Beowulf as Children's Literature ed. by Bruce Gilchrist and Britt Mize (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Beowulf as Children's Literature ed. by Bruce Gilchrist and Britt Mize Anna Smol (bio) Beowulf as Children's Literature, edited by Bruce Gilchrist and Britt Mize. U of Toronto P, 2021. This volume of ten essays, an interview, and an extensive bibliography is an outstanding resource that lays the groundwork for future research in the field of medieval adaptations for young readers. Situated at the intersection of scholarship on children's literature, Beowulf, medievalism and adaptation studies, this collection covers a long history, from the first Beowulf adaptation for Danish children in 1820 to works by twenty-first-century writers and illustrators, and it suggests various theoretical and critical approaches to the topic of Beowulf adaptations for children. Britt Mize's "Introduction: Beowulf in and near Children's Literature" points out what some may find a surprising fact: that the largest category of Beowulf adaptations (other than direct translations) is those made for children. Bruce Gilchrist's extensive bibliography at the end of the book, listing over 150 adaptations made for young readers from 1820 to 2018, provides evidence of the Old English poem's continued appeal. Mize points out that, aside from a few previous publications on this topic, this volume marks the first time a collection of essays tackles the issues of "transmuting" the Old English poem for child readers and for the adults who provide those readings (5). Mize surveys some key issues that should prompt more scholarly attention: the unique character of every adaptation; its ideological goals, including its educational paratexts; the materiality of the book and its intended audience; and the relation of children's literature to young adult (YA) literature. The following essays each examine one or more of these issues, although Mize does point out, especially in the light of recent developments in early medieval English studies, that "[a] fully theorized, historicizing study of race and racism in Beowulf adaptations for children remains to be written" (7). The first two essays both deal with nationalist ideologies that shape Beowulf for young readers and, in this way, can serve as foundations for future studies of race and racism, as Mize hopes. It is fitting that [End Page 182] these first two essays deal with firsts, as their titles indicate: "'A Little Shared Homer for England and the North': The First Beowulf for Young Readers" by Mark Bradshaw Busbee and "The Adaptational Character of the Earliest Beowulf for English Children: E.L. Hervey's 'The Fight with the Ogre'" by Renée Ward. Busbee examines the work and influence of the Danish scholar N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783–1872), a name that will be familiar to most Beowulf scholars as the man who wrote the first full translation of Beowulf in a modern language (Danish), corrected some of the errors in the Thorkelin transcripts, and explained some of the poem's characters. According to Busbee, Grundtvig is also the man who first identified the poem as suitable for children. His Bjowulfs Drape, published in 1820, claimed to provide for children a "little shared Homer for England and for the North" that would introduce them to their Scandinavian, and specifically Danish, heritage as an alternative to the classical Greek and Latin that had dominated education previously. In this nationalistic goal as well as his belief that the Beowulf-poet wrote in a stage of history analogous to childhood, Grundtvig expresses themes repeated in children's adaptations throughout the nineteenth century and beyond. Busbee examines Grundtvig's translation choices, the development of his considerable influence on Danish education, and the political subtexts of his adaptation. He concludes with some thoughts about Grundtvig's influence, including on J.R.R. Tolkien's notion of a shared Northern heritage. Pointing to another first, Renée Ward presents the work of Eleanora Louisa Hervey (1811–1903), a children's writer who was particularly interested in medievalism. Ward posits that Hervey's story "Roderic's Tale: The Fight with the Ogre," published in 1873 in her volume The Children of the Pear-Garden, may be the first English adaptation of Beowulf that identifies children as its intended readers. Just as Grundtvig was inspired by cultural concerns about national...