Author unknown
Retold by Serraillier
1954
My children need more culture in their lives.
Something beyond hockey.
Something beyond Star Wars.
An introduction to other interesting things in life.
The first step toward a more cultured life included a night out at the ballet for Son #1, The Nutcracker at Christmas.
His take on it? Not bad.
My take on it? A good sign.
As part of my quest for culture, and propelled by my own desire to read to the kids more, I picked up a retelling of the ancient book, Beowulf, for our night time fiction.
Apparently, Beowulf is the oldest epic in the English language and was written sometime during the eleventh century, though it’s also been dated as far back as the eighth century. No one really knows for sure.
And talk about culture, Beowulf is a 3182 line alliterative poem, though our retold version only had about 800 lines.
The lines were beautiful to read aloud.
Anyway, it was a great read, even if a little hard for the kids to understand at times.
Battles, monsters, treasure, a noble and valiant hero... they all add up to make a terrific boy story! And the boys loved it.
Even more, Beowulf portrayed values we want to instil in our kids such as courage, honour and, the very unpopular, humility.
Reading on...
“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4
