Beowulf

"Beowulf" tells the story of a Scandinavian hero who defeats three evil creatures – a huge, cannibalistic ogre named Grendel, Grendel's monstrous mother, and a dragon – and then dies, mortally wounded during his last encounter. If the definition of a superhero is "someone who uses his special powers to fight evil", then Beowulf is our first English superhero story, and arguably our best. It is also a deeply pious poem, so bold in its reverence for a virtuous pagan past that it teeters on the edge of heresy. From beginning to end, we feel we are in the hands of a master storyteller. Stephen Mitchell's marvelously clear and vivid rendering re-creates the robust masculine music of the original. It both hews closely to the meaning of the Old English and captures its wild energy and vitality, not just as a deep "work of literature" but also as a rousing entertainment that can still stir our feelings and rivet our attention today, after more than a thousand years. This new translation – spare, sinuous, vigorous in its narration, and translucent in its poetry – makes a masterpiece accessible to everyone.