The saga of Beowulf, the timeless warrior hero, is the earliest adventure chronicle from the English-speaking world, and one that still captivates audiences worldwide — two movies based on the epic are due out in 2007. However, The Further Adventures of Beowulf reveals that the story, as it’s handed down to us, can be seen as unfinished. In this revival of the classic legend, four new tales of the epic champion — written by best-selling authors of heroic fantasy Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb, Lynn Abbey, and Wolfgang Baur — are joined with a prose version of the original Beowulf text, revealing the adventures the hero undertakes beyond the original story’s close.
In a series of dramatic interludes editor Brian M. Thomsen re-imagines the influence of the Beowulf epic on J.R.R. Tolkien, recounting how the Oxford don’s own vision of Middle Earth was shaped by it. In his introduction he also casts the Beowulf archetype as the true ancestor of modern-day monster slayers from Conan and Van Helsing to Buffy and Ripley, demonstrating by this fine collection what a profound influence the figure of Beowulf has had on pop culture today.