Beowulf

When I decided to undertake Tolkien's Beowulf, I was excited. It's advertised as a prose translation of the original Old English text. I thought it would be an easily readable book. Ha! this was no such thing. This form of the prose is very antiquated. The word choices are complex as is the sentence structure. It was reminiscent of the Tolkien's The Story of Kullervo, another work based on an ancient text. I found that book difficult to read as well. But Beowulf was far more complex. There were many times I could not follow what was going because the sentences were so complicated. However, my experience of the book was saved by an additional text that was included called the Sellic Spell, which was Tolkien's attempt at what might have been an old folk tale that would have predated the Beowulf legend.

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