Have you noticed just how many versions of the Beowulf story are around right now? The story, part history and part myth, is over 1,500 years old. It started life as a spoken story and was later written down. The only surviving manuscript is in the British Library. Think about that. A manuscript that is a thousand years old and that survived revolutions, rats, the Great Fire of London, time itself.
The original manuscript looks like this:
Now there is the movie with Ray Winstone and another one being made. There are numerous graphic novels and text versions. There is a poetry version by Semaus Heaney. The story of Beowulf was one of the inspirations for The Lord of the Rings.
Beowulf is a story of three mighty battles fought by the hero against the monster Grendel, Grendel mother and a nameless serpent. Recently, this graphic novel edition by Gareth Hinds was published. I love this book. It’s exciting, dramatic, has amzing pictures and that old world language is a fresh as the day it was written down.
You can see more pages at Gareth’s website, along with sketches that he made in creating the characters. It’s well worth exploring. Have you read a graphic novels that you want people to know about? Tell us in the comments below.
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January 11th, 2008 at 3:38 am
wow im really into to myths and dragons and bassilisks
sounds like a good read i might look for that book
p.s: mike do you know if there is a book to the movie:
the water horse legend of the deep?
January 13th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Ben, there is a movie called Water Horse, spirit of the deep. It’s based on the book by Dick King-Smith.
If you dig dragons, keep an eye for Carole Wilkinson’s Dragon Companion, an encyclopedia. Absolutely everything you wanted to know about dragons. Great illustrations by Dean Jones (not the cricket guy!) as well.
March 9th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I think this book sounds pretty cool.
The pictures on the website want me want to read it.