I say I "finished" this but actually I just finished the parts assigned as part of my Brit Lit class.  That was mainly Beowulf but also a few of the other Anglo-Saxon poems.  I went into this assuming Beowulf would just be something I had to get through but I learned to love it!  I missed Beowulf when we moved on to a later time period. 

Anything from the Anglo-Saxon time period would have been written in Old English which is unreadable except to scholars today so you have to read in translation.  This is a great one.  It has the feel, the emotion and the drama that I assume the original poet would have wanted to convey.  Beowulf is a very dramatic poem.  It's the heroic code in a nutshell. It's also where Tolkien got many of his ideas for The Hobbit.  I am so glad to have been forced to read and discuss this when I really wasn't excited about it.

The other reason for enjoying it so much is that I have a great and inspiring literature professor. These older and sometimes difficult texts come alive with someone who loves them.  The Anglo-Saxpms became living, breathing people.  I love having my mind stretched and this book did it.