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diff --git a/25942-0.txt b/25942-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d9bcb71 --- /dev/null +++ b/25942-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6537 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Translations of Beowulf, by Chauncey Brewster Tinker + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Translations of Beowulf + A Critical Biography + +Author: Chauncey Brewster Tinker + +Release Date: July 1, 2008 [EBook #25942] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRANSLATIONS OF BEOWULF *** + + + + +Produced by Louise Hope, David Starner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber’s Note: + +This e-text includes characters that will only display in UTF-8 +(Unicode) text readers: + + œ (“oe” ligature) + ā ē ī ō ū ȳ ǣ (vowels with macron or “long” mark) + ǽ (æ with accent) + ȝ (yogh) + þ̷ þ̸ (thorn with line, typically abbreviating “that”) + +Most of these letters are rare and occur only in the quotations from +Old English. If any of them do not display properly--in particular, +if the diacritic does not appear directly above the letter--or if the +apostrophes and quotation marks in this paragraph appear as garbage, +make sure your text reader’s “character set” or “file encoding” is set +to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change the default font. + +Book sizes such as 8^o (printed with superscript “o”) have been changed +to 4to, 8vo, 12mo. + +In a few selections, italics were used to indicate missing words or +letters. These have been shown with {braces}. Elsewhere, italics are +shown conventionally with _lines_. Asterisks before book titles are in +the original. + +Internal cross-references are almost always expressed as “see supra” or +“see infra” with page number. In an e-text this may be interpreted as +“scroll up” and “scroll down”, respectively. When a footnote does not +include a translator’s name, it has been added in [[double brackets]]. + +The Tinker translation (final chapter in the main text) is the author’s +own.] + + + + + YALE STUDIES IN ENGLISH + + ALBERT S. COOK, Editor + + + XVI + + THE TRANSLATIONS OF BEOWULF + + A CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY + + + by + + CHAUNCEY B. TINKER + + A Portion of a Thesis Presented to the Philosophical + Faculty of Yale University in Candidacy for + the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy + + + + + Originally Published 1903 + + + + +PREFACE + + +The following pages are designed to give a historical and critical +account of all that has been done in the way of translating _Beowulf_ +from the earliest attempts of Sharon Turner in 1805 down to the present +time. As a corollary to this, it presents a history of the text of the +poem to the time of the publication of Grein’s _Bibliothek der +angelsächsischen Poesie_ in 1859; for until the publication of this work +every editor of the poem was also its translator. + +It is hoped that the essay may prove useful as a contribution to +bibliography, and serve as a convenient reference book for those in +search of information regarding the value of texts and translations of +_Beowulf_. + +The method of treating the various books is, in general, the same. +I have tried to give in each case an accurate bibliographical +description of the volume, a notion of the value of the text used in +making it, &c. But the emphasis given to these topics has necessarily +varied from time to time. In discussing literal translations, for +example, much attention has been paid to the value of the text, while +little or nothing is said of the value of the rendering as literature. +On the other hand, in the case of a book which is literary in aim, the +attention paid to the critical value of the book is comparatively small. +At certain periods in the history of the poem, the chief value of a +translation is its utility as a part of the critical apparatus for the +interpretation of the poem; at other periods, a translation lays claim +to our attention chiefly as imparting the literary features of the +original. + +In speaking of the translations which we may call literary, I have +naturally paid most attention to the English versions, and this for +several reasons. In the first place, _Beowulf_ is an _English_ poem; +secondly, the number, variety, and importance of the English +translations warrant this emphasis; thirdly, the present writer is +unable to discuss in detail the literary and metrical value of +translations in foreign tongues. The account given of German, Dutch, +Danish, Swedish, French, and Italian versions is, therefore, of a more +strictly bibliographical nature; but, whenever possible, some notion has +been given of the general critical opinion with regard to them. + +An asterisk is placed before the titles of books which the present +writer has not seen. + +My thanks are due to the officials of the Library of Yale University, +who secured for me many of the volumes here described; to Professor +Ewald Flügel of Leland Stanford Junior University, who kindly lent me +certain transcripts made for him at the British Museum; and to Mr. +Edward Thorstenberg, Instructor in Swedish at Yale University, for help +in reading the Danish and Swedish translations. + +_July, 1902._ + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + PAGE + Preliminary Remarks on the Beowulf Manuscript 7 + Sharon Turner’s Extracts 9 + Thorkelin’s Edition 15 + Grundtvig’s Translation 22 + Conybeare’s Extracts 28 + Kemble’s Edition 33 + Ettmüller’s Translation 37 + Schaldemose’s Translation 41 + Wackerbarth’s Translation 45 + Thorpe’s Edition 49 + Grein’s Translation 55 + Simrock’s Translation 59 + Heyne’s Translation 63 + Von Wolzogen’s Translation 68 + Arnold’s Edition 71 + Botkine’s Translation 75 + Lumsden’s Translation 79 + Garnett’s Translation 83 + Grion’s Translation 87 + Wickberg’s Translation 90 + Earle’s Translation 91 + J. L. Hall’s Translation 95 + Hoffmann’s Translation 99 + Morris and Wyatt’s Translation 104 + Simons’s Translation 109 + Steineck’s Translation 112 + J. R. Clark Hall’s Translation 114 + Tinker’s Translation 118 + + +APPENDIX I + + INCOMPLETE TRANSLATIONS, AND PARAPHRASES + + PAGE + Leo’s Digest 121 + Sandras’s Account 123 + E. H. Jones’s Paraphrase 123 + Zinsser’s Selection 126 + Gibb’s Paraphrase 128 + Wägner and Macdowall’s Paraphrase 130 + Therese Dahn’s Paraphrase 132 + Stopford Brooke’s Selections 135 + Miss Ragozin’s Paraphrase 138 + A. J. Church’s Paraphrase 141 + Miss Thomson’s Paraphrase 143 + + +APPENDIX II + + A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS WHICH TRANSLATE + SELECTIONS FROM ‘BEOWULF’ INTO ENGLISH 146 + + +APPENDIX III + + TWO WORKS NAMED ‘BEOWULF’ + + I. Manno’s Romance 148 + II. S. H. Church’s Poem 148 + + +INDEX OF TRANSLATORS 149 + + + + +THE TRANSLATIONS OF BEOWULF + + + + +PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE BEOWULF MANUSCRIPT + + +The unique manuscript of the _Beowulf_ is preserved in the Cottonian +Library of the British Museum. It is contained in the folio designated +Cotton Vitellius A. xv, where it occurs ninth in order, filling the +folios numbered 129a to 198b, inclusive. + +The first recorded notice of the MS. is to be found in Wanley’s Catalog +of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (Oxford, 1705), Volume III of Hickes’s +_Thesaurus_. The poem is thus described:-- + + ‘Tractatus nobilissimus Poeticè scriptus. Præfationis hoc est + initium.’ + +The first nineteen lines follow, transcribed with a few errors. + + ‘Initium autem primi Capitis sic se habet.’ + +Lines 53-73, transcribed with a few errors. + + ‘In hoc libro, qui Poeseos Anglo-Saxonicæ egregium est exemplum, + descripta videntur bella quæ Beowulfus quidam Danus, ex Regio + Scyldingorum stirpe Ortus, gessit contra Sueciæ Regulos.’ Page + 218, col. b, and 219, col. a. + +No further notice was taken of the MS. until 1786, when Thorkelin[1] +made two transcripts of it. + +In 1731 there occurred a disastrous fire which destroyed a number of the +Cottonian MSS. The Beowulf MS. suffered at this time, its edges being +scorched and its pages shriveled. As a result, the edges have chipped +away, and some of the readings have been lost. It does not appear, +however, that these losses are of so great importance as the remarks of +some prominent Old English scholars might lead us to suspect. Their +remarks give the impression that the injury which the MS. received in +the fire accounts for practically all of the illegible lines. That this +is not so may be seen by comparing the Wanley transcript with the +Zupitza _Autotypes_. Writing in 1705, before the Cotton fire, Wanley +found two illegible words at line 15--illegible because of fading and +rubbing. Of exactly the same nature appear to be the injuries at lines +2220 ff., the celebrated passage which is nearly, if not quite, +unintelligible. It would therefore be a safe assumption that such +injuries as these happened to the MS. before it became a part of the +volume, Vitellius A. xv. The injuries due to scorching and burning are +seldom of the first importance. + +This point is worth noting. Each succeeding scholar who transcribed the +MS., eager to recommend his work, dwelt upon the rapid deterioration of +the parchment, and the reliability of his own readings as exact +reproductions of what he himself had seen in the MS. before it reached +its present ruinous state. The result of this was that the emendations +of the editor were sometimes accepted by scholars and translators as the +authoritative readings of the MS., when in reality they were nothing but +gratuitous additions. This is especially true of Thorpe[2], and the +false readings which he introduced were never got rid of until the +Zupitza _Autotypes_ brought to light the sins of the various editors of +the poem. These statements regarding text and MS. will be developed in +the following sections of the paper[3]. + + [Footnote 1: See infra, p. 16.] [[Thorkelin]] + + [Footnote 2: See infra, p. 49.] [[Thorpe]] + + [Footnote 3: See infra on Thorkelin, p. 19; Conybeare, p. 29; + Kemble, p. 34; Thorpe, p. 51; Arnold, p. 72.] + + + + +SHARON TURNER’S EXTRACTS + + +The History of the Manners, Landed Property, Government, Laws, Poetry, +Literature, Religion, and Language of the Anglo-Saxons. By Sharon +Turner, F.A.S. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, 1805. + +Being Volume IV of the History of the Anglo-Saxons from their earliest +appearance above the Elbe, etc. London, 1799-1805. 8vo, pp. 398-408. + +Second Edition, corrected and enlarged. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, +& Orme, 1807. 