After a thousand years, it is about time for a sequel.

The great Old English epic poem, Beowulf, has been translated by many people, and adapted for the screen, but thus far has not experienced the passion for expansion that we see with the works of Homer. Of course Vergil was writing some 800 years or so after Homer, and 1300 years after the Trojan War, so maybe Beowulf’s time has come.

Professor Adam Roberts has a long and storied career as a writer of science fiction in addition to his life as an academic and critic. He has won British Science Fiction Association Awards with both his fiction and non-fiction. While he has written a history of fantasy, he has never written fantasy fiction, until now.

In preparation for writing his sequel, Roberts undertook his own translation of Beowulf, and the sequel is written in the same verse format. Both poems will be included in the book, along with Roberts’ reflections on the translation process and the nature of sequels.

Of course Beowulf dies at the end of the original poem. The sequel, Beowulf in Hel, finds him in the Norse afterlife. A nominally Christian king, Beowulf has killed many men as well as monsters in his career as a war leader, so entry to Heaven seems barred to him. But Odin and Hel are not best pleased with him either. What will Beowulf do in a world where neither his sword nor his famed physical strength are guaranteed to bring him what he wants?

Adam Roberts said: “Given how much I love Fantasy fiction, and how shaping it has been on my life and writing, it was becoming increasingly aberrant that I’ve never written Fantasy fiction of my own. So I decided to go back to the prime source of the mode, the mighty Beowulf, and try for a sequel. In that poem is heroism, enchantment, struggle, monstrosity, wonder and nobility; in mine I carry the hero’s struggle into the underworld, where his determination to battle on, even in the face of inevitable defeat, reshapes Hel itself.”

Publisher, Cheryl Morgan said: “Telling stories is probably as old as mankind. Indeed, had the Neanderthals invented writing they would probably have left us stories too. I am endlessly fascinated by the structures and themes of stories from the distant past. Consequently I am delighted to see Adam Roberts engaging creatively with this classic work of early medieval literature. I’m sure this book will provoke a lot of debate.”