Beowulf and Beyond: Classic Anglo-Saxon Poems, Stories, Sayings, Spells, and Riddles

Beowulf & Beyond is the first and only collection of translations into modern English to include not only Beowulf but all of the best-known works of Anglo-Saxon literature in one convenient volume. The texts translated here are taken chiefly from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, The Exeter Book and the Anglo-Saxon Genesis, as well of course as Beowulf itself. Previously, students have had to buy a separate book to read essential works like "The Seafarer", required reading in all courses of early English literature. And even these may miss some of the greatest delights of this period: the wonderful stories from Bede, the charms, sayings, spells and riddles that inspire students to dig deeper into this strange and magical world. Dan Veach provides a brief introduction to each text, giving just enough background to allow the modern reader with no specialist knowledge to understand the historical context of the work and its author. There is a longer introduction to Beowulf, discussing the poem in some detail; its opening paragraph tells us: “Those returning [to Beowulf] with distant memories from school will be shocked to discover just how fantastic it really is—how chilling the drama, how delicious the scene-setting, how engaging the characters. These translations are, in the words of A.E. Stalling writing in the book’s Preface, the work of a “deeply learned translator who, at the same time, wears his learning so lightly, locating each work with a brief introduction and letting its humanity gleam through.” Dan Veach’s translations, which derive their power from cleaving "close to the bone" of the original Anglo-Saxon, capture the power and punch of the original in a supple verse that sweeps the reader irresistibly onward.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Preface TALES FROM THE VENERABLE BEDE The Story of Caedmon Pope Gregory sees an Angle The Story of the Sparrow From the Venerable Bede, by A. E. Stallings Bede’s Death Song BLOOD & BATTLE Viking Attack on Lindisfarne The Battle of Brunanburg The Battle of Maldon Norman Invasion of 1066 LOVE & LOSS The Seafarer The Wife’s Lament The Husband’s Message The Wanderer BOLD SPIRITS From the Anglo-Saxon Genesis    Satan’s Rebellion    The Temptation    The Sacrifice of Isaac Dream of the Rood Judith MAGIC & MYSTERY Magic Spells    To Heal the Land    For a Swarm of Bees    Charms for Childbirth Maxims Riddles    #25. “I’m a wonderful creature”    #27. “I’m treasured by men, found far and wide”    #44. “It hangs in splendor by a man’s thigh”    #5. “I’m a lonely wretch, wounded by iron”    #61. “Sometimes a lady locks me”    #46. “A man sat at wine with two wives”    #45. “I hear tell of something”    #47. “A moth munching on words”    #54. “The young man came”    Answers to Riddles BEOWULF Episodes Introduction Beowulf    I.   Grendel    II.  Grendel’s Mother    III. The Dragon The Finnsburg Fragment Selected Readings and Media

About the Author :
Dan Veach won the Willis Barnstone Prize, America's most prestigious single-poem translation prize, for his rendering of the Old English poem "The Seafarer", which is included in this volume. He edited and helped translate the first book of poetry by Iraqis about the American invasion: Flowers of Flame (Michigan State University Press, 2008), winner of an Independent Publisher Book Award. Founding editor of the international poetry journal Atlanta Review, author of Elephant Water and Lunchboxes, Veach is an internationally celebrated poet; he studied Anglo-Saxon with the great William Alfred at Harvard.

Review :
What a golden hoard of Anglo-Saxon Dan Veach has delved up for us: prose, riddles, spells, Beowulf and more, polishing away the grime of centuries so they shine as though freshly fashioned. I was especially intrigued to see how he brings women to the fore here, as warriors, peace-weavers, and speakers with their own voices. -- A. E. Stallings, translator of Hesiod and Lucretius, author of Like and Olives.