Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney

Blood, revenge, slaughter. Hack their heads off with swords, display their severed limbs as trophies. Men feasting together in the meadhall, men fighting the enemy that springs at their back when they sleep. Bards,ballads, monsters, heroes. Women, proud tribal queens who worship the courage of their men.

These are no pagan barbarians, they are Christians, God is in their hearts and fights beside them as they spit the enemy on swords so much a part of self they give them names. When Shield Sheafson the father of the dynasty, 'scourge off many tribes' dies he 'crossed over into the Lord's keeping' (page 3). Now it it Beowulf's turn. He slays the monster Grendel barehanded. Grendel's monstrous mother, larger and far more vicious wants blood. He slays her. When old he meets his nemesis the wyrd seawyrm and slays it, dying sword in hand. A brave strong hero.

Beowulf; written between the 7th and 10 century AD. Set in Scandinvia. Translated,slowly, twenty lines a day, in the mid-eighties by a gifted poet teaching at Harvard. A labour of love. And,while he works, in the place where Seamus was born and brought up which is ruled by England, the bloodbath happens again. Day by day, hour by hour.