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Reading Notes : Beowulf, Part A

I have been looking forward to reading The Story of Beowulf for a long time, since reading someone's storybook project about it at the beginning of the semester. It seemed like a wonderfully epic hero tale, full of knights, fighting, dragons, quests, everything I love! Being a fan of fantasy, this reading had all the components to keep me dutifully intruiged. One thing that particularly suprised me in this reading was how smoothly it read. The transitions between scenes, settings, characters, and dialogue was almost movie-like in nature. I felt like I could imagine the whole scene playing out before me. One great things that adds to this is the author's attention to detail. He truly paints a picture for every setting, devoting enough time to change the mood and immerse the reader. But it doesn't seem forced or out of place at all; it is like all the elements in nature are combining to make that one moment in time special for both Beowulf and the reader.

Another thing I really liked was the use of dialogue for storytelling. By allowing the characters themselves to speak and give accounts of what is happening in the plot, their personality traits and motivations become much more apparent. This is way more interesting than the author or narrator taking time to inform the reader about them separately. This kind of technique moves the plot along very well and makes all the events seem like they are happening in real-time. Again, it felt like I was watching a movie. It was very Lord of the Ringsy, and I have a hunch that this story inspired one of my favorite childhood series, Eragon. There are some similarities between the names of the characters and definitely some elements I can see how the 15-year old author (at the time) of the series used as well. Moreover, I can see how this story would be popular among children and adults alike; everyone likes to have some time to escape into a wonderful fantasy story, and this seems like the perfect one!

Beowulf illustration by Henry Pitz

The Story of Beowulf. Strafford Riggs (1933). Web Source.


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