Beowulf: A Graphic Novel; by Gareth Hinds

This exhilarating graphic-novel edition of an ancient classic honors the spirit of the original as it attracts modern readers.

The epic tale of the great warrior Beowulf has thrilled readers through the ages — and has been reinvented for a new generation with Gareth Hinds’s masterful illustrations. Grendel’s black blood runs thick as Beowulf defeats the monster and his hideous mother, while somber hues overcast the hero’s final, fatal battle against a raging dragon. Speeches filled with courage and sadness, lightning-paced contests of muscle and will, and funeral boats burning on the fjords are all rendered in glorious and gruesome detail. Told for more than a thousand years, Beowulf’s heroic saga finds a true home in this graphic-novel edition.

In its way, the result is as visceral as the Old English, which was consciously onomatopoeic, and by changing his palette for each of the poem’s three sections [Hinds] evokes its darkening rhythm.
—New York Times Book Review

The king of hero epics gets a lavish visual interpretation in Hinds’s full-color mixed-media gem.
—Publishers Weekly