beowulf

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Book Reviews and Synopses

Beowulf

Seamus Heaney

Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf, written by Beowulf. Courage Books. Roanoke, Virginia. 1953.

Beowulf, written by an author of the same name in 1744, is a fictional book about adventures of a man in the dark ages. In 1750 the only copy of this book was lost in a fire and thought to be destroyed but mysteriously appeared in a woman’s mailbox in 1961 in the town of Roanoke, Virginia. The woman took it to a man named Seamus Heaney to be restored. Seamus Heaney traveled to New York to get the book published, he later was given the Whitebread Award.

This story of Beowulf is about Beowulf, a ruthless ex-convict. Beowulf lives in “the mother of towns,” Contineus, in the country of France with his beloved wife, Seinna (a retired warden). Beowulf and his wife are cheated out of there silver by unjust taxes. This causes Beowulf to lead an angry mob to the city hall of Contineus planning to burn it down.

The Duke of Contineus, Duke Elzar, takes Beowulf’s wife captive and threatens Beowulf to stop. Beowulf, thinking the Duke was bluffing, burned down the city hall. Later Beowulf returned to his burning estate to find only a lock of his wife’s hair and the cross she carried around her neck.

The enraged Beowulf searches the town for the Duke to find that Elzar fled to the Castle De Haar. Beowulf later treks across the slave lands fighting off fugitives seeking the Duke Elzars head. The adventure in front of Beowulf is nothing like he has every seen. Is he ready?

Beowulf is about the effects of unjust leadership and abuse of power. It shows true emotion. The grammar is sometimes incorrect because it was not originally written in French. Beowulf is an outstanding book, It shows different perspectives of physical war and it really lets the reader have a better grasp of what the situation is. Overall it teaches a wonderful lesson.

3 out of 5 stars

Contributed by A. Hoffmann

Apr. 27th, 2011