The Further Adventures of Beowulf: Champion of Middle Earth

By Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb

Book Overview

The saga of Beowulf, the timeless warrior hero, is the earliest adventure chronicle from the English-speaking world, and one that still captivates audiences worldwide -- two movies based on the epic are due out in 2007. However, The Further Adventures of Beowulf reveals that the story, as it's handed down to us, can be seen as unfinished. In this revival of the classic legend, four new tales of the epic champion -- written by best-selling authors of heroic fantasy Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb, Lynn Abbey, and Wolfgang Baur -- are joined with a prose version of the original Beowulf text, revealing the adventures the hero undertakes beyond the original story's close. In a series of dramatic interludes editor Brian M. Thomsen re-imagines the influence of the Beowulf epic on J.R.R. Tolkien, recounting how the Oxford don's own vision of Middle Earth was shaped by it. In his introduction he also casts the Beowulf archetype as the true ancestor of modern-day monster slayers from Conan and Van Helsing to Buffy and Ripley, demonstrating by this fine collection what a profound influence the figure of Beowulf has had on pop culture today.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786718471
• ISBN13: 9780786718474
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Interesting concept, uneven execution

This book is quite a hodge-podge. First, about one third is given over to a Victorian era prose translation of the original "Beowulf". It is rather stilted, and if this is your first introduction to Beowulf, you'd probably be happier with another -- e.g., the recent one by Seamus Heaney is recommended for its elegance and readability, if not scholarly accuracy. There is also a brief but useful introduction covering the poem, its history, the pre-Tolkienian origins of the idea of Middle Earth, Tolkien, etc, and an annotated bibliography of Beowulf and his more modern spawn (e.g. a Xena episode). The editor semingly avers that world of Beowulf is sort of the same as Tolkien's Middle Earth. The centerpiece, the reason for purchasing this book, is a series of four longish tales by modern fantasy authors, written specifically for the book. These stories are stitched together by annoyingly coy interludes, seemingly with the conceit that they are being offered to Prof. Tolkien in the 1930's as genuine translations. The stories are: "Beowulf and the City of the Dark Elves" by Jeff Grubb "Beowulf and the Titan" by Lynn Abbey "Beowulf and the Attack of the Trolls" by Wolfgang Baur "Beowulf and the Wraith" by Ed Greenwood Tolkien, of course, was the author of a famous 1936 lecture on the poem, "Beowulf: the monster and the critics", which had lasting influence on scholarship and the understanding of "Beowulf". Much of "The Lord of the Rings" was inspired by Tolkien's "day job" studies of Beowulf and other old English and Germanic literature, a fact which probably explains the particular completeness and consistency, the almost Jungian connection with the European subconscious, that LOTR has and which few if any of its imitators even approaches. Yet in spite of the Tolkien connection, none of the four stories has much resonance with LOTR or Tolkien's Middle Earth -- the elves in Grubb's tale are nothing like JRR's Elves, even if they had fallen into evil ways. Baur's trolls bear little resemblance to those tricked into turning to stone in "The Hobbit" (there is even an aside referring to this supposed effect as a myth). Wraiths do appear in Tolkien as the Ring-wraiths and perhaps one or two other remanants of the dead (though not all such); but again, the wraith of Greenwood's tale doesn't seem to have much to do with Tolkien's wraiths. Nor can I recall any of these creatures in Beowulf. Titans do not appear in Beowulf, LOTR or The Hobbit even in name, and would seem to have little to do with Middle Earth of either sort. But more important than the specific elements or adversaries, none of these tales have the "look and feel" of Tolkienian Middle Earth, inasmuch as that is the connection the editor is promoting. And though several of the stories do try to evoke either the world of the poem or that of 6th century Scandinavia (though considered an early English epic, "Beowulf" takes place in Denmark and Sweden), the fantastic elemen