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A review by bookwomble
The Battle of Maldon: Together with the Homecoming of Beorhtnoth by J.R.R. Tolkien
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, it's ancillary material, the prose version of The Battle of Maldon and Grybauskas's too-short essay (I would have enjoyed twice or three-times as many pages) on the relevance of these works to Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium: 5 stars.
Tolkien's paper, The Tradition of Versification in Old English held my interest at, say 3.5-4 stars, only because I'm not a student of Old English versification, so it was rather ratified air for me. Some of the Appendices were just too abstruse for my reading, the deficit, again, being mine. Overall, 4.5 stars.
The Homecoming is wonderfully atmospheric and poignant, as two common men search amongst the aristocratic dead for the body of their slain lord, Earl Beorhtnoth, who foolishly wasted the lives of his loyal warriors in an act of heroic bravado, forgetting his higher duty to protect his people. To write further would only be to repeat less skillfully what is in the book. I'll certainly read the core material again, and probably the critical apparatus, though probably not much of the Appendices.
Tolkien's paper, The Tradition of Versification in Old English held my interest at, say 3.5-4 stars, only because I'm not a student of Old English versification, so it was rather ratified air for me. Some of the Appendices were just too abstruse for my reading, the deficit, again, being mine. Overall, 4.5 stars.
The Homecoming is wonderfully atmospheric and poignant, as two common men search amongst the aristocratic dead for the body of their slain lord, Earl Beorhtnoth, who foolishly wasted the lives of his loyal warriors in an act of heroic bravado, forgetting his higher duty to protect his people. To write further would only be to repeat less skillfully what is in the book. I'll certainly read the core material again, and probably the critical apparatus, though probably not much of the Appendices.