I wasn't intending to write a post comparing translations of Beowulf, but there's no reason we can't go into it down here. Heaney's certainly made a splash; I think most Beowulf scholars think it fairer to call it Heaney's poem on Beowulf rather than a direct translation (it's really beyond my power to judge the point), but that doesn't mean it can't be admirable on its own terms.
My basic, usual reading copy of Beowulf is a prose translation by Constance B. Hieatt. It's a plain, stripped-down prose version, neither artistic nor dull, that is easily readable and thus performs admirably the simple function of telling you what the text says.
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Date: 2010-10-29 08:08 pm (UTC)My basic, usual reading copy of Beowulf is a prose translation by Constance B. Hieatt. It's a plain, stripped-down prose version, neither artistic nor dull, that is easily readable and thus performs admirably the simple function of telling you what the text says.