Beowulf

"This might be the best thing you read all year. It will absolutely be the weirdest. The most exuberant. The bro-iest literary sensation of the age. No matter how you think you feel about the source material – if you loved it/hated it, if it traumatized you, if it ruined and/or energized the English language for you or whatever – Headley’s Beowulf is something different entirely. Yes, it tells the story of Beowulf and Hrothgar and Grendel and Grendel’s mom and the dragon and Wiglaf and everything. Only here, in Headley’s version, Beowulf becomes its truest self: an epic poem made to be shouted over the howls of mead-drunk Spear-Danes as they toast the fallen and lovingly punch each other to sleep. It is thousand-year-old slam poetry full of blood and honor, rap battles, sea monsters and treasure hoards. And if you don’t love it, you’re gonna absolutely despise it, because with Headley’s Beowulf, there is no middle ground."

"The only version I've ever read is the 2020 translation by Maria Dahvana Headley. Nearly every page has lines that I wanted to read aloud."