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Beowulf as Children’s Literature

Edited by Bruce Gilchrist and Britt Mize

© 2021

The 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 violence, techniques of narration, education, and nationalism, investigating both the historical and theoretical dimensions of bringing Beowulf to child audiences.

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Product Details

  • World Rights
  • Page Count: 328 pages
  • Illustrations: 28
  • Dimensions: 6.0in x 1.0in x 9.0in
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SKU# SP004817

  • AVAILABLE JUL 2021

    From: $60.00

    Regular Price: $80.00

    ISBN 9781487502706
  • AVAILABLE JUL 2021

    From: $60.00

    Regular Price: $80.00

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Quick Overview

Beowulf as Children’s Literature brings together a group of scholars and creators to address important issues of adapting the Old English poem into textual and pictorial forms that appeal to children, past and present.

Beowulf as Children’s Literature

Edited by Bruce Gilchrist and Britt Mize

© 2021

The 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 violence, techniques of narration, education, and nationalism, investigating both the historical and theoretical dimensions of bringing Beowulf to child audiences.

Continue Reading Read Less

Product Details

  • World Rights
  • Page Count: 328 pages
  • Illustrations: 28
  • Dimensions: 6.0in x 1.0in x 9.0in

  • Author Information

    Bruce Gilchrist is a professor in the Department of English at CÉGEP John Abbott College.


    Britt Mize is an associate professor in the Department of English at Texas A&M University.

  • 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

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