Publisher Description
The earliest extant heroic epic in any European vernacular, Beowulf is considered the most important poem in Old English. The title character is a warrior of superhuman strength who accomplishes glorious deeds to honor his king. He also represents the ideal lord and vassal, generous to his own men while fulfilling all the forms of courtesy at court. The narrative itself falls into two parts: Beowulf first rescues the royal house of Denmark from two marauding monsters; then, after having ruled his people peacefully for fifty years, he is called upon to combat a dragon that is terrorizing the countryside.
Combining mythical elements with actual historical figures and events, the narrative ranges from fierce action sequences to detailed portrayals of court life and earnest considerations of social and moral dilemmas, all in a tone of sustained grandeur.
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"Read this in high school and actually loved it so much that I bought it in the Old English version.
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—
Bobbie (5 out of 5 stars)
About Anonymous
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616), novelist, playwright, and poet, was born in Spain of an ancient but impoverished family. After studying in Madrid, he became a soldier and was wounded in battle. He was taken by pirates in 1575, put in prison at Algiers, and was ransomed five years later. He spent the remainder of his life struggling to earn a livelihood from literature and humble government employment. His first attempt at fiction was a pastoral novel, La Galatea (1585), which was followed by his masterpiece, The Adventures of Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605).
About Robertson Dean
Robertson Dean has played leading roles on and off Broadway and at dozens of regional theaters throughout the country. He has a BA from Tufts University and an MFA from Yale. His audiobook narration has garnered ten AudioFile Earphones Awards. He now lives in Los Angeles, where he works in film and television in addition to narrating.