Beowulf: Gear of War

Beowulf #2

by Gareth Hinds

Part two of the three-part Beowulf series. Grendel has been defeated, but now his mother has arisen from her cave deep in the fens to take vengeance on the Danishmen. Once more, Beowulf is the only warrior who can face the supernatural threat. He arms himself and swims to meet her beneath the bloodied waters, in another desperate battle.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Fantasy

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

Gareth Hinds is the creator of critically-acclaimed graphic novels based on literary classics, including Beowulf (which Publisher’s Weekly called a “mixed-media gem”), King Lear (which Booklist named one of the top 10 graphic novels for teens), The Merchant of Venice (which Kirkus called “the standard that all others will strive to meet” for Shakespeare adaptation), The Odyssey (which garnered four starred reviews and a spot on ten “best of 2010” lists), Romeo and Juliet (which Kirkus called “spellbinding”), and Macbeth (which the New York Times called “stellar” and “a remarkably faithful rendering”). Gareth is a recipient of the Boston Public Library’s “Literary Lights for Children” award. His books can be found in bookstores and English classrooms across the country, and his illustrations have appeared in such diverse venues as the Society of Illustrators, the New York Historical Society, and over a dozen published video games.

Gareth lives in the Washington DC area.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Gareth Hinds’ amazing graphic novel adaptations of The Odyssey and The Iliad, so when I saw that he’d also done one of the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, I snapped it up.

Hinds insightfully draws attention to the superhero parallels in the story and some of his monster drawings are genuinely scary but unfortunately this wasn’t as good as I thought it was going to be.

There aren’t a lot of words compared to his two Ancient Greek stories. On the other hand there are a lot of pictures - but it’s often hard to make out exactly what’s going on, as they’re often murky, and the scarcity of words doesn’t help with that. What words there are sound antiquated and needlessly lofty in style, yet the language wouldn’t have been dated when the poem first appeared, around 1,300 years ago. The prose in Hinds’ Ancient Greek stories is fresh, modern and clear. Beowulf was published in 1999, eleven years before The Odyssey and twenty years before The Iliad, and maybe Hinds was still finding his stride back then.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like that there is a graphic novel adaptation made. It helps visualize the story. I did not like Hinds choice to over gore a lot of the battles.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in the graphic novel collection version (2007). This was a graphic novel I could get behind. The original (one of my favorites, and undoubtedly one of the greatest pieces of literature in the entire history of the world) is so vivid that it does well when translated to this visual medium. Of course this comic was a bit truncated, but the overall story remained true, and the events were all right from the original poem. There was some beautiful art in here as well. Grendel looked great, the dragon was gorgeous, even Beowulf's helmet had the important but all too easily overlooked detail of boars on it. Quite good!

[Susan Baggs · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a quick and easy read with the general story of Beowulf. However, I found myself wanting more of the original story and less (seemingly)repetitive illustrations. Still not a fan of graphic novels

[Nickv · Rating 4 out of 5]

i rented this book, and finished it in the library in under 5 minutes

good illustrations