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2010 First Folio Society Edition
BEOWULF
By Seamus Heaney
KEY DETAILS
Condition: Very Good
Format: Hardcover, Imperial octavo (8vo 8 1⁄4 × 11 1⁄2 in 210 × 292 mm )
Note: Binding/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Published By: The Folio Society, UK, 2010
Language: English
Illustrated By: Becca Thorne
Collation: pp. xxviii, 218
Dust Jacket: None, as issued, No Jacket
SKU: BTETM0002330
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 2Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request
DESCRIPTION
Beowulf
A Verse Translation
A particularly handsome Folio Society presentation of Seamus Heaney's celebrated translation of Beowulf, combining the original Old English text with Heaney's modern English verse on facing pages.
First published by Faber and Faber in 1999, Heaney's translation won both the Whitbread Poetry Award and the overall Whitbread Book of the Year and has become one of the most widely admired modern interpretations of the great Anglo-Saxon epic. This 2010 publication was the first Folio Society edition and presents the text in an unusually rich visual setting devised by illustrator and printmaker Becca Thorne.
The volume is quarter-bound in dark red-brown leather with crimson cloth sides, the upper board extensively blocked in gilt with Thorne's Anglo-Saxon-inspired dragon and interlace design. Spine lettered and decorated in gilt, top edge gilt, with dark red endpapers. The Old English and Heaney translation are printed in parallel throughout, accompanied by decorative borders and integrated linocut-style illustrations in dark red. Housed in the original gold-coloured pictorial slipcase.
CONDITION, COLLATION & COPY NOTES
Book: Near Fine – Quarter-bound in leather with cloth sides. Leather spine remains attractive, with bright gilt lettering and decoration. Cloth boards retain strong colour and the elaborate gilt blocking remains crisp and well preserved. Binding firm.
Internally exceptionally clean and bright and appearing little read, with no obvious annotation, foxing or staining observed. Dark red endpapers show only minor signs of handling. Printed illustrations and decorative borders remain strong and clean throughout.
Set in Imprint at The Folio Society. Printed on Schleipen paper at Memminger MedienCentrum AG, Memmingen, Germany. Quarter-bound in leather with cloth sides by Lachenmaier, Reutlingen, Germany, and blocked with a design by the artist.
Decorated title page, decorative borders throughout and integrated illustrations by Becca Thorne.
Slipcase: Very Good – Original gold-coloured pictorial slipcase with general rubbing, shelf-marking and surface soiling. Localised abrasion and loss to the covering, particularly towards an upper corner and along one long edge, together with some compression and edge wear. Despite the cosmetic wear, the slipcase appears structurally sound and continues to protect the volume well.
An attractive first Folio Society printing in notably clean internal condition, the principal condition issues being confined to the original slipcase.
Please see Photos as part of condition report.
SYNOPSIS
Beowulf is the greatest surviving heroic poem in Old English and one of the foundational works of European literature. Composed in Anglo-Saxon England but set largely in Scandinavia, the poem follows the warrior Beowulf from his youthful feats of strength to his final act as an ageing king.
Beowulf travels from the land of the Geats to Denmark, where King Hrothgar's great hall, Heorot, is being terrorised by the monstrous Grendel. Beowulf defeats Grendel in single combat and subsequently confronts Grendel's vengeful mother in her underwater lair.
Many years later, now king of the Geats, Beowulf faces his final enemy: a treasure-hoarding dragon whose attacks threaten his people. The resulting confrontation turns the heroic adventure into a meditation on courage, loyalty, kingship, mortality and the passing of an age.
This Folio Society edition presents the original Old English text alongside Seamus Heaney's acclaimed verse translation, allowing the language, rhythm and structure of the ancient poem to be appreciated in parallel with one of its most celebrated modern interpretations.
AUTHOR BIO
Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) was an Irish poet, playwright, essayist and translator and one of the most important English-language poets of the later twentieth century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995.
Heaney worked on his translation of Beowulf throughout the 1990s. First published by Faber and Faber in 1999, it brought the rhythms, alliteration and verbal force of the Old English poem into a distinctive contemporary poetic voice while retaining a strong sense of the language and music of the original. The translation won the 1999 Whitbread Poetry Award and subsequently the overall Whitbread Book of the Year.
ILLUSTRATOR
Becca Thorne
Becca Thorne is a British illustrator and linocut printmaker whose work draws particularly on nature, history, folklore, medieval imagery and traditional decorative art.
For this Folio Society edition of Beowulf, Thorne created a unified series of Anglo-Saxon-inspired designs incorporating interlace, dragons, ships, warriors and other motifs from the poem. Her artwork extends beyond conventional illustrations to the decorative page borders, integrated footer compositions, title-page ornament and the gilt-blocked binding design, giving the edition a particularly coherent visual identity.
