Beowulf

Author’s Note and Acknowledgments

Though in the writing of this novel I have generally and in the main followed the course set out for me by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery’s screenplay, there are a number of additional sources I would like to acknowledge here. John Lindow’s Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs (Oxford University Press, 2001) has been indispensable and is recommended to anyone with an interest in the beliefs and practices of the “Viking Age.” Also, I should acknowledge a number of scholarly works which proved very helpful and were frequently consulted during the writing of this book: J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” (1936); John Leyerle’s “The Interlace Structure of Beowulf” (1967); Ralph Arnold’s “Royal Halls: The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial” (1967); Christine Alfano’s “The Issue of Feminine Monstrosity: A Reevaluation of Grendel’s Mother” (1992); Frank Battaglia’s “The Germanic Earth Goddess in Beowulf” (1991); John Grigsby’s Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England’s Oldest Legend (2005); Kevin S. Kiernan’s “Grendel’s Heroic Mother” (1984); E. G. Stanley’s “Did Beowulf Commit ‘Feaxfeng’ against Grendel’s Mother” (1976); and Doreen M. Gilliam’s “The Use of the Term ‘Aeglaeca’ in Beowulf at Lines 893 and 2592” (1961). While working on this book, I have also frequently consulted two translations of the anonymous Beowulf poem—E. Talbot Donaldson’s classic prose translation of 1966 and Seamus Heaney’s 2000 verse translation. When making my own translations from the original Anglo-Saxon, I have used A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary by J. R. Clark-Hall (University of Toronto Press, 1984) and Old English: A Historical Linguistic Companion by Roger Lass (Cambridge University Press; 1994), among others.

I would also like to thank the following persons and institutions: Poppy Z. Brite, for lending an ear; Neil Gaiman, for trusting me with his vision; my literary agent, Merrilee Heifetz; my editor on this book, Will Hinton and Jennifer Brehl at HarperCollins; Jennifer Lee and James Shimkus; Sonya Taaffe, for Latin and commiseration; Byron White; the staff of the Robert W. Woodruff Library (Emory University); Claire Reilly-Shapiro and Albert Araneo at Writer’s House (NYC); David J. Schow, for encouraging my investigation of the striking parallels between Ridley Scott’s Alien and Beowulf; and most of all, Kathryn A. Pollnac. This book was written on a Macintosh iBook and iMac.