Beowulf has been one of my favourite legends since I was a little girl, so when I saw this after reading another of Gareth Hinds' illustrated/graphic novel adaptations, I had to check it out.

I liked it better than most adaptations of Beowulf I've read. I particularly liked how real the clothes, armour, ships, and surroundings in general looked. I've never before seen someone depict the sea monsters in Beowulf's boast-tale as actual sea creatures, either, which was interesting.

It also lent more contrast to the incredibly unreal depictions of Grendel and Grendel's mother. (I admit, when I was first reading, Grendel reminded me of a cross between a cave troll from Middle Earth and Venom from Spiderman.)

Perhaps my favourite of the artwork were those pages depicting the dragon at rest, or first waking, watchful over his hoard. The final pages of sea and sky were beautiful, however, and the fade through the story to a close was smoothly and subtly presented through shifting colours and lines.

The adaptation presented balanced nicely between the poetry and rhythm, archaic words and patterns, that hark to the original tale, and an easy to understand format that didn't require a reader to slow beyond what was needed to appreciate and follow the artwork telling the story. Or at least it began that way - it was honestly a little strange how quickly the text faded out to only pictures (which is acceptable enough for high-action scenes, although many of those pages were slightly hard to follow).

After it returned post the first battle scene particularly, the text began to switch between a drier 'report on a tale' feeling (as though I was hearing someone tell me about the tale of Beowulf, rather than telling me the tale) and the occasional resurgence of the nicely-balanced poetic/simplified tone. ( )

Another good adaptation from Hinds, but less of the admittedly boring bits are included—namely, the drawn-out speeches these warriors make to boast about their impressive exploits. This composes the bulk of the poem (if I recall correctly) and the story of Beowulf’s fights versus Grendel and Grendel’s mom are a much smaller part. Not that I’m dying to see the long brag sessions recreated as written in this concise adaptation, but the spirit of those was not captured. ( )

I had to read this book for my greek myth class and I would say it's a good retelling of Beowulf but I just don't really enjoy norse myth. ( )

A very nice translation paired with very powerful images. Nice, and I don't say that lightly. ( )

I remember reading Beowulf as a freshman in college. In fact, it was the first assigned reading - which means that although I read it, it was long forgotten. Finding this illustrated Beowulf, including all three books, at our local library book sale for a dollar, I decided to reconnect. Hind's illustrations give a "superhero" look to the fighting scenes in which Beowulf slays Grendel, Grendel's mother and the dragon, complete with comic-like "splat" and "thunk" captions. Yet Beowulf and his fellow men retain a Viking-like look. The close-ups of faces and the drawings of the adversaries were especially good, as was the funeral send-off of Beowulf in his Viking ship. A pleasurable serendipitous purchase! ( )