I had to get the Norton Critical Edition of Beowulf simply because it had Tolkien's essay : "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" included in it. I finished the poem itself ages ago but it took forever for me to get through all the essays at the end. I found the poem to be beautiful and am not sure why the second you mention it everyone starts cringing like it's the hardest read in the world. I've read a lot of things that were much harder to plow through (Rise and Fall of the Third Reich comes immediately to mind). I enjoyed the language and immersing myself in the richness of it. It was always hard to pull myself away and I found myself wanting to read just a little more. I can only imagine how incredible it would have been in the original language, being orated with all the alliteration in place.
Truly a fascinating piece of historic literature and I recommend everyone read it.
Page count: 247p/20,136p ytd
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