beowulf

Today my youngest daughter and I accompanied my oldest daughter to her GI checkup appointment. It has been 6 months since her last (actually more like 7 months due to having to reschedule her appointment because my girls were both sick), and I was super happy to hear that she doesn't need to return for another 6 months! These are literally the only two times we have been able to wait so long between appointments. After four years, it is a wonderful feeling. It is good news, means my oldest is doing well, her Crohn's not carrying on so wildly inside her. Whenever we have an easy GI checkup at  the childrens hospital, I like to take my daughters to their local Barnes and Noble (as we don't really have a bookstore that nice, or that large). It is a rare occurrence, as most appointments we have there are pretty rough and leave my oldest just needing to go home and curl up in bed. But today, it was a good day, so Barnes and Noble!
I wouldn't have ordered that Hunchback of Notre Dame book this weekend if I had realized I was going to get to go to a good bookstore. I tried to cancel the order the very next morning after putting it all together, and of course, this was the order that Amazon was right on top of and could no longer be canceled. O-well! I shall enjoy the book anyways. Now onto my lovely new book I picked out today, Beowulf.
I have always adored the Beowulf story, loving everything about it, after I watched the movie. I had never heard of this story prior, never even knew the movie existed, but stumbled upon it one day while I was browsing through the TV channels, and become engrossed. Here is the trailer:

 

This story just fascinates me, even more so when I learned how ancient this tale really is. I have gotten a few of the free versions for my Kindle, and browsed a few books in bookstores before, but never fully liked the translations provided. It just didn't captivate me, and I felt if I was going to buy one, the translation has to captivate me and do the tale justice. I was about to leave the poetry section of Barnes and Noble, empty handed, when my oldest daughter suggested Beowulf. I was ready to shrug my shoulders and say nah, but decided to open up a few of them and compare the translations. I did decide that I really liked this version, and especially liked the added bonus of more Old English poems. How wonderful! I may have to read a bit before my mind can wrap around the style of this writing, as it reads even older and more cryptic than Charles Dickens, and even Shakespeare (though it may be tied with Shakespeare, I haven't yet decided). I am very excited to finally have a copy of this tale, and I hope that I will love it just as much as the story I saw in the movie. I still don't even know how accurate the movie was to the book...so it should be great fun to discover! I have really been wanting to invest in a nice poetry book of some kind, as I only own two, and I think this fits what I was looking for pretty perfectly, on top of it being Beowulf!

Now I want to watch the movie again...

My daughters and I each picked out two books (I will share my second one another day). I have somehow managed to get them interested in classic books, so my youngest happily chose children adapted versions of Pinocchio and Peter Pan. My oldest daughter was happy they had children adapted versions of the two books she wanted: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I can't wait to hear what they think of them!