Composed toward the end of the first millennium, “Beowulf” is the classic Northern epic of a hero’s triumphs as a young warrior and his fated death as a defender of his people. In his new translation–a national bestseller that is the winner of the Whitbread Award–Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney has produced a work that is both true, line by line, to the original poem and a fundamental expression of his own creative gift. (Poetry)