Comments by Bob Corbett I have only quite recently heard of
Seamus Heaney and this translation of the classic, Beowulf. I
had read Beowulf both in high school and college and never had
been much attracted to it, nor could I have recounted the
action. (But, in fairness to me, that was 55 to 58 years ago.) I
also read that Heaney was an excellent poet in his own right and
a Nobel Prize winner a number of years ago. I purchased not only
Beowulf, but a couple books of his poetry. While I’ve yet to
read one of the poetry books (that’s the next book I’ll read), I
did sample a bit of his book THE SPIRIT LEVEL and was just
astonished at the poems. I am most excited about reading those
in the next few days. Finally, however, Beowulf came alive and
exciting for me in the Heaney translation. It was hard for me to
believe a translation could make such an astounding difference,
or that no one had before provided such a gripping translation
of this work. Written sometime before the year 1,000, it was
written in early Engli