with Christian beliefs. So the poem has sections that were burned away making some parts impossible to transcribe or interpret and the relationship between God and the characters in the poem is not clear. Thankfully, Liuzza brings these issues to the reader's attention in his annotations, in addition to adding much needed context.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews