Beowulf as Children’s Literature
© 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.
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 Mize1. “A Little Shared Homer for England and the North”: The First Beowulf for Young Readers
Mark Bradshaw Busbee2. The Adaptational Character of the Earliest Beowulf for English Children: E.L. Hervey’s “The Fight with the Ogre”
Renée Ward3. Visualizing Femininity in Children’s and Illustrated Versions of Beowulf
Bruce Gilchrist4. Tolkien, Beowulf, and Faërie: Adaptations for Readers Aged “Six to Sixty”
Amber Dunai5. Treatments of Beowulf as a Source in Mid-Twentieth-Century Children’s Literature
Carl Edlund Anderson6. What We See in the Grendel Cave: Focalization in Beowulf for Children
Janet Schrunk Ericksen7. Beowulf, Bèi’àowǔfǔ, and the Social Hero
Britt Mize8. The Monsters and the Animals: Theriocentric Beowulfs
Robert Stanton9. Children’s Beowulfs for the New Tolkien Generation
Yvette Kisor10. The Practice of Adapting Beowulf for Younger Readers: A Conversation with Rebecca Barnhouse and James Rumford
Britt Mize11. Children’s Versions of Beowulf: A Bibliography
Bruce Gilchrist
-
Subjects and Courses