2 vols., 4to. _Beowulf_ described, Vol. II, pp. 294-303. + +Third Edition. London, 1820. + +Fourth Edition. London, 1823. + +Fifth Edition. (1827?) + +Sixth Edition. London, 1836. + +Seventh Edition. London, 1852. + +Reprints: Paris, 1840; Philadelphia, 1841. + +Translation of Extracts from the first two Parts. + + +_Points of Difference between the Various Editions._ + +A part of this may be stated in the words of the author:-- + + ‘The poem had remained untouched and unnoticed both here and + abroad until I observed its curious contents, and in 1805 + announced it to the public. I could then give it only a hasty + perusal, and from the MS. having a leaf interposed near its + commencement, which belonged to a subsequent part, and from the + peculiar obscurity which sometimes attends the Saxon poetry, I did + not at that time sufficiently comprehend it, and had not leisure + to apply a closer attention. But in the year 1818 I took it up + again, as I was preparing my third edition, and then made that + more correct analysis which was inserted in that and the + subsequent editions, and which is also exhibited in the present.’ + --Sixth edition, p. 293, footnote. + +The statement that the poem had remained untouched and unnoticed is not +strictly true. The public had not yet received any detailed information +regarding it; but Wanley[1] had mentioned the _Beowulf_ in his catalog, +and Thorkelin had already made two transcripts of the poem, and was at +work upon an edition. Turner, however, deserves full credit for first +calling the attention of the English people to the importance of the +poem. + +In the third edition, of which the author speaks, many improvements were +introduced into the digest of the story and some improvements into the +text of the translations. Many of these were gleaned from the _editio +princeps_ of Thorkelin[2]. The story is now told with a fair degree of +accuracy, although many serious errors remain: e.g. the author did not +distinguish the correct interpretation of the swimming-match, an extract +of which is given below. The translations are about as faulty as ever, +as may be seen by comparing the two extracts. In the first edition only +the first part of the poem is treated; in the third, selections from the +second part are added. + +No further changes were made in later editions of the History. + +Detailed information regarding differences between the first three +editions may be found below. + + +_Turner, and his Knowledge of Old English._ + +Sharon Turner (1768-1847) was from early youth devoted to the study of +Anglo-Saxon history, literature, and antiquities. His knowledge was +largely derived from the examination of original documents in the +British Museum[3]. But the very wealth of the new material which he +found for the study of the literature kept him from making a thorough +study of it. It is to be remembered that at this time but little was +known of the peculiar nature of the Old English poetry. Turner gives +fair discussions of the works of Bede and Ælfric, but he knows +practically nothing of the poetry. With the so-called _Paraphrase_ of +Cædmon he is, of course, familiar; but his knowledge of _Beowulf_ and +_Judith_ is derived from the unique, and at that time (1805) +unpublished, MS., Cotton Vitellius A. xv. Of the contents of the Exeter +Book he knew nothing. The Vercelli Book had not yet been discovered. The +materials at hand for his study were a faulty edition of Cædmon and an +insufficient dictionary. The author, whose interest was of course +primarily in history, was not familiar with the linguistic work of the +day. It is, therefore, not surprising that his work was not of the best +quality. + + +_Lines in the Poem Translated by Turner._ + +First edition: 18-40; 47-83a; 199b-279; 320-324; 333-336; 499-517a. In +the second edition are added: 1-17; 41-46; 83b-114; 189-199a; 387-497; +522-528. In the third edition are added: 529-531; 535-558; 607-646; +671-674; 720-738; 991-996; 1013-1042; 1060b-1068a; 1159b-1165a; +1168b-1180a; 1215b-1226a; 1240b-1246a; and a few other detached lines. + + +_Turner’s Account of Beowulf in the First Edition of his History._ + + ‘The most interesting remains of the Anglo-Saxon poetry which time + has suffered to reach us, are contained in the Anglo-Saxon poem in + the Cotton Library, Vitellius A. 15. Wanley mentions it as a poem + in which “seem to be described the wars which one Beowulf, a Dane + of the royal race of the Scyldingi, waged against the reguli of + Sweden[4].” But this account of the contents of the MS. is + incorrect. It is a composition more curious and important. It is a + narration of the attempt of Beowulf to wreck the fæthe or deadly + feud on Hrothgar, for a homicide which he had committed. It may be + called an Anglo-Saxon epic poem. It abounds with speeches which + Beowulf and Hrothgar and their partisans make to each other, with + much occasional description and sentiment.’ --Book vi, chap. iv, + pp. 398 ff. + + +_The Story of the Poem as Interpreted by Turner._ + +[Dots indicate the position of the quotations.] + +‘It begins with a proemium, which introduces its hero Beowulf to our +notice.... The poet then states the embarkation of Beowulf and his +partisans....’ Turner interprets the prolog as the description of the +embarkation of Beowulf on a piratical expedition. The accession of +Hrothgar to the throne of the Danes is then described, and the account +of his ‘homicide’ is given. This remarkable mistake was caused by the +transposition of a sheet from a later part of the poem--the fight with +Grendel--to the first section of the poem. The sailing of Beowulf and +the arrival in the Danish land are then given. Turner continues: ‘The +sixth section exhibits Hrothgar’s conversation with his nobles, and +Beowulf’s introduction and address to him. The seventh section opens +with Hrothgar’s answer to him, who endeavours to explain the +circumstance of the provocation. In the eighth section a new speaker +appears, who is introduced, as almost all the personages in the poem are +mentioned, with some account of his parentage and character.’ Then +follows the extract given below: + + Hunferth spoke + The son of Ecglafe; + Who had sat at the foot + Of the lord of the Scyldingi + Among the band of the battle mystery. + To go in the path of Beowulf + Was to him a great pride; + He was zealous + That to him it should be granted + That no other man + Was esteemed greater in the world + Under the heavens than himself. + ‘Art thou Beowulf + He that with such profit + Dwells in the expansive sea, + Amid the contests of the ocean? + There yet[5] for riches go! + You try for deceitful glory + In deep waters[6].-- + Nor can any man, + Whether dear or odious, + Restrain you from the sorrowful path-- + There yet[7] with eye-streams + To the miserable you[8] flourish: + You meet in the sea-street; + You oppress with your hands; + [9]You glide over the ocean’s waves; + The fury of winter rages, + Yet on the watery domain + Seven nights have ye toiled.’ + +After this extract, Turner continues:-- ‘It would occupy too much room +in the present volume to give a further account of this interesting +poem, which well deserves to be submitted to the public, with a +translation and with ample notes. There are forty-two sections of it in +the Cotton MS., and it ends there imperfectly. It is perhaps the oldest +poem of an epic form in the vernacular language of Europe which now +exists.’ + +In the second edition the following lines were added:-- + +‘After Hunferthe, another character is introduced: + + Dear to his people, + of the land of the Brondingi; + the Lord of fair cities, + where he had people, + barks, and bracelets, + Ealwith, the son of Beandane, + the faithful companion + menaced. + “Then I think + worse things will be to thee, + thou noble one! + Every where the rush + of grim battle will be made. + If thou darest the grendles, + the time of a long night + will be near to thee.”’ + + +_Third Edition._ + +‘Hunferth, “the son of Ecglaf, who sat at the feet of the lord of the +Scyldingi.” He is described as jealous of Beowulf’s reputation, and as +refusing to any man more celebrity than himself. He is represented as +taunting Beowulf on his exploits as a sea-king or vikingr. + + “Art thou Beowulf, + he that with such profit + labours on the wide sea, + amid the contests of the ocean? + There you for riches, + and for deceitful glory, + explore its bays + in the deep waters, + till you sleep with your elders. + Nor can any man restrain you, + whether dear or odious to you, + from this sorrowful path. + There you rush on the wave; + there on the water streams: + from the miserable you flourish. + You place yourselves in the sea-street; + you oppress with your hands; + you glide over the ocean + through the waves of its seas. + The fury of the winter rages, + yet on the watery domain + seven nights have ye toiled.”’ + + +_Criticism of the Extracts._ + +Detailed criticism of the extracts is unnecessary. They are, of course, +utterly useless to-day. Sufficient general criticism of the work is +found in the preceding sections devoted to a discussion of the author +and his knowledge of Old English and of the _Beowulf_. + +In the third edition the author presents some criticisms of Thorkelin’s +text; but his own work is quite as faulty as the Icelander’s, and his +‘corrections’ are often misleading. + +Turner is to be censured for allowing an account of _Beowulf_ so full of +inaccuracy to be reprinted year after year with no attempt at its +improvement or even a warning to the public that it had been superseded +by later and more scholarly studies. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 7.] [[Preliminary Remarks]] + + [Footnote 2: See infra, p. 15.] [[Thorkelin]] + + [Footnote 3: See the Life of Turner by Thomas Seccombe, _Dict. + Nat. Biog._] + + [Footnote 4: Wanley, Catal. Saxon MS., p. 218.] + + [Footnote 5: Second edition-- + Ever acquired under heaven + more of the world’s glory + than himself.] + + [Footnote 6: Second edition--ye.] + + [Footnote 7: Second edition adds-- + Ye sleep not with your ancestors.] + + [Footnote 8: Second edition omits.] + + [Footnote 9: Second edition reads-- + You glide over the ocean + on the waves of the sea.] + + + + +THORKELIN’S EDITION + + +De | Danorum | Rebus Gestis Secul III & IV | Poema Danicum Dialecto +Anglosaxonica. | Ex Bibliotheca Cottoniana Musaei Britannici | edidit +versione lat. et indicibus auxit | Grim. Johnson Thorkelin. Dr J V. | +Havniæ Typis Th. E. Rangel. | MDCCXV. 4to, pp. xx, 299, appendix 5. + +First Edition. First Translation (Latin). + + +_Circumstances of Publication._ + +The words of Wanley cited above[1] did not pass unnoticed in Denmark. +Thorkelin tells us in his introduction that it had long been the desire +of Suhm[2], Langebeck, Magnusen, and other Danish scholars to inspect +the MS. in the British Museum. The following is Thorkelin’s account of +his editorial labors:-- + + ‘Via tandem mihi data fuit ad desideratum nimis diu divini vatis + Danici incomparabile opus. Arcta etenim, quæ nos et Britannos + intercessit amicitia, me allexit, ut, clementissime annuentibus + Augustissimis patriæ patribus CHRISTIANO VII. et FREDERICO VI. + iter in Britanniam anno seculi præteriti LXXXVI. ad thesauros + bibliothecarum Albionensium perscrutandos facerem.... + A curatoribus, Musæi Britannici, aliarumque Bibliothecarum, + potestas mihi data [est] inspiciendi, tractandi, et exscribendi + omnia, quæ rebus Danicis lucem affere possent manuscripta. Ad quam + rem conficiendam viri nostro præconio majores Josephus Planta et + Richardus Southgate dicti Musæi Brit. præfecti in me sua officia + humanissime contulerunt. Optimo igitur successu et uberrimo cum + fructu domum reversus sum ...’ (pp. viii, ix). + +Thorkelin thus obtained two copies of the poem, one made with his own +hand, the other by a scribe ignorant of Old English. These transcripts +(still preserved in Copenhagen) formed the basis for Thorkelin’s +edition. The account of his studies continues:-- + + ‘Quæcunque igitur possent hoc meum negotium adjuvare, comparare + coepi, magnamque librorum copiam unde quaque congessi, quorum + opera carmen aggrederer. In hoc me sedulum ita gessi, ut opus + totum anno MDCCCVII confecerim, idem brevi editurus ...’ (p. xv). + +Just at this time, unfortunately, Copenhagen was stormed by the English +fleet, and Thorkelin’s text and notes were burned with his library. But +the transcripts were saved. Thorkelin renewed his labors under the +patronage of Bülow, and at length published in 1815. + + +_Thorkelin, and his Interpretation of the Beowulf._ + +Grimus Johnssen Thorkelin (or Thorkelsson), 1752-1829, is remembered as +a scholar in early Germanic history. He had little beside this knowledge +and his general acquaintance with Old Germanic languages to recommend +him as an editor of the _Beowulf_. Grundtvig said that the transcript of +the _Beowulf_ must have been the work of one wholly ignorant of Old +English[3]. Thorkelin knew nothing of the peculiar style of Old English +poetry; he could recognize neither kenning, metaphor, nor compound. He +was not even fitted to undertake the transcription of the text, as the +following section will make evident. + +We have seen how Sharon Turner[4] could describe the _Beowulf_. +Thorkelin seems to have been little better fitted to understand the +poem, to say nothing of editing it. He failed to interpret some of the +simplest events of the story. He did not identify Scyld, nor understand +that his body was given up to the sea, but thought that King Beowulf +‘expeditionem suscipit navalem.’ He failed to identify Breca, and +thought that Hunferth was describing some piratical voyage of Beowulf’s. +He makes Beowulf reply that ‘piratas ubique persequitur et fudit,’ and +‘Finlandiæ arma infert[5].’ He regarded Beowulf as the hero of the +Sigemund episode. He quite misapprehended the Finn episode, ‘Fin, rex +Frisionum, contra Danis pugnat; vincitur; fœdus cum Hrodgaro pangit; +fidem frangit; pugnans cadit[6].’ He regards Beowulf and a son of +Hunferth as participating in that expedition. He failed to identify +Hnæf, or Hengest, or Hrothulf, &c. + + +EXTRACT[7]. + + Hunferþ maleode _Hunferd_ loquebatur + Ecglafes bearn _Ecglavi_ filius, + Þe æt fotum sæt Qui ad pedes sedit + Frean Scyldinga Domini Scyldingorum, + On band beadu Emeritus stipendiis + Rune wæs him Momordit eum + Beowulfes siþ modges _Beowulfi_ itinere elati + Mere faran Maria sulcando + Micel æfþunca Magna indignatio, + For þon þe he ne uþe 10 Propterea quod ille nesciret + Þæt ænig oþer man Ullum alium virum + Æfre mærþa Magis celebrem + Þon ma middangardes In mundo + Gehedde under heofenum Nominari sub coelo + Þon he sylfa eart Quam se ipsum. + Þu se Beowulf Tu sis _Beowulfus_, + Se þe wiþ breccan Qui ob prædas + Wunne on sidne sæ Ceris per latum æquor + Ymb sund flite Et maria pugnas. + Þær git for wlence 20 Ibi vos ob divitias + Wada cunnedon Vada explorastis, + And for dol gilpe Et ob falsam gloriam + On deop wæter Profundas æquas. + Aldrum neþdon Annis subacto + Ne mic ænig mon Non mihi aliquis + Ne leof ne laþ Amicus aut hostis + Belean mighte. Objicere potest, + Sorh fullne siþ Illacrimabiles expeditiones. + Þa git on sund reon. Ubi vos per æquora ruistis, + Þa git ea gor stream 30 Ibi fluctus sanguinis rivis + Earmum þehton Miseri texistis. + Mæton mere stræta Metiti estis maris strata: + Mundum brugdon Castella terruistis: + Glidon ofer garsecg Fluitavistis trans æquora. + Geofon yþum Salis undæ + Weol wintris wylm Fervuerunt nimborum æstu. + Git on wæteris æht Vos in aquarum vadis + Seofon night swuncon Septem noctibus afflicti fuistis. + He þe at sunde Ille cum sundum + Oferflat hæfde 40 Transvolasset, + Mare mægen Magis intensæ vires + Þa hine on morgen tid Illum tempore matutino + On heaþo Ræmis In altam Ræmis + Holm up æt baer Insulam advexere. + Þonon he gesohte Deinde petiit + Swæsne. Dulcem, + Leof his leodum Charam suo populo + Lond Brondinga Terram Brondingorum. + Freoþo burh fægere. Libertate urbem conspicuam + Þaer he folc ahte 50 Ibi populo possessam + Burh and beagas Urbem et opes + Beot eal wiþ Correpsit. Omne contra + Þe sunu Beanstanes Tibi filius _Beansteni_ + Sode gelæste. Vere persolvit. + + +_Criticism of the Text._ + +In order to show how corrupt the text is, I append a collation of the +above passage with the MS. It may be added that the lines are among the +simplest in the poem, and call for no emendation. In passages that +present any real difficulty, Thorkelin is, if possible, even more at +fault. + + Line 1, _for_ maleode _read_ maþelode. + 4, _insert period after_ Scyldinga. + 9, _insert period after_ æfþunca. + 13, _for_ middangardes _read_ middangeardes. + 15, _for_ þon _read_ þon{ne}. + 17, _for_ breccan _read_ brecan (i.e. Brecan). + 25, _for_ mic _read_ inc. + 27, _for_ mighte _read_ mihte. + 37, _for_ wæteris _read_ wæteres. + 38, _for_ night _read_ niht. + 40, _insert period after_ oferflat. + 43, _for_ heaþo Ræmis _read_ heaþoræmes (i.e. Heaþorǣmas). + 46, _for_ Swæsne _read_ swæsne · ᛟ · (i.e. ēðel). + 54, _for_ sode _read_ soðe. + +In the composition of his text Thorkelin made all the errors known to +scribes and editors. He misread words and letters of the MS., although +he had two transcripts. He dropped letters, combinations of letters, and +even whole words. He joined words that had no relation to each other; +he broke words into two or even three parts; he ignored compounds. He +produced many forms the like of which cannot be found in Old English. +One further example of his great carelessness may be given. The first +line of the poem, which is written in large capitals in the MS.:-- + + Hwæt we Gardena.... + +Thorkelin perversely transcribed:-- + + Hwæt wegar Dena.... + +and for this combination of syllables he chose the translation:-- + + Quomodo Danorum. + +There is, of course, no such word as ‘wegar’ in Old English. + +Of the necessity of punctuation Thorkelin seems to have been serenely +unconscious; he did not even follow the guides afforded by the MS. Had +he done so, he would have saved himself many humiliating errors. For +example, in the text given above, to have noticed the periods mentioned +in the collation would have been to avoid two glaring instances of +‘running-in.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +But, in spite of the wretched text, it remained for the translation to +discover the depths of Thorkelin’s ignorance. It will be seen by reading +the extract given from the translation that he did not even perceive +that two men were swimming in the sea. It is to be remembered, too, that +his error of the ‘piratical expedition’ is carried on for sixty +lines--certainly a triumph of ingenuity. It is useless to attempt a +classification of the errors in this version. In the words of Kemble:-- + + ‘Nothing but malevolence could cavil at the trivial errors which + the very best scholars are daily found to commit, but the case is + widely different when those errors are so numerous as totally to + destroy the value of a work. I am therefore most reluctantly + compelled to state that not five lines of Thorkelin’s edition can + be found in succession in which some gross fault, either in the + transcription or translation, does not betray the editor’s utter + ignorance of the Anglo-Saxon language.’ --Edition of 1835, + Introd., p. xxix. + + +_Reception of Thorkelin’s Edition._ + +The book was of value only in that it brought Beowulf to the attention +of scholars. The edition was used by Turner, Grundtvig, and Conybeare. +I have found the following notices of the book, which will show how it +was received by the scholarly world. + + TURNER. On collating the Doctor’s printed text with the MS. I have + commonly found an inaccuracy of copying in every page.--Fifth + edition, p. 289, footnote. + + KEMBLE, see supra. + + THORPE. (The work of the learned Icelander exhibits) ‘a text + formed according to his ideas of Anglo-Saxon, and accompanied by + his Latin translation, both the one and the other standing equally + in need of an Œdipus.’ --Edition of 1855, Preface, xiv. + + See also Grundtvig’s criticism in _Beowulfs Beorh_, pp. xvii ff. + + [Footnote 1: Supra, p. 7.] [[Preliminary Remarks]] + + [Footnote 2: See also Grundtvig’s edition of the text of + _Beowulf_, p. xvi.] + + [Footnote 3: See _Beowulfs Beorh_, p. xviii.] + + [Footnote 4: See supra, p. 11.] [[Turner’s Account...]] + + [Footnote 5: See Thorkelin, p. 257.] + + [Footnote 6: Ibid., p. 259.] + + [Footnote 7: See Thorkelin, p. 40.] + + + + +GRUNDTVIG’S TRANSLATION + + +*Bjowulf’s Draape. Et Gothisk Helte-digt fra forrige Aar-tusinde af +Angel-Saxisk paa Danske Riim ved Nic. Fred. Sev. Grundtvig, Præst. +Kjøbenhavn, 1820[1]. 8vo, pp. lxxiv, 325. + +Bjovulvs-Draapen, et Høinordisk Heltedigt, fra Anguls-Tungen fordansket +af Nik. Fred. Sev. Grundtvig. Anden forbedrede Udgave. Kiøbenhavn. Karl +Schønbergs Forlag. 1865. 8vo, pp. xvi, 224. + +First Danish Translation. Ballad Measures. + + +_Grundtvig._ + +Nicolas Frederic Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872) was especially noted as a +student of Old Germanic literature. He began his career in 1806 by his +studies on the _Edda_. This was followed by a book on Northern Mythology +(1810), and by various creative works in verse and prose, the subjects +of which were usually drawn from old Danish history. An account of his +labors on the _Beowulf_ will be found in the following section. His +interest in Old English literature continued through his long life, and +he was well and favorably known among the scholars of his day. + + +_Circumstances of Publication._ + +In _Beowulfs Beorh_ (Copenhagen, 1861), Grundtvig tells the story of his +early translation of the poem. He had always had a passionate interest +in Danish antiquities, and was much excited upon the appearance of +Thorkelin’s text[2]. At that time, however, he knew no Old English, and +his friend Rask, the famous scholar in Germanic philology, being absent +from Denmark, he resolved to do what he could with the poem himself. He +began by committing the entire poem to memory. In this way he detected +many of the outlines which had been obscured by Thorkelin. The results +of this study he published in the _Copenhagen Sketch-Book_ (_Kjøbenhavns +Skilderie_), 1815. When Thorkelin saw the studies he was furious, and +pronounced the discoveries mere fabrications. + +But Rask, upon his return, thought differently, and proposed to +Grundtvig that they edit the poem together. They began the work, but +when they reached line 925 the edition was interrupted by Rask’s journey +into Russia and Asia. With the help of Rask’s _Anglo-Saxon Grammar_ +(Stockholm, 1817), Grundtvig proceeded with his translation. By the +munificence of Bülow, who had also given assistance