2010 First Folio Society Edition
BEOWULF
By Seamus Heaney
KEY DETAILS
Condition: Very Good
Format: Hardcover, Imperial octavo (8vo 8 1⁄4 × 11 1⁄2 in 210 × 292 mm )
Note: Binding/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Published By: The Folio Society, UK, 2010
Language: English
Illustrated By: Becca Thorne
Collation: pp. xxviii, 218
Dust Jacket: None, as issued, No Jacket
SKU: BTETM0002330
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 2Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request
DESCRIPTION
Beowulf
A Verse Translation
A particularly handsome Folio Society presentation of Seamus Heaney's celebrated translation of Beowulf, combining the original Old English text with Heaney's modern English verse on facing pages.
First published by Faber and Faber in 1999, Heaney's translation won both the Whitbread Poetry Award and the overall Whitbread Book of the Year and has become one of the most widely admired modern interpretations of the great Anglo-Saxon epic. This 2010 publication was the first Folio Society edition and presents the text in an unusually rich visual setting devised by illustrator and printmaker Becca Thorne.
The volume is quarter-bound in dark red-brown leather with crimson cloth sides, the upper board extensively blocked in gilt with Thorne's Anglo-Saxon-inspired dragon and interlace design. Spine lettered and decorated in gilt, top edge gilt, with dark red endpapers. The Old English and Heaney translation are printed in parallel throughout, accompanied by decorative borders and integrated linocut-style illustrations in dark red. Housed in the original gold-coloured pictorial slipcase.
CONDITION, COLLATION & COPY NOTES
Book: Near Fine – Quarter-bound in leather with cloth sides. Leather spine remains attractive, with bright gilt lettering and decoration. Cloth boards retain strong colour and the elaborate gilt blocking remains crisp and well preserved. Binding firm.
Internally exceptionally clean and bright and appearing little read, with no obvious annotation, foxing or staining observed. Dark red endpapers show only minor signs of handling. Printed illustrations and decorative borders remain strong and clean throughout.
Set in Imprint at The Folio Society. Printed on Schleipen paper at Memminger MedienCentrum AG, Memmingen, Germany. Quarter-bound in leather with cloth sides by Lachenmaier, Reutlingen, Germany, and blocked with a design by the artist.
Decorated title page, decorative borders throughout and integrated illustrations by Becca Thorne.
Slipcase: Very Good – Original gold-coloured pictorial slipcase with general rubbing, shelf-marking and surface soiling. Localised abrasion and loss to the covering, particularly towards an upper corner and along one long edge, together with some compression and edge wear. Despite the cosmetic wear, the slipcase appears structurally sound and continues to protect the volume well.
An attractive first Folio Society printing in notably clean internal condition, the principal condition issues being confined to the original slipcase.
Please see Photos as part of condition report.
SYNOPSIS
Beowulf is the greatest surviving heroic poem in Old English and one of the foundational works of European literature. Composed in Anglo-Saxon England but set largely in Scandinavia, the poem follows the warrior Beowulf from his youthful feats of strength to his final act as an ageing king.
Beowulf travels from the land of the Geats to Denmark, where King Hrothgar's great hall, Heorot, is being terrorised by the monstrous Grendel. Beowulf defeats Grendel in single combat and subsequently confronts Grendel's vengeful mother in her underwater lair.
Many years later, now king of the Geats, Beowulf faces his final enemy: a treasure-hoarding dragon whose attacks threaten his people. The resulting confrontation turns the heroic adventure into a meditation on courage, loyalty, kingship, mortality and the passing of an age.
This Folio Society edition presents the original Old English text alongside Seamus Heaney's acclaimed verse translation, allowing the language, rhythm and structure of the ancient poem to be appreciated in parallel with one of its most celebrated modern interpretations.
AUTHOR BIO
Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) was an Irish poet, playwright, essayist and translator and one of the most important English-language poets of the later twentieth century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995.
Heaney worked on his translation of Beowulf throughout the 1990s. First published by Faber and Faber in 1999, it brought the rhythms, alliteration and verbal force of the Old English poem into a distinctive contemporary poetic voice while retaining a strong sense of the language and music of the original. The translation won the 1999 Whitbread Poetry Award and subsequently the overall Whitbread Book of the Year.
ILLUSTRATOR
Becca Thorne
Becca Thorne is a British illustrator and linocut printmaker whose work draws particularly on nature, history, folklore, medieval imagery and traditional decorative art.
For this Folio Society edition of Beowulf, Thorne created a unified series of Anglo-Saxon-inspired designs incorporating interlace, dragons, ships, warriors and other motifs from the poem. Her artwork extends beyond conventional illustrations to the decorative page borders, integrated footer compositions, title-page ornament and the gilt-blocked binding design, giving the edition a particularly coherent visual identity.
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