Beowulf

Above:  screenprint from the movie.

I saw Beowulf on DVD at the weekend (I missed it when it came out on the big screen in 2007).  The film is an animation, with considerable visual impact.  Director is Robert Zemeckis.

Above:  I first read Beowulf in a children's translation when I was about fourteen.  On Monday I got this original version of the epic from my local library.  It is a facsimile of the Cotton manuscript VITELLIUS A. XV in the British Library.

Above:  I thought it might be heavy going, but actually you can get the sense of it quite well.  The facsimile has a transcription opposite and although many of the words are unfamiliar you can sense the poetry (especially if you read it aloud).  You can also look up difficult words on Google.