to Thorkelin, +Grundtvig was relieved of the expense of publication. + + +_Progress of the Interpretation of the Poem._ + +Grundtvig was the first to understand the story of _Beowulf_. With no +other materials than Thorkelin’s edition of the text and his own +knowledge of Germanic mythology, he discovered the sea-burial of King +Scyld, the swimming-match, and the Finn episode. He identified Breca, +Hnæf, Hengest, King Hrethel, and other characters whose names Thorkelin +had filched from them. + + +_Text Used._ + +Rask borrowed the original transcripts which Thorkelin had brought from +the British Museum, and copied and corrected them. This was the basis of +Grundtvig’s translation. + + +_Differences between the First and Second Editions._ + +The principal difference is in the introduction; but of the nature and +extent of changes in the second edition I can give no notion. All my +information respecting the first volume is derived from transcripts of +certain parts of it sent me from the British Museum. These copies do not +reveal any differences between the two translations. + + +_Aim of the Volume, and Nature of the Translation._ + +We begin by quoting the author’s words:-- + + ‘I have studied the poem as if I were going to translate it word + for word ... but I will not and have not translated it in that + way, and I will venture to maintain that my translation is a + faithful one, historically faithful, inasmuch as I have never + wilfully altered or interpolated anything, and poetically faithful + inasmuch as I have tried with all my might vividly to express what + I saw in the poem.... Whoever understands both languages and + possesses a poetical sense will see what I mean, and whoever is + deficient in knowledge or sense, or both, may stick to his own + view, if he will only let me stick to mine, which may be weak + enough, but is not so utterly devoid of style and poetry as little + pettifoggers in the intellectual world maintain because they can + see very well that my method is not theirs. “I have,” said Cicero, + “translated Demosthenes, not as a grammarian but as an orator, and + therefore have striven not so much to convince as to persuade my + readers of the truth of his words”: methinks I need no other + defence as regards connoisseurs and just judges, and if I am much + mistaken in this opinion, then my work is absolutely + indefensible[3].’ --Pages xxxiv, xxxv. + +In the introduction to his text of 1861, Grundtvig speaks of his theory +of translation, saying that he gave, as it were, new clothes, new money, +and new language to the poor old Seven Sleepers, so that they could +associate freely with moderns. He believed that it was necessary to put +the poem into a form that would seem natural and attractive to the +readers of the day. In so doing he departed from the letter of the law, +and rewrote the poem according to his own ideas. + +In the second edition the author states that he hopes the poem will +prove acceptable as a reading-book for schools. Its value as a text-book +in patriotism is also alluded to. + + +EXTRACT. + + SJETTE SANG. + + Trætten med Hunferd Drost og Trøsten derover. + + Nu _Hunferd_ tog til Orde[4], + Og _Egglavs_ Søn var han, + Men Klammeri han gjorde + Med Tale sin paa Stand. + Han var en fornem Herre, + Han sad ved Thronens Fod, + Men avindsyg desværre, + Han var ei Bjovulv god; + En Torn var ham i Øiet + Den Ædlings Herrefærd, + Som havde Bølgen pløiet + Og Ære høstet der; + Thi Hunferd taalte ikke, + Med Næsen høit i Sky, + At Nogen vilde stikke + Ham selv i Roes og Ry. + + ‘Er du,’ see det var Skosen, + ‘Den Bjovulv Mudderpram, + Som dykked efter Rosen + Og drev i Land med Skam, + Som kæppedes med _Brække_ + Og holdt sig ei for brav, + Dengang I, som to Giække, + Omflød paa vildne Hav! + I vilde med jer Svømmen + Paa Vandet giøre Blæst, + Men drev dog kun med Strømmen, + Alt som I kunde bedst; + For aldrig Det ei keise + Jeg vilde slig en Klik, + Som for den Vendereise + I paa jert Rygte sik. + Paa Landet var I friske, + Men Vand kan slukke Ild, + I svømmed som to Fiske, + Ia, snart som døde Sild; + Da sagtnedes Stoheien, + Der Storm og Bølge strid + Ier viste Vinterveien + Alt i en Uges Tid. + Dog, om end Narre begge, + Kom du dog værst deran, + Thi fra dig svømmed Brække + Og blev din Overmand; + Du artig blev tilbage, + Der han en Morgenstund + Opskvulpedes saa fage + Paa høie Romøs Grund, + Hvorfra sin Kaas han satte + Til _Brondingernas_ Land, + Med Borge der og Skatte + Han var en holden Mand; + Der havde han sit Rige, + Og deiligt var hans Slot, + Han elsket var tillige + Af hver sin Undersaat. + Saa _Bjansteens_ Søn udførte + Alt hvad han trued med; + Men da du, som vi hørte, + Kom der saa galt afsted, + Saa tør jeg nok formode, + Om end du giør dig kry, + Det giør slet ingen Gode, + Du brænder dig paany; + Ia, vil en Nat du vove + At bie Grændel her, + Da tør derfor jeg love, + Dig times en Ufærd.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +The poem departs so far from the text of _Beowulf_ that any discussion +of its accuracy would be out of place. As has been shown by the section +on the nature of the translation, the author had no intention of being +true to the letter of the text. Grundtvig’s scholarship has been +discussed above. + +The translation may properly be called nothing more than a paraphrase. +Whole sentences are introduced that have no connection with the original +text. Throughout the translation is evident the robust, but not always +agreeable, personality of the translator. In his preface[5] Grundtvig +remarked that he put nothing into his poem that was not historically and +poetically true to the original. The statement can only be regarded as +an unfortunate exaggeration. Grundtvig’s style cannot be called even a +faint reflection of the _Beowulf_ style. He has popularized the story, +and he has cheapened it. There is no warrant in the original for the +coarse invective of the extract that has just been cited. In the Old +English, Hunferth taunts Beowulf, but he never forgets that his rival is +‘doughty in battle’ (l. 526). Beowulf is always worthy of his respect. +In Grundtvig, the taunting degenerates into a scurrilous tirade. +Hunferth calls Beowulf a ‘mudscow’; Breca and Beowulf swim like two +‘dead herrings.’ In like manner the character of Hunferth is cheapened. +In _Beowulf_ he is a jealous courtier, but he is always heroic. In +Grundtvig he is merely a contemptible braggart, ‘with his nose high in +air,’ who will not allow himself to be ‘thrown to the rubbish heap.’ + +The same false manner is retained throughout the poem. In many places it +reads well--it is often an excellent story. But it can lay no claim to +historic or poetic fidelity to the _Beowulf_. + + +_Reception of the Book._ + +The book fell dead from the press. Grundtvig himself tells us that it +was hardly read outside his own house[6]. Thirty years later he learned +that the book had never reached the Royal Library at Stockholm. A copy +made its way to the British Museum, but it was the one which Grundtvig +himself carried thither in 1829. This was doubtless the copy that was +read and criticized by Thorpe and Wackerbarth. Both of these scholars +spoke of its extreme freedom, but commended its readableness. + + [Footnote 1: This volume I have never seen. My information + regarding it is from a scribe in the British Museum.] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 15.] [[Thorkelin]] + + [Footnote 3: Translation by scribe in British Museum.] + + [Footnote 4: Several variations in meter occur in the translation.] + + [Footnote 5: See supra, p. 24.] [[Gruntvig: Aim of the Volume...]] + + [Footnote 6: See _Beowulfs Beorh_, p. xix.] + + + + +CONYBEARE’S EXTRACTS + + +Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry. By John Josias Conybeare, M.A., &c. +Edited, together with additional notes, introductory notices, &c., by +his brother, William Daniel Conybeare, M.A., &c. London: printed for +Harding and Lepard, Pall Mall East, 1826. 8vo, pp. (viii), xcvi, 287. + +Anglo-Saxon Poem concerning the Exploits of Beowulf the Dane, pp. +30-167. + +Translation of extracts into English blank verse, with the original text +of the extracts, and a literal translation of them into Latin prose. + + +_Circumstances of Publication._ + +The volume had its origin in the Terminal Lectures which the author gave +as Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Poetry at Oxford from 1809 to 1812[1]. +We know from an autobiographical note printed in the Introduction[2] +that the _Beowulf_ was finished in October, 1820. But the book did not +appear until two years after the author’s death, and the material which +it contains is of a slightly earlier date than the title-page would seem +to indicate--e.g. the volume really antedates the third edition of +Turner’s History discussed above[3]. + + +_Conybeare, and the Progress of the Interpretation of the Poem._ + +Conybeare did not edit the entire poem, and apparently never had any +intention of so doing. The selections which he translates are based on +Thorkelin’s text. He revises this text, however, in making his +translations, and even incorporates a collation of Thorkelin’s text with +the MS. (pp. 137-55). This collation, though not complete or accurate, +was serviceable, and kept Conybeare from falling into some of the errors +that the Icelander had made. He distinguished by an asterisk the MS. +readings which were of material importance in giving the sense of a +passage, and, in fact, constructed for himself a text that was +practically new. + + ‘The text has been throughout carefully collated with the original + Manuscript, and the translation of Thorkelin revised with all the + diligence of which the editor is capable.’ --Page 32. + + ‘Any attempt to restore the metre, and to correct the version + throughout, would have exceeded the bounds, and involved much + discussion foreign to the purpose of the present work. This must + be left to the labours of the Saxon scholar. It is evident, + however, that without a more correct text than that of Thorkelin, + those labours must be hopeless. The wish of supplying that + deficiency, may perhaps apologize for the occupying, by this + Collation, so large a space of a work strictly dedicated to other + purposes.’ --Page 137, footnote. + +How much Conybeare improved the text may be seen by comparing his text +and Latin translation with those of Thorkelin. The first six lines of +the Prolog follow:-- + + CONYBEARE. THORKELIN. + + Hwæt we Gar-Dena Hwæt wegar Dena + In ȝear-dagum In geardagum + Ðeod cyninga Þeod cyninga + Ðrym ȝefrunon, Þrym gefrunon + Hu ða Æðelingas Hu ða æþelingas + Ellen fremodon. --Page 82. Ellen fremodon. --Page 3. + +The translations are even more interesting:-- + + Aliquid nos _de_ Bellicorum Danorum Quomodo Danorum + In diebus antiquis In principio + Popularium regum Populus Regum + Gloriâ accepimus, Gloriam auxerit, + Quomodo tunc principes Quomodo principes + Virtute valuerint. Virtute promoverit. + +It will be seen that in these lines Conybeare has at almost every point +the advantage over Thorkelin, and is indeed very nearly in accord with +modern texts and translations. But the poem yet awaited a complete +understanding, for Conybeare could say: ‘The Introduction is occupied by +the praises of Scefing ... and of his son and successor Beowulf. The +embarkation of the former on a piratical expedition is then detailed at +some length. In this expedition (if I rightly understand the text) +himself and his companions were taken or lost at sea’ (p. 35). And, in +general, he misses the same points of the story as Thorkelin, although +he craftily refrains from translating the obscurer passages. + +Conybeare apparently knew nothing of the critical work of Grundtvig. +This is not surprising when we remember that _Kjøbenhavns Skilderie_ was +probably not known outside of Denmark[4]. Moreover, it is to be +remembered that Conybeare’s extracts from the _Beowulf_ are not really +later than Grundtvig’s translation, since they were made in the same +year, 1820[5]. + + +_Aim of the Volume, and Nature of the Translations._ + +From the words quoted above with respect to the collation, it will be +seen that Conybeare in no way regarded his book as a contribution to +Beowulf scholarship. As professor at Oxford, he attempted a literary +presentation of the most beautiful parts of the old poetry. His extracts +are, in general, nothing more than free paraphrases. Wishing to +popularize the _Beowulf_, he used as a medium of translation a +peculiarly stilted kind of blank verse. He dressed the poem out in +elegant phrases in order to hide the barrenness of the original. +Manifestly he feared the roughness, the remoteness of the poem in its +natural state. He feared to offend a nation of readers reveling in the +medievalism of Scott and Byron. A literal Latin translation was inserted +to appease the scholar. + + +EXTRACT. + +‘At a single stroke he (Beowulf) cut through the “_ringed bones_” +of her neck, and + + Through the frail mantle of the quivering flesh + Drove with continuous wound. She to the dust + Fell headlong,--and, its work of slaughter done, + The gallant sword dropp’d fast a gory dew. + Instant, as though heaven’s glorious torch had shone, + Light was upon the gloom,--all radiant light + From that dark mansion’s inmost cave burst forth. + With hardier grasp the thane of Higelac press’d + His weapon’s hilt, and furious in his might + Paced the wide confines of the Grendel’s hold[6].’ + + Page 58; _Beo._, 1565-75. + + +LATIN TRANSLATION. + + ... Ossium annulos fregit; telum per omnem penetravit moribundam + carnem. Illa in pavimentum corruit. Ensis erat cruentus, militare + opus perfectum. Effulgebat lumen, lux intus stetit, non aliter + quàm cum a cœlo lucidus splendet ætheris lampas. Ille per ædes + gradiebatur, incessit juxta muros ensem tenens fortiter a capulo + Higelaci minister irâ ac constantiâ (_sc._ Iratus et constans + animi). + + Pages 113, 114. + + +_Criticism of the Translations._ + +The English version is scarcely more than a paraphrase, as may easily be +seen by comparing it with the literal translation into Latin. But even +as a paraphrase it is unsatisfactory. By way of general criticism it may +be said that, while it attains a kind of dignity, it is not the dignity +of _Beowulf_, for it is self-conscious. Like _Beowulf_ it is elaborate, +but it is the elaboration of art rather than of feeling. Moreover, it is +freighted with Miltonic phrase, and constantly suggests the Miltonic +movement. The trick of verse in line 3 is quite too exquisite for +_Beowulf_. The whole piece has a straining after pomp and majesty that +is utterly foreign to the simple, often baldly simple, ideas and phrases +of the original. Nearly every adjective is supplied by the translator: +in Old English the ‘sword’ is ‘bloody,’ in Conybeare the ‘gallant sword +drops fast a gory dew’; the cave becomes a mansion; the ‘floor’ is +‘dust’--dust in an ocean cave!--‘heaven’s candle’ becomes ‘heaven’s +glorious torch.’ The poem is tricked out almost beyond recognition. +Beowulf assumes the ‘grand manner,’ and paces ‘the Grendel’s hold’ like +one of the strutting emperors of Dryden’s elaborate drama. + + [Footnote 1: See Editor’s Prefatory Notice, p. (iii).] + + [Footnote 2: See Prefatory Notice, p. (v), footnote.] + + [Footnote 3: See supra, pp. 14 f.] [[Turner: Third Edition]] + + [Footnote 4: p. 23. Grundtvig is once mentioned in the notes, + but the reference is from the editor, not the author.] + + [Footnote 5: p. 29.] + + [Footnote 6: Conybeare did not translate the episode of the + swimming-match.] + + + + +KEMBLE’S EDITIONS + + +The Anglo-Saxon poems of Beowulf, the Traveller’s Song, and the Battle +at Finnes-burh. Edited together with a glossary of the more difficult +words, and an historical preface, by John M. Kemble, Esq., M.A. London: +William Pickering, 1833. 8vo, pp. xxii, 260. Edition limited to 100 +copies. + +The Anglo-Saxon Poems of Beowulf, the Traveller’s Song, and the Battle +of Finnes-burh. Edited by John M. Kemble, Esq., M.A., of Trinity +College, Cambridge. Second edition. London: William Pickering, 1835. +8vo, pp. xxxii, 263. + +A Translation of the Anglo-Saxon Poem of Beowulf, with a copious +glossary, preface, and philological notes, by John M. Kemble, Esq., +M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge. London: William Pickering, 1837. +8vo, pp. lv, 127, appendix, 179. + +First English Translation. Prose. + + +_The 1833 Volume._ + +A sufficient account of this volume is given by Professor Earle, who +says of it:-- + + ‘The text was an improvement on Thorkelin, but still very + faulty;--to say nothing of inaccuracies from want of proper + oversight as the sheets were passing through the press. The + Glossary, though short, was a valuable acquisition ... Of this + edition only 100 copies were printed;--and it was a happy + limitation, as it left room for a new edition as early as 1835, + in which the text was edited with far greater care. All the rest + remained as before, and the Preface was reprinted word for word.’ + --_Deeds of Beowulf_, pp. xix, xx. + + +_The Text of 1835. Kemble’s Scholarship._ + +But whatever may be said of the text of 1833, there is nothing but +praise for the edition of 1835. In this book the poem first had the +advantage of a modern scholarly treatment, and for the first time the +text of the MS. was correctly transcribed. It received its first +punctuation. For the first time it was properly divided into half-lines, +with attention to alliteration. The text was freely emended, but the +suggested readings were placed in the footnotes, in order not to impair +the value of the text as a reproduction of the MS. The necessity for +this was made evident by Kemble himself:-- + + ‘But while he makes the necessary corrections, no man is justified + in withholding the original readings: for although the laws of a + language, ascertained by wide and careful examination of all the + cognate tongues, of the hidden springs and ground-principles upon + which they rest in common, are like the laws of the Medes and + Persians and alter not, yet the very errors of the old writer are + valuable, and serve sometimes as guides and clues to the inner + being and spiritual tendencies of the language itself. The reader + will moreover be spared that, to some people, heart-burning + necessity of taking his editor’s qualifications too much for + granted, if side by side he is allowed to judge of the traditional + error, and the proposed correction. I have endeavoured to + accomplish this end by printing the text, letter for letter, + as I found it.’ --Preface, pp. xxiv ff. + +With this wholesome respect for the tradition of the MS., it is not +strange that Kemble’s carefully chosen emendations should stand to-day +as of high critical value, and that many of them are retained in modern +editions of the text[1]. When we compare Kemble’s book with Thorkelin’s, +the advance is seen to be little less than astonishing. Thorkelin’s +emendations were worse than useless. + +Kemble had a full acquaintance with the new science of comparative +philology which was developing in Germany under Jakob Grimm. He had +corresponded, and later studied, with Grimm, and, according to William +Hunt, was the ‘recognised exponent’ of his investigations[2]. It is to +Grimm that Kemble dedicates his volumes, and to him that he repeatedly +acknowledges his indebtedness. Thus Kemble brought to the study of the +poem not only a knowledge of the Old English poetry and prose, but +acquaintance with Old Norse, Gothic, Old High German, and Old Saxon. It +may sufficiently illustrate his scholarly method to instance examples of +his treatment of the unique words in _Beowulf_. Take, e.g., the word +_hose_ in line 924. This word does not appear elsewhere in Old English; +it does not appear in Lye’s _Dictionary_, the only dictionary that was +at Kemble’s disposal. Upon this word Kemble brought to bear his +knowledge of the Germanic tongues, and by citing Goth. _hansa_, OHG. +_hansa_, &c., derived the meaning _turma_--a process in which he is +supported by a modern authority like Kluge. The study of compounds also +first began with Kemble. He collected and compared the compounds in +_heaðo._. Thus he laid the foundation of all modern studies on the Old +English compound. + + +_Further Critical Material Afforded by the Volume of 1837._ + +In the 1835 volume twenty-three words were illustrated in the above way. +But it remained for the 1837 volume to present a complete glossary of +the poem, containing also important poetic words not in _Beowulf_. +By reason of its completeness and comparative work, it remained the +standard commentary on the Old English poetic vocabulary until the +appearance of Grein’s _Sprachschatz_[3]. + + +_Aim of Kemble’s Translation._ + +Like his edition of the text, Kemble’s translation is quite independent +of any preceding book; like his edition of the text, its aim was +faithfulness to the original. He adheres scrupulously to the text, save +where the original is unintelligible. The translation was designed to be +used together with the glossary as a part of the apparatus for +interpreting the poem. He therefore made it strictly literal. + + ‘The translation is a literal one; I was bound to give, word for + word, the original in all its roughness: I might have made it + smoother, but I purposely avoided doing so, because had the Saxon + poet thought as we think, and expressed his thoughts as we express + our thoughts, I might have spared myself the trouble of editing or + translating his poem. A few transpositions of words, &c. caused + principally by the want of inflections in New English (since we + have now little more than their position by which to express the + relations of words to one another) are all that I have allowed + myself, and where I have inserted words I have generally printed + them in italics.’ -- + + Postscript to the Preface, p. 1. + + +EXTRACT. + + VIII. + + Hunferth the son of Eglaf spake, _he_ that sat at the feet of the + Lord of the Scyldings; he bound up[4] a quarrelsome speech: to him + was the journey of Beowulf, the proud sea-farer, a great disgust; + because he granted not that any other man should ever have beneath + the skies, more reputation with the world than he himself: ‘Art + thou the Beowulf that didst contend with Brecca on the wide sea, + in a swimming match, where ye for pride explored the fords, and + out of vain glory ventured your lives upon the deep water? nor + might any man, friend or foe, blame[5] your sorrowful expedition: + there ye rowed upon the sea, there ye two covered the ocean-stream + with your arms, measured the sea-streets, whirled them with your + hands, glided over the ocean; with the waves of the deep[6] the + fury of winter boiled; ye two on the realms of water laboured for + a week: he overcame thee in swimming, he had more strength: then + at the morning tide the deep sea bore him up on Hēathoræmes, + whence he sought his own paternal land, dear to his people, the + land of the Brondings, where he owned a nation, a town, and rings. + All his promise to thee, the son of Beanstan truly performed.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +Kemble’s scholarship enabled him to get a full understanding of the +poem, and thus to make the first really adequate translation of +_Beowulf_. He was the first to recognize the significance of kenning, +metaphor, and compound. Thus his work is to be commended chiefly because +of its faithfulness. All preceding studies had been wofully +inaccurate[7]. Kemble’s editions became at once the authoritative +commentary on the text, and held this position until the appearance of +Grein’s _Bibliothek_ (1857). In this latter book, Kemble’s text was the +principal authority used in correcting the work of Thorpe[8]. In spite +of the fact that this is a literal translation, it sometimes attains +strength and beauty by reason of its very simplicity. + + [Footnote 1: See Wyatt’s text, lines 51, 158, 250, 255, 599, &c.] + + [Footnote 2: See article in the _Dictionary of National Biography_.] + + [Footnote 3: See infra, pp. 56 ff.] + + [Footnote 4: _bound up_, onband, now generally translated ‘unbind.’] + + [Footnote 5: _blame_, belēan, rather ‘dissuade’ than ‘blame.’] + + [Footnote 6: _with the waves of the deep_, &c., geofon-yþu weol + wintrys wylm, so Kemble reads in his text, and for this reading + the translation is correct, but he failed to discern the kenning + to ‘geofon’ in ‘wintrys wylm.’] + + [Footnote 7: See supra on Turner, p. 9; Thorkelin, p. 15; + Grundtvig, p. 22; Conybeare, p. 28.] + + [Footnote 8: See infra, p. 49.] [[Thorpe]] + + + + +ETTMÜLLER’S TRANSLATION + + +Beowulf. Heldengedicht des achten Jahrhunderts. Zum ersten Male aus dem +Angelsächsischen in das Neuhochdeutsche stabreimend übersetzt, und mit +Einleitung und Anmerkungen versehen von Ludwig Ettmüller. Zürich, bei +Meyer und Zeller, 1840. 8vo, pp. 191. + +First German Translation. Imitative measures. + + +_Ettmüller._ + +Ernst Moritz Ludwig Ettmüller (1802-77), at the time of the publication +of this book, was professor of the German language and literature in the +Gymnasium at Zürich. He had already appeared as a translator with a work +entitled _Lieder der Edda von den Nibelungen_. Later he edited +selections from the _Beowulf_ in his _Engla and Seaxna Scôpas and +Bôceras_ (1850). This text incorporated many new readings. Ettmüller was +the first to question the unity of the _Beowulf_, and sketched a theory +of interpolations which has since been developed by Müllenhoff. The +first announcement of these views is found in the introduction to this +translation. + + +_Theory of Translation._ + +Ettmüller gives full expression to his theories and aims:-- + + ‘Vor Allem habe ich so wörtlich als möglich übersetzt, da Treue + das erste Erforderniss einer guten Übersetzung ist. Dann aber war + mein Augenmerk vorzüglich auf Wohlklang und Verständlichkeit + gerichtet. Letztere werden bei Übersetzungen dieser Art nur zu oft + vernachlässigt, da manche der Ansicht sind, ihre Arbeit sei um so + besser, je treuer sie die äussere Form des Originals in allen + Einzelheiten wiedergebe. Aber dieweil diese so mühsam an der + Schale knacken, entschlüpft ihnen nicht selten der Kern. Mein + Bestreben war demnach keineswegs, z.B. jeden Vers ängstlich dem + Originale nachzubilden, so dass die genaueste Übereinstimmung + zwischen der Silbenzahl und den Hebungen oder gar dem Klange der + Verse Statt fände. Das wäre ohnehin, ohne der deutschen Sprache + die schreiendste Gewalt anzuthun, unmöglich gewesen. Ich habe + vielmehr darnach mit Sorgfalt gestrebt, die Versbildung des + angelsächsischen Gedichtes mir in allen ihren Erscheinungen klar + zu machen, und dann frei nach dem gewonnenen Schema gearbeitet. + Daher kann ich versichern, dass man für jeden Vers meiner + Übersetzung gewiss ein angelsächsisches Vorbild findet, wenn auch + nicht grade jedesmal die Verse einander decken. Dass dabei + übrigens der höheren Rhythmik, d.h. dem ästhetisch richtigen + Verhältnisse des Ausdruckes zu dem Ausgedrückten oder, mit + Klopstock zu reden, des Zeitausdruckes oder Tonverhaltes (der + Bewegung) zu dem Gedanken, überall die grösste Sorgfalt zugewendet + ward, das braucht, dünkt mich, keiner besondern Versicherung; dies + aber kann erreicht werden auch ohne knechtische Nachbildung des + Originals.’ --Page 59. + + +_Text, and Indebtedness to Preceding Scholars._ + +The translation is founded on Kemble’s text of 1835[1], to which the +introduction and notes are also indebted. + +Like Kemble, Ettmüller was a close student of the works of Jakob Grimm, +and his interpretation of obscure lines (especially passages relating to +Germanic antiquities) is largely due to the study of such works as the +_Deutsche Mythologie_ (1833), the _Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer_ (1828), +and the _Deutsche Sagen_ (1816-8). Cf. lines 458, 484. + + +EXTRACT. + + Ecglâfes Sohn Hûnferdh da sagte, + der zu Füssen sass dem Fürsten der Skildinge, + entband Beadurunen--ihm war Beowulfes Beginn, + des muthigen Meergängers, mächtig zuwider; + ungern sah er, dass ein andrer Mann + irgend Machtruhmes mehr in Mittelgart, + auf Erden äufnete denn er selber--: + ‘Bist du der Beowulf, der mit Breca kämpfte + in sausender See, im Sundkampfe? 600 + Ihr da aus Übermuth Untiefen prüftet + und aus Tollmuth ihr in tiefem Wasser + das Leben wagtet; liesset keinen, + nicht Freund noch Feind, da fernen euch + von der sorgvollen That, als zur See ihr rudertet. + Dort ihr den Egistrom mit Armen wandtet, + masset die Meerstrasse, mischtet mit Händen, + glittet über’s Geerried (Glanderfluthen + warf Winters Wuth!), in Wassers Gebiet + sieben Nächt’ ihr sorgtet: Er, Sieger der Wogen, 610 + hatte mehr der Macht, denn zur Morgenzeit ihn + bei Headhoræmes die Hochfluth antrug.-- + Von dannen er suchte die süsse Heimat, + lieb seinen Leuten, das Land der Brondinge, + die feste Friedeburg, da Volk er hatte, + Burg und Bauge;--All Erbot wider dich + der Sohn Beanstânes sorglichst erfüllte.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +In his translation Ettmüller followed in the steps of Kemble[2], but he +was not slavishly dependent upon him. At times he disagrees with the +English scholar (cp. e.g., ll. 468, 522, 1331), and offers a translation +of the passage omitted by him, 3069-74. In general, the translation is +strictly literal, and follows the original almost line for line. + +It was probably well for Ettmüller that he made his translation thus +literal. In the history of a foreign-language study there is a period +when it is best that a translation should be strictly literal, for such +a work is bound to be called into service as a part of the critical +apparatus for the interpretation of the tongue. If the early translation +is not thus literal, it is sure to be superseded later by the more +faithful rendering, as Schaldemose’s superseded Grundtvig’s in +Denmark[3]. It is not until criticism and scholarship have done their +strictly interpretative work that a translation is safe in attempting to +render the spirit rather than the letter of the original. The reason for +this is evident: no real appreciation of the spirit is possible until +scholarship has provided the means for discovering it. + +By the publication of this volume, therefore, Ettmüller did for German +scholarship what Kemble had done for English and Schaldemose was to do +for Danish scholarship. Yet he might with propriety have made his work +more simple. His translation is disfigured by numerous strange +word-combinations which he often transcribed literally from the +original, e.g. _beadu-runen_ in the third line of the extract. It is +safe to say that none but a scholar in Old English would be able to +understand this word--if, indeed, we may call it a word. The text is +full of such forms. The author is obliged to append notes explaining his +own translation! He apparently forgets that it is his business as +translator to render the difficult words as well as the simple ones. In +Ettmüller’s case it was especially unfortunate, because it gave others +an opportunity to come forward later with simpler, and hence more +useful, translations. + + +_Reception of the Translation._ + +The book had no extraordinary success. A reprint was never called for, +and was perhaps hardly to be expected, considering the existence of +Kemble’s volumes. Moreover, the translation was not accompanied by an +edition of the text. Grein[4], the next German scholar, took his +inspiration from Kemble[5] and Thorpe[6] rather than from Ettmüller. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]] + + [Footnote 3: See supra, p. 22, and infra, p. 41 ff.] + + [Footnote 4: See infra, p. 55.] [[Grein]] + + [Footnote 5: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]] + + [Footnote 6: See infra, p. 49.] [[Thorpe]] + + + + +SCHALDEMOSE’S TRANSLATION + + +Beo-wulf og Scopes Widsið, to angelsaxiske Digte, med Oversættelse og +oplysende Anmærkninger udgivne af Frederik Schaldemose. Kjøbenhavn, +1847. + +Anden Udgave, Kjøbenhavn, 1851. 