Description
Book SynopsisThe single largest category of Beowulf representation and adaptation, outside of direct translation of the poem, is children’s literature. Over the past century and a half, more than 150 new versions of Beowulf directed to child and teen audiences have appeared, in English and in many other languages. In this collection of original essays, Bruce Gilchrist and Britt Mize examine the history and processes of remaking Beowulf for young readers.
Inventive in their manipulations of story, tone, and genre, these adaptations require their authors to make countless decisions about what to include, exclude, emphasize, de-emphasize, and adjust. This volume considers the many forms of children’s literature, focusing primarily on picture books, illustrated storybooks, and youth novels, but taking account also of curricular aids, illustrated full translations of the poem, and songs. Contributors address issues of gender, historical context, war and viole
Table of Contents
Introduction: Beowulf in and near Children’s Literature Britt Mize 1. “A Little Shared Homer for England and the North”: The First Beowulf for Young Readers Mark Bradshaw Busbee 2. The Adaptational Character of the Earliest Beowulf for English Children: E.L. Hervey’s “The Fight with the Ogre” Renée Ward 3. Visualizing Femininity in Children’s and Illustrated Versions of Beowulf Bruce Gilchrist 4. Tolkien, Beowulf, and Faërie: Adaptations for Readers Aged “Six to Sixty” Amber Dunai 5. Treatments of Beowulf as a Source in Mid-Twentieth-Century Children’s Literature Carl Edlund Anderson 6. What We See in the Grendel Cave: Focalization in Beowulf for Children Janet Schrunk Ericksen 7. Beowulf, Bèi’àowǔfǔ, and the Social Hero Britt Mize 8. The Monsters and the Animals: Theriocentric Beowulfs Robert Stanton 9. Children’s Beowulfs for the New Tolkien Generation Yvette Kisor 10. The Practice of Adapting Beowulf for Younger Readers: A Conversation with Rebecca Barnhouse and James Rumford Britt Mize 11. Children’s Versions of Beowulf: A Bibliography Bruce Gilchrist
