Beowulf

I barely knew this story before picking this up, so I started it with literally no clue about what i was stumbling upon. HOWEVER!!! I am quite surprised because I enjoyed it quite a lot. It resembles TLOTR in some way, I guess that in the way the story is told, as if a grandfather was telling someone's life story to his grandson. I don't really know how to explain myself properly on this one, but I know that at times I saw myself immersed in some kind of fantasy world from where i didn't want to get out and it was super nice.

Absolutely fascinating look into the precursor to Arthurian literature and culture, with layered levels of symbolism and allegory, alluding to everything from Biblical imagery to humanistic survival. Upon first read I had trouble truly enjoying this read, however, with Beowulf, the beauty is in the analysis and the re-read.

Compared to other books I read for this class it wasn't as bad. That being said I wouldn't go out of my way to reread it. I'm not a fan of the heroic epics and this one didn't make me like them.

Genuinely loved this translation so much and thankful that it exists otherwise I would not have enjoyed this as much as I did.

2.5 stars. I had to read this for school, and while parts of it were very interesting, the main character was the most unlikable human being that I have ever come across in literature. And of course, as expected from a piece of work written between the years 600 and 1,000 A.D. the plot had many conveniences and holes. Lastly, also to be expected, was the blatant and consistent sexism throughout the entirety of the story.