8vo, pp. ii, 188. + +Second Danish Translation. + + +_Nature of the Volume, and Indebtedness to Previous Scholars._ + +In this book the Old English text and the Danish translation were +printed in parallel columns. The text, which was taken literally from +Kemble[1], need not detain us here. No mention is made of the work of +Leo[2], Ettmüller[3], or of the 1837 volume of Kemble, although the +influence of the latter is evident throughout the book, as will be shown +below. The notes are drawn largely from the works of preceding scholars, +and in these the author makes an occasional acknowledgement of +indebtedness. + +The translation is literal. Grundtvig’s translation[4] had been so +paraphrastic as often to obscure the sense, and always the spirit, +of the original. Schaldemose had the advantage of presenting the most +modern text side by side with the translation. Thus the book became a +valuable _apparatus criticus_ for the Danish student. + + +_Schaldemose._ + +The life of Frederik Schaldemose (1782-1853) was by no means the quiet, +retired life of the student. He had, it is true, been professor at the +school of Nykjøbing from 1816 to 1825, and later devoted himself to +literary work; but a large part of his life had been spent in military +service, in which he had had many exciting adventures by land and sea. +After leaving his professorship he again entered military service. +Later, he devoted his time alternately to literary and commercial work. + +His interest in _Beowulf_ seems to have been, like that of Thorkelin[5], +primarily the interest of the Danish antiquary. In 1846 he had published +a collection of Heroic Danish Songs, ancient and modern. It was +doubtless a desire to add to this collection that led him to undertake +an edition of the _Beowulf_. + +It was hardly to be expected that a man whose life had been so unsettled +could materially advance the interpretation of Old English poetry. + + +EXTRACT. + + Hunferd sagde, + Sønnen af Ecglaf; + han sad ved Scyldinge- + Styrerens Fødder; + Kiv han begyndte, + thi kjær var ham ikke + Beowulfs Reise, + den raske Søfarers, + men til Sorg og Harme, 1000 + thi han saae ei gjærne + at en anden Mand + meer Magtroes havde, + under Himmelens Skyer + end selv han aatte: + Er Du den Beowulf, + der med Breca kjæmped’ + paa det vide Hav + i Væddesvømning, + da I af Hovmod 1010 + Havet udforsked’, + og dumdristige + i dybe Vande + vovede Livet; + ei vilde Nogen, + Ven eller Fjende, + afvende eders + sorgfulde Tog; + til Søen I da roed, + vendte med Armene 1020 + de vilde Bølger, + maalde Havveien, + med Hænderne brød den, + og svam over Havet + mens Søen vælted + vinterlige Vover; + saa paa Vandenes Ryg + I strede syv Nætter; + han, Seirer paa Havet, + aatte meer Styrke, 1030 + thi aarle on Morgenen + til Headhoræmes + Havet ham førde; + derfra han søgde + sit Fædrenerige, + feiret af Sine, + Brondinge-Landet + det fagre Fristed, + hvor et Folk han havde, + Borge og Ringe. 1040 + Saa blev hvad Beanstans + Søn Dig loved’ + sikkerlig opfyldt. + + +_Criticism of the Text and Translation._ + +There are two good things to be said of this volume: it contains a +literal translation, and it is a literal translation from Kemble’s text. +Being so, it could not be without merit. There was need of a literal +translation in Denmark. Grundtvig’s version certainly did not fulfil the +letter of the law, and Thorkelin’s had long since been forgotten. + +Schaldemose’s dependence upon the translation of Kemble is very evident. +In general, the Danish translator is stopped by the same passages that +defy the English translator, e.g. the passage which Kemble failed to +interpret at line 3075 was duly and loyally omitted by Schaldemose. + +I can find no evidence for the reiterated[6] statement that Schaldemose +is throughout his translation slavishly indebted to Ettmüller. Certain +it is that he avoided those peculiar forms of Ettmüller’s translation +which are nothing more than a transliteration from the Old English. + + +_Reception of the Volume._ + +It is a tribute to the Danish interest in Beowulf that Schaldemose’s +volume soon passed into a second edition. But it was not of a character +to arouse the interest of scholars in other countries. Thorpe, the next +editor of the poem, had never seen it. + +The translation, being strictly literal, naturally commanded very little +attention even in Denmark; while it was utterly without interest for +readers and students in other countries. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]] + + [Footnote 2: See infra, p. 121.] [[Leo]] + + [Footnote 3: See supra, p. 37.] [[Ettmüller]] + + [Footnote 4: See supra, p. 22.] [[Gruntvig]] + + [Footnote 5: See supra, p. 15.] [[Thorkelin]] + + [Footnote 6: See Wülker, _Ang. Anz._ IV, 69; Wackerbarth’s ed. + (see infra, p. 45).] + + + + +WACKERBARTH’S TRANSLATION + + +Beowulf, an epic poem translated from the Anglo-Saxon into English +verse, by A. Diedrich Wackerbarth, A.B., Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the +College of our Ladye of Oscott. London: William Pickering, 1849. 8vo, +pp. xlvi, 159. + +Second English Translation. Ballad Measures. + + +_Circumstances of Publication._ + +In the introduction Wackerbarth gives a full account of the history of +the book:-- + + ‘With respect to the Work now presented to the Public, shortly + after the putting forth of Mr. Kemble’s Edition of the Anglo-Saxon + Text in 1833 I formed the Design of translating it, and early in + 1837 I commenced the Work. Mr. Kemble’s second Volume had not then + appeared, and I proceeded but slowly, on account of the Difficulty + of the Work, and the utter Inadequacy of any then existing + Dictionary. I still however wrought my Way onward, under the + Notion that even if I should not think my Book, when finished, fit + for Publication, yet that the MS. would form an amusing Tale for + my little Nephews and Nieces, and so I went through about a + Quarter of the Poem when Illness put an entire stop to my + Progress. Afterwards, though the Appearance of Mr. Kemble’s + additional Volume, containing the Prose Version, Glossary, &c. had + rendered the remainder of my Task comparatively easy, other + Matters required my Attention, and the MS. lay untouched until + 1842, between which Time and the present it has been from Time to + Time added to and at length completed, and the whole carefully + revised, much being cancelled and retranslated.’ --Introduction, + p. viii. + + +_Indebtedness to preceding Scholars._ + + ‘In my Version I have scrupulously adhered to the text of Mr. + Kemble, adopting in almost every Instance his Emendations.... My + thanks are due to Mr. Kemble ... to the Rev. Dr. Bosworth ... who + have ... kindly answered my Inquiries relative to various Matters + connected with the poem.’ --Pages viii, xiv. + + +_Style and Diction._ + + ‘I have throughout endeavoured to render the Sense and the Words + of my Author as closely as the English Language and the Restraints + of Metre would allow, and for this Purpose I have not shrunken + either from sacrificing Elegance to Faithfulness (for no + Translator is at liberty to misrepresent his Author and make an + old Saxon Bard speak the Language of a modern Petit Maître) or + from uniting English Words to express important Anglo-Saxon + compounds.... Some may ask why I have not preserved the + Anglo-Saxon alliterative Metre. My Reason is that I do not think + the Taste of the English People would at present bear it. I wish + to get my book read, that my Countrymen may become generally + acquainted with the Epic of our Ancestors wherewith they have been + generally unacquainted, and for this purpose it was necessary to + adopt a Metre suited to the Language; whereas the alliterative + Metre, heavy even in German, a Language much more fitted for it + than ours, would in English be so heavy that few would be found to + labour through a Poem of even half the Length of the Beówulf’s lay + when presented in so unattractive a Garb.’ --Pages ix, x. + + +EXTRACT. + + CANTO VIII. + + But haughty Hunferth, Ecg-láf’s Son + Who sat at royal Hróth-gár’s Feet + To bind up Words of Strife begun + And to address the noble Geat. + The proud Sea-Farer’s Enterprize 5 + Was a vast Grievance in his Eyes: + For ill could bear that jealous Man + That any other gallant Thane + On earth, beneath the Heavens’ Span, + Worship beyond his own should gain. 10 + ‘Art thou Beó-wulf,’ then he cry’d, + ‘With Brecca on the Ocean wide + That didst in Swimming erst contend, + Where ye explor’d the Fords for Pride + And risk’d your Lives upon the Tide 15 + All for vain Glory’s empty End? + And no Man, whether Foe or Friend, + Your sorry Match can reprehend. + O’er Seas ye rowed, your Arms o’erspread + The Waves, and Sea-paths measuréd. 20 + The Spray ye with your Hands did urge, + And glided o’er the Ocean’s Surge; + The Waves with Winter’s fury boil’d + While on the watery Realm ye toil’d, + Thus seven Nights were told, 25 + Till thee at last he overcame, + The stronger in the noble Game. + Then him at Morn the billowy Streams + In triumph bare to Heatho-rǽmes + From whence he sought his Fatherland, 30 + And his own Brondings’ faithful Band, + Where o’er the Folk he held Command, + A City, Rings, and Gold. + His Promise well and faithfully + Did Beanstán’s Son perform to thee; 35 + And ill I ween, though prov’d thy Might + In Onslaught dire and deadly Fight, + Twill go with thee, if thou this Night + Dar’st wait for Grendel bold.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +Wackerbarth’s translation is not to be considered as a rival of +Kemble’s[1]--the author did not wish it to be so considered. Kemble +addressed the world of scholars; Wackerbarth the world of readers. +Wackerbarth rather resembles Conybeare[2] in trying to reproduce the +_spirit_ of the poem, and make his book appeal to a popular audience. +Wackerbarth had the advantage of basing his translation on the accurate +and scholarly version of Kemble; yet Conybeare and Wackerbarth were +equally unsuccessful in catching the spirit of the original. The reason +for their failure is primarily in the media which they chose. It would +seem that if there were a measure less suited to the Beowulf style than +the Miltonic blank verse used by Conybeare, it would be the ballad +measures used by Wackerbarth. The movement of the ballad is easy, rapid, +and garrulous. Now, if there are three qualities of which the _Beowulf_ +is not possessed, they are ease, rapidity, and garrulity. Not only does +the poet avoid superfluous words--the ballad never does--but he +frequently does not use words enough. His meaning is thus often vague +and nebulous, or harsh and knotted. Nor can the poem properly be called +rapid. It is often hurried, and more often insufficient in detail, but +it never has sustained rapidity. The kenning alone is hostile to +rapidity. The poet lingers lovingly over his thought as if loath to +leave it; he repeats, amplifies. The description of Grendel’s approach +to Heorot is given three times within twenty lines. + +Now these features which have just been described Wackerbarth’s ballad +lines are eminently unfitted to transmit. But there is still another +reason for shunning them. They are almost continuously suggestive of +Scott. Of all men else the translator of _Beowulf_ should avoid Scott. +Scott’s medievalism is hundreds of years and miles away from the +medievalism of _Beowulf_. His is the self-conscious, dramatic, gorgeous +age of chivalry, of knight and lady, of pomp and pride. _Beowulf_ is +simple to bareness. + +It is in such strong picturesque passages as the swimming-match that +Wackerbarth’s style is worst. There is a plethora of adjectives, +scarcely one of which is found in the original; but they are of no +avail--they are too commonplace to render the strength and raciness of +the original words. There is too much ballad padding--‘then he cry’d,’ +‘at last,’ ‘well and faithfully,’ ‘onslaught dire, and deadly fight.’ +Hunferth prattles. The heroic atmosphere is gone. + +In passages calling for calmness, solemnity, or elevation of +thought--and there are many such--the easy flow of a verse monotonous +and trivial effectually destroys the beauty of the lines. + +But in spite of its very evident limitations, Wackerbarth’s translation +was a move in the right direction. His aim, in his own words, was to +‘get his book read,’ and he was wise in choosing a medium that would be +popular, even if it were not satisfactory to the scholar. It was better +to have _Beowulf_ according to Wackerbarth than no _Beowulf_ at all. