Beowulf

A wonderful and fresh translation. It takes some getting used to, but it is full of wit, and especially with the skill of Jd Jackson reading it, it really comes alive. Above all, it accomplishes its goal: it tells the story of Beowulf as though a bro is sitting next to you at the bar, with a knack for poetry and word-weaving, bending your ear about a cools story.

With such an apt translation into the vernacular of our particular moment, I suspect this translation may age particularly quickly, and become itself and artifact of our own time. I don't think that's a mark against it, though.

The "Bro!" translation, less rudely modernizing than you'd think, a joyous and hilarious full sweep of English language in all its boastful vigilant possibilities.

I listen to a lot of audiobooks. Even if you don't this one is worth trying. It's an epic poem that was certainly passed down orally for generations before it was ever written down. Imagining the changes it would have gone through during that process makes me enjoy this modern-language translation even more. It might not be a translation that hold up forever, but it fits here and now.