Beowulf

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Fourteen-year-old Wiglaf is a distant kinsman to the great warrior-king,
Beowulf. Like all members of the Waegmunding clan, young Wiglaf has a
god-given gift. And like all gifts from the Norse gods, it is also a
curse. Wiglaf’s gift is that “he sees things,” but often these
visions are not nice. One day, Wiglaf has a horrible vision of an old
hag and a terrible monster devouring human bodies in a dark cave.
Wiglaf’s uncle, Aelfhere, tells the youth that he is seeing an old
vision of Beowulf’s famous enemies, Grendel the Troll and his evil hag
mother. Wiglaf asks to know what happened and thus begins a tale about
the life and death of Beowulf. At the end of the tale, Aelfhere
concludes, “You should know ... that when a man looks for praise, it
is often love that he truly seeks.”

Although this outstanding retelling of the original Dark Age West Saxon
legend stays close to the original tale, Katz adds new subthemes by
having the story told through Wiglaf’s eyes. Katz also works a little
20th-century psychology into the fabric as he repeatedly points out that
Beowulf’s selfless bravery is rooted in his own insecure need to prove
himself worthy of love. Laszlo Gal’s beautiful illustrations, which
resemble shimmering tapestries, capture the heroic tone of the story
perfectly. Highly recommended.