Which poet published a widely read modern English translation of Beowulf in 1999?

Seamus Heaney published a widely read modern English translation of Beowulf in 1999.

His book, Beowulf: A New Verse Translation, was published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and in Britain by Faber and Faber. It brought the Old English epic to a broad modern readership while retaining features associated with its original verse, especially strong stresses, compact phrasing, and alliteration.

Heaney’s version also carries a distinctive Northern Irish voice. He connected the Old English verb þolian, meaning to suffer or endure, with the Ulster dialect word “thole,” a family and regional association that helped him find an expressive bridge between the ancient poem and his own experience. The translation won the 1999 Whitbread Book of the Year Award.

The poem itself has no known author, so Heaney is its translator, not its composer. Readers may also confuse his version with J. R. R. Tolkien’s Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, published posthumously in 2014, or with translations by Robert Fagles and W. S. Merwin.