Frightened by Beowulf

Press, 28 May 1983, Page 16

Frightened by Beowulf

Beowulf. By Charles Keeping and Kevin Crossley-Holland. Oxford University Press, 1983. 48 pp. The line between what is “scary” and what is gruesome is a thin one. It can depend on the age of the reader, but then so can. capacity to understand an adult’s, rather than a child’s, version of a wellknown story. The saga of Beowulf is older than the English language, stretching back to Saxon and Viking times, and with roots in an even darker past. It is a classic of early English literature, but is also simple enough to tell as a child’s fable. How it is told, and particularly how it is illustrated, is important for the age at which it is pitched. This version is simple enough for children of intermediate and late primary school age to read. Apart from the names, the language has been simplified well. But the stark black and white illustrations go too far for this age group. Although not quite of photographic realism, they create horror rather than a pleasant fear, and culminate in a graphic picture of the head of Grendel’s mother hanging from a rafter. Less realistic illustrations would have made this ugly story less translatable into visual terms and so less memorable to childish minds. —Oliver Riddell. __________