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Paperback
Homero es el poeta griego por antonomasia, el poeta divino que influyó decisivamente en el arte, la literatura, la lengua, la religión y la filosofía griegas. Su obra, memorizada por los escolares, ha dejado a través de los siglos una huella indeleble en la vida de los griegos.(*CR*)Homero llegó a Occidente de la mano de Petrarca, cuando este humanista adquirió los manuscritos de los dos inigualables poemas homéricos que, con gran dolor, no supo descifrar. El mensaje de la «Ilíada» está, sin embargo, ahora claro para nosotros: aunque los héroes hagan frente al inexorable hado que pesa sobre los mortales cosechando la gloria, nada hay sobre la tierra más miserable que el hombre. La presente edición restituye la obra a sus orígenes ofreciendo una traducción muy literal en verso.
The remote and inhospitable landscape of Iceland made it a perfect breeding-ground for heroes. The first Norsemen to colonize it in 860 found that the fight for survival demanded high courage and tough self reliance; it also nurtured a stern sense of duty and an uncompromising view of destiny. The Icelandic sagas relate the adventurous lives of individuals and families between 930 and 1030, which began as oral tales but were skilfully documented in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and are now regarded as written literature.
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(1)'The finest translation in and for our time' (Kevin Crossley-Holland) Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, with its intricate plot of enchantment and betrayal is probably the most skilfully told story in the whole of the English Arthurian cycle. Originating from the north-west midlands of England, it is based on two separate and very ancient Celtic motifs of the Beheading and the Exchange of Winnings, brought together by the anonymous 14th century poet. His telling comprehends a great variety of moods and modes - from the stark realism of the hunt-scenes to the delicious and dangerous bedroom encounters between Lady Bercilak and Gawain, from moments of pure lyric beauty when he evokes the English countryside in all its seasons, to authorial asides that are full of irony and puckish humour. This new verse translation uses a modern alliterative pattern which subtly echoes the music of the original at the same time as it strives for fidelity.
(1)"Beowulf" is the greatest surviving work of literature in Old English, unparalleled in its epic grandeur and scope. It tells the story of the heroic Beowulf and of his battles, first with the monster Grendel, who has laid waste to the great hall of the Danish king Hrothgar, then with Grendel's avenging mother, and finally with a dragon that threatens to devastate his homeland. Through its blend of myth and history, "Beowulf" vividly evokes a twilight world in which men and supernatural forces live side by side. And it celebrates the endurance of the human spirit in a transient world. 'Alexander's translation is marked by a conviction that it is possible to be both ambitious and faithful [and] ...communicates the poem with a care which goes beyond fidelity-to-meaning and reaches fidelity of implication. May it go on ...to another half-million copies' - Tom Shippey, "Bulletin of the International Association of University Professors of English".
