The Illuminated Beowulf

The March-April subscription book for Castalia Library and Libraria Castalia

Castalia Library is very pleased to announce that the March-April subscription book is THE ILLUMINATED BEOWULF illustrated and hand-scripted by our frequent collaborator Joel Trumbo of the Tamburn Bindery. We contacted Joel after supporting his Kickstarter campaign for an illuminated and hand-bound edition, and worked out an arrangement to produce Castalia Library and Libraria Castalia editions utilizing his exquisite interiors.

The Beowulf text will be laid out so the illuminated modern English text will be facing pages with the unadorned Old English (West Saxon) text, which is actually modelled closely on the original Beowulf manuscript of which we only have one surviving copy. This presents a beautiful and visually pleasing layout that is easy to follow whether you want to just read the story straight through or use it to compare and familiarize the Old English verbiage. The modern English text, using the Francis Gummere translation, will be fully illuminated in the Anglo-Saxon style of the Lindisfarne Gospels, with eight full page illuminations and numerous illuminated initials throughout.

The great illuminated Gospel books of the 8th and 9th centuries are generally lumped under the "Celtic" style since some of the finest work resided in and was possibly created in Ireland, such as the Book of Kells. However, Anglo-Saxon England was a leader at the time for the quality and artistry of their book arts. Thus the signature artistic style may equally be called "Anglo-Saxon" as it may be called "Celtic"; there was much overlap and artistic common ground, much of which drew on significantly older art forms evident throughout Gaelic and Germanic regions.

These cultural art forms are replete with vibrant spiral and knotwork patterns, twisting birds, plants, and beasts of all kinds, as well as unique display capital letters like those in the image above that are strongly reminiscent of the Germanic rune forms. These pages would often be packed with decoration, exploding in rich color and detail that is quite unparalleled. The Anglo-Saxon epic of Beowulf was likely composed (or at least written down) around the same time as the Lindisfarne Gospels, so this is the style that will be informing all of the art and design that goes into this project, along with elements from metal-worked treasure troves like the Sutton Hoo hoard.

We are working on determining if it is possible to provide this work with a full-color interior and will do so if we can do so within the constraints imposed on the production budget by the subscription price of USD 100. We are largely, though not entirely, confident that we can do so, and we will keep everyone informed as soon as we know anything.

UPDATE: We have gotten a quote from one of our printers and we can now confirm that the Castalia Library edition of THE ILLUMINATED BEOWULF will feature a full-color interior.

THE ILLUMINATED BEOWULF is going to be a spectacular and highly collectible edition that will be the pride of any library. We anticipate a print run of 750 Library and 75 Libraria. The way it works is that if you subscribe to Castalia Library during the months of March and April, you will receive a deluxe, gilded, leatherbound edition of THE ILLUMINATED BEOWULF when they are printed and bound in approximately 9 to 12 months.