Beowulf

Added this for fun. Told by Michael Morpurgo. Illustrated by Michael Foreman. Both are simply stellar yes supernova brilliant when it comes to their work for children. Morpurgo, not being a scholar of old English quotes his sources as Heaney, Crossley-Holland, and my first reading at about age 9 by Rosemary Sutcliff. He can't go wrong with these three. I was a late teenager when I discovered Foreman and have loved his distinctive style ever since.

If you can find it, this would make a great present for any boy who thinks he likes a bit of gore and blood both in text and illustration. Not that any girl “shouldn't” like it just that it's short on any romance but it does have a heroic combatant saving the world from monsters.

I can't remember reading too much about Beowulf. Essentially because this annoying feeling I have towards poems. So, yeah, I wouldn't dare to read the original translated poem and that's the reason why I chose this little one as a starting point. It's a retelling and it's beautifully written. And even though I would like to put it under the “Norse” label and get on with it, it isn't. Supposedly because Old Norse literary tradition doesn't begin until the 12th century in Iceland and the Beowulf manuscript was produced between 975 and 1025. Having said this, it would fall under the “Germanic” category as far as I can tell. ⠀
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The story itself revolves around the Scandinavian warrior known as Beowulf and his deeds against three monster antagonists: Grendel; Grendel's mother, a sea-hag; and, finally, the death-dragon of the deep. All creatures of darkness! Beowulf is probably the most altruistic hero I've heard of. It's an heroic legend and major themes are honor, loyalty, bravery and glory. It's also bloody and dramatic. You can totally guess what's gonna happen but it's worthy and amazingly well told. Michael Morpurgo is not some random fella, it seems. Ever seen the movie “War Horse”? He wrote the novel.⠀
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After reading “The Hobbit” in January, I was convinced that Tolkien has based part of his world-building, if not all, on a large amount of Norse mythology, which is not really that surprising, he was a philologist and language teacher English and Literature. But hear this: in the third part of the story, a slave awakens and enrages a dragon by stealing a golden goblet from his lair, the dragon had been sleeping on a huge treasure hoard for three centuries. It does ring a bell, doesn't it?