THE HERO BEOWULF

Though here Grendel resembles a balding, peg-toothed civil servant who happens to have green skin, and claws rather than fingers, this retelling of the first part of our oldest surviving epic poem in English retains echoes of the original’s melodramatic violence and in the names—Hygelac, Ecgtheow, Wealhtheow—of its language. Monster aside, Fisher’s monumental figures have a ruggedly heroic look, and seem to glow with color—in contrast to the art’s murky gloom in Charles Keeping’s abridgement (1982). Still a grand tale, even when rendered into such a sketchy retelling as this, and well worth introducing to younger audiences. (afterword) (Picture book. 7-9)