Writing a book is an admirably impressive feat in its own right, but adapting an Old English epic—that happens to be quite violent—into a tale palatable for children? Yeah, Zach Weinersmith did that.
Bea Wolf (pronounced Bee-wolf) is Weinersmith’s illustrated, comedic retelling of Beowulf that follows a gang of troublemaking kids as they defend their treehouse from Mr. Grindle, a fun-hating adult who can turn kids into grown-ups with the touch of a finger.
Where many children’s and middle-grade books are (rightfully so) vehicles to entertain and teach valuable life lessons, Bea Wolf is a story in which kids rule supreme. It’s utter anarchy, but in the best way possible. When asked to sum it up in three words, Weinersmith went with “kids being bad.”
“I do think there’s maybe not as much of a place as I’d like for stuff that’s just trying to be ridiculous and fun and artistic,” says Weinersmith.
The Beowulf archetype might seem like an unusual choice for a fun tale about the tragedy of growing up, but Weinersmith makes it work with admirable ease.
“So I am an English literature major,” he says, laughing. “I enjoy Milton and Shakespeare and all these boring dead people. They’re wonderful to me, and the oldest long poem in an English language is Beowulf, and by sort of luck and chance it happens to be one of the great ones.”
“[Beowulf] is perceived to be kind of dusty and stuffy,” he says, “but it’s actually pretty readable. There’s a lot of monster fighting, and when it’s not monster fighting, it’s people fighting, and you know, it’s quite bouncy!”
Weinersmith wasn’t just inspired by Beowulf’s plot for his retelling, he also drew inspiration from the way it was written, keeping the alliteration found in the original Old English and incorporating kennings, or word riddles.
You can find both at play in a passage where Bea, the hero of Weinersmith’s epic, recounts her victory over a horde of lake monsters: “On they came, clasping, clawing, catching nothing / each famished but unfed, flushed back by my furious force! / Hating me as I heaved them down the cola-dark deeps, / never to rise more, lest they know the nap of the knuckle.”
Charming black-and-white illustrations from French cartoonist Boulet accompany Virginia-based Weinersmith’s witty words, imbuing an already funny tale with even more hilarity, heart, and plenty of visual Easter eggs.
Though the children poke fun at all the terrible aspects of being teenagers and adults—homework, mortgages, cable TV—it never feels egregious, and adult readers will also get a kick out of Weinersmith’s celebration of idealized childhood, where candy consumption is unlimited, bedtime is a whim, and working as a cashier at a grocery store is basically a death sentence.
Virginia-based author Zach Weinersmith will appear at Telegraph Books Uptown on Saturday, March 25.