Forthcoming May 7, 2026.

Beowulf is the Most Insidious Monster of Them All.

REVIEWS

Chris Vinsonhaler’s new translation of Beowulf is a bold and risky venture. She has thrown down a challenge to those who (think they) know this complex and mysterious poem with a reading that goes completely against the grain: it confirms our suspicions that heroes and monsters are disturbingly similar, and more controversially, depicts the Scandinavian characters—including Beowulf himself—as deceitful and rapacious murderers, making traditional understandings of the poem look naive. The innovative layout, with bite-sized sections of vibrantly translated text interspersed with commentary and thoughtful separation of the poem’s performative voices, does a great job of clarifying Vinsonhaler’s incisive reading of Beowulf as a “labyrinth of interlacing riddles.” This is essential—and bracing—reading. — Heather O’Donoghue, Professor Emerita, Norse-Icelandic Literature, University of Oxford

What 7-Up is to Coca-Cola, this groundbreaking translation is to Beowulf. Here is a riddling maze never seen before, a murder mystery of smoke and mirrors that will intrigue and entertain new readers and aficionados alike. — Robert Bjork, Editor of Klaeber’s Beowulf  and A Beowulf Handbook

Chris Vinsonhaler leverages her work in performance and scholarship to reveal major elements obscured in Beowulf’s long critical history: how repetition sparks subtle yet essential impacts; how the poem’s riddling design leaves insinuation hanging; how the sonic landscape of each line draws us into the folds of enigma; and most intriguing of all, how the poem mobilizes irony to flesh out its shockingly honest invocation of heroic criminality. This is absolutely not a Beowulf of epic praise but a scathing exposé of avarice, cultural nostalgia, and the perennial allure of violence. — Ophelia Eryn Hostetter, Professor, Old English, Rutgers, Camden

Chris Vinsonhaler’s exciting new translation of Beowulf is a groundbreaking work, combining taut renderings of the Old English verse with succinct and insightful commentary to guide the reader through this famously challenging text. The innovative division of the text into passages of narrative voice (the story) and reflective voice (the narrator speaking to the audience) brings into focus the moralistic and dramatic dimensions of this strange but endlessly fascinating poem. Most strikingly, Vinsonhaler presents startling new evidence for the poem’s ‘enigmatic design’, in which the presentation of ‘good kings’ such as Beowulf and Hrothgar is repeatedly complicated by allusions to kin-murder, vengeance, the sacking of mead halls, and the lust for treasure, bringing these seemingly admirable characters ever closer to the world of the monsters they confront.  — Francis Leneghan, Professor, Old English, University of Oxford

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