Seamus Heaney
I'm sure I'd not the only one who was deeply saddened by the news of Seamus Heaney's death yesterday. I'm much less familiar with Heaney's canon than with the work of his Scottish contemporaries, however for me personally his outstanding achievement will always be his translation of Beowulf. I've read many translations of Beowulf over the years, though not the original, and I studied early heroic literature at uni for a bit. I read Heaney's translation as soon as it came out but it was only when I heard him actually reading it himself that I really got the full power of heroic poetry. Ironic that it took an Irish poet to bring the Anglo Saxon epic to life.
If you're never heard Heaney's own reading of the epic I can highly recommend listening to it here:
Click to viewPS The portrait above is by the Irish artist Louis le Brocquy who also sadly died last year. It was le Brocquy who produced the breathtaking illustrations for Ireland's own great heroic epic the Táin Bó Cúailnge, as translated by Thomas Kinsella in 1967.