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 28.] [[Conybeare]] + + + + +THORPE’S EDITION + + +The Anglo-Saxon Poems of Beowulf, The Scop or Gleeman’s Tale, and the +Fight at Finnesburg. With a literal translation, notes, and glossary, +&c., by Benjamin Thorpe. Oxford: printed by James Wright, Printer to the +University. M.DCCC.LV. + +*Reprinted, 1875. 12mo, pp. xxxiv, 330. + +Third English Translation. Short Lines. + + +_Author’s Prefatory Remarks._ + + ‘Twenty-four years have passed since, while residing in Denmark, + I first entertained the design of one day producing an edition of + Beowulf; and it was in prosecution of that design that, + immediately on my arrival in England in 1830, I carefully collated + the text of Thorkelin’s edition with the Cottonian manuscript. + Fortunately, no doubt, for the work, a series of cares, together + with other literary engagements, intervened and arrested my + progress. I had, in fact, abandoned every thought of ever resuming + the task: it was therefore with no slight pleasure that I hailed + the appearance of Mr. Kemble’s first edition of the text of + Beowulf in 1833.... + + ‘Copies of Mr. Kemble’s editions having for some time past been of + rare occurrence, I resolved on resuming my suspended labour, and, + as far as I was able, supplying a want felt by many an Anglo-Saxon + student both at home and abroad.... + + ‘My first impulse was to print the text of the poem as it appears + in the manuscript, with a literal translation in parallel columns, + placing all conjectural emendations at the foot of each page; but, + on comparing the text with the version in this juxta-position, + so numerous and so enormous and puerile did the blunders of the + copyist appear, and, consequently, so great the discrepance + between the text and the translation, that I found myself + compelled to admit into the text the greater number of the + conjectural emendations, consigning to the foot of the page the + corresponding readings of the manuscript. In every case which I + thought might by others be considered questionable, I have + followed the more usual course, of retaining in the text the + reading of the manuscript, and placing the proposed correction at + foot.... + + ‘Very shortly after I had collated it, the manuscript suffered + still further detriment. + + ‘In forming this edition I resolved to proceed independently of + the version or views of every preceding editor.’ --Pages vii, + viii, xii, xiii. + + +_Criticism of Thorpe’s Text._ + +Considering the amount of time that had elapsed between this and the +edition of Kemble[1], Thorpe can hardly be said to have made a +satisfactory advance. In some respects his edition is actually inferior +to Kemble’s. It is probable, for example, that the collation of which +the author speaks in his introduction was the one which he had made +twenty years before, and that, in taking up his work a second time, +he did not trouble himself to revise it. At any rate, the MS. did not +receive from Thorpe that respectful attention that it had had from +Kemble. Thorpe was more clever than the former scholar in deciphering +faded lines of the MS., but he was not always careful to indicate those +letters which he actually found there, and those he himself supplied +from conjecture. Yet these readings were often of sufficient importance +to affect an entire passage, and later scholarship has in many cases +deciphered readings whose sense is entirely different from Thorpe’s. +Thus his edition presents striking divergences from later texts, while +no explanation of them is offered in the footnotes. Not only does he +frequently incorporate his own readings in the text without noting the +MS. forms, but he even makes mistakes in the MS. forms which he does +note. A collation of Thorpe’s text with the MS. has revealed a +carelessness which was all the more reprehensible in that it came from a +scholar who was thought to be well-nigh infallible. A few examples of +this carelessness are given:-- + + Line 319 (158)[2], _banan_ (misreads MS. in footnote). + 487 (241), _Ic_ (word emended from _le_ without noting MS. form). + 1160 (578), _hwæþere_ (emends without noting the MS. form). + 1207 (601), _ac him_ (omits a word). + 4408 (2201), _hilde hlemmum_ (MS. misread in a footnote. + Emendation unnecessary). + +At line 2218 the MS., badly mutilated at this point, reads, + + _... slæpende be syre ... de þeofes cræfte._ + +In Thorpe’s edition the line reads (4443), + + _... slæpende be fire, fyrena hyrde þeófes cræfte._ + +Not only does he fail to state that he has changed MS. _sy_ to _fi_, but +he gives no indication that for the words _fyrena hyrde_ there is no +room in the MS., and that the reading is entirely of his own making. + +In order to afford a comparative estimate of the work of Thorpe and +Kemble, I append the texts of each as they appear at what is now line +2000[3]. + + THORPE. KEMBLE. + + Þæt is undyrne, þ̷ is un-dyrne, + dryhten Higelác, dryhten Hige-lác, + (uncer) gemeting ... ge-meting + monegum fyra, monegū fira + hwylce (orleg)-hwíl 5 hwylce ... hwíl + uncer Grendles uncer Grendles + wearð on þám wange, wearð on wange, + þær he worna fela þær he worna fela + Sige-Scyldingum síge-(Scyl)dingum + sorge gefremede, 10 sorge ge-fremede, + yrmðe tó aldre. yrmð(o) tó aldre; + Ic þæt eall gewræc, ic þ̄ eall ge-wræc, + swá ne gylpan þearf swá (ne) gylpan ðearf + Grendles maga Grendeles maga + (ǽnig) ofer eorðan 15 (ǽnig) ofer eorðan + uht-hlem þone, uht-hlem ðone, + se þe lengest leofað (se þe) lengest leofað + láðan cynnes. ládan cynnes, + Fǽr-bifongen, ... (fǽr)-bí-fongen. + +These selections give a good basis for judging the merits and defects of +Thorpe’s edition. Thorpe is seen to have the advantage in deciphering +certain parts of the text, see e.g. lines 9, 11, 17. On the other hand, +Kemble is far more conscientious. Thus at line 13 Thorpe reads _ne_ as +if it were found in the MS. It is not there, and Kemble is right in +inclosing the letters in parentheses. The same thing is true of _Fǽr_ in +line 19, and Gren{dl}es in line 14. Thorpe’s emendations in lines 3 and +5 are an advance on Kemble, and are still retained in the text. But +Thorpe might have followed Kemble’s punctuation in 18 and 19 to his +advantage. + + +EXTRACT. + + VIII. + + Hunferth spake, + Ecglaf’s son, + who at {the} feet sat + of {the} Scyldings’ lord; + unbound {a} hostile speech. + To him was {the} voyage of Beowulf, + {the} bold sea-farer, + {a} great displeasure; + because he grudged 1010 + that any other man + ever more glories + of mid-earth + held under heaven + than himself: + ‘Art thou the Beowulf + who with Breca strove + on {the} wide sea, + in {a} swimming strife, + where ye from pride 1020 + tempted {the} fords, + and for foolish vaunt + in {the} deep water + ventured {your} lives? + Nor you any man, + nor friend nor foe, + might blame + {for your} sorrowful voyage, + when on {the} sea ye row’d, + when ye {the} ocean-stream, 1030 + with {your} arms deck’d, + measur’d {the} sea-ways, + with {your} hands vibrated {them}, + glided o’er {the} main; + ocean boil’d with waves, + with winter’s fury: + ye on {the} water’s domain, + {for} seven nights toil’d. + He thee in swimming overcame, + {he} had more strength, 1040 + when him at morning tide, + on to Heatho-ræmes + {the} sea bore up; + whence he sought + {his} dear country, + {the} beloved of his people, + {the} Brondings’ land, + {his} fair, peaceful burgh, + where he {a} people own’d, + {a} burgh and rings. 1050 + All {his} promise to thee + Beanstan’s son + truly fulfil’d. + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +This being a strictly literal translation, the reader is referred to the +sections on the text for a valuation and criticism. It is a question +whether there was need for another literal rendering in England at this +time. Kemble’s translation was not yet out of date, and with Thorpe’s +new glossary the student had a sufficient apparatus for the +interpretation of the poem. + +Some German scholars have discovered that the short lines in which +Thorpe’s translation is couched are imitative of the Old English +measure. I am unable to agree with them. Probably any short-line +translation would _ipso facto_ assume a choppiness not dissimilar to the +Old English, and probably plenty of lines could be discovered which +correspond well enough to the ‘five types,’ but the agreement seems +purely fortuitous. It is quite unlikely that Thorpe intended any +imitation. + + +_Influence of Thorpe’s Edition._ + +The influence of this edition has been considerable. It was the +principal authority used by Grein[4] and Heyne[5] in constructing their +texts. Thus its influence was felt in all texts down to the publication +of the Zupitza _Autotypes_ (1882). Thomas Arnold[6] copied the text +almost word for word. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]] + + [Footnote 2: The numbers in parentheses are those of Wyatt’s text.] + + [Footnote 3: Line 3995 in Kemble; 4004 in Thorpe.] + + [Footnote 4: See infra, p. 55.] [[Grein]] + + [Footnote 5: See infra, p. 63.] [[Heyne]] + + [Footnote 6: See infra, p. 71.] [[Arnold]] + + + + +GREIN’S TRANSLATIONS + + +Dichtungen der Angelsachsen, stabreimend übersetzt von C. W. M. Grein. +Erster Band. Göttingen: Georg H. Wigand, 1857. 8vo, Beowulf, pp. +223-308. Zweite (Titel-) Auflage, 1863. + +Beowulf. Stabreimend übersetzt von Professor Dr. C. W. M. Grein. Zweite +Auflage. Kassel: Georg H. Wigand, 1883. 8vo, pp. 90. + +Second German Translation. Imitative Measures. + + +_Grein’s Preparation for Scholarly Work._ + +Christian Wilhelm Michael Grein[1] (1825-77) was eminently well fitted +for the editing and translating of Old English poetry. He possessed a +natural aptitude for the study of Germanic Philology, and had the +advantage of studying with an excellent professor, Franz Eduard +Christoph Dietrich (1810-83), in the University at Marburg. As early as +1854 he began his labors as a translator of Old English poetry with a +version of the _Phoenix_, ‘Der Vogel Phoenix: ein angelsächsisches +Gedicht, stabreimend übersetzt,’ Rinteln, 1854. In the same year he +printed a translation of the _Heliand_. + +In 1855 he assumed the position of Praktikant at the Kassel +Landesbibliothek. Here he was able to devote a large part of his +attention to the study of Old English, acquiring a familiarity with the +poetry of that tongue which it has seldom been the fortune of a scholar +to surpass. He formed the design of editing and translating the entire +body of Old English poetry and appending to it a complete glossary which +should not only give the meanings of the words, but instance every +occurrence of the word. This design he carried out between the years +1857 and 1864. + + +_Grein’s Texts._ + +The text of _Beowulf_ is found in Grein’s _Bibliothek der +angelsächsichen Poesie_, Erster Band, Göttingen, 1857, where it occupies +pp. 255-341. A second edition, several times re-edited, is _Beovulf, +nebst den Fragmenten Finnsburg und Waldere_, Kassel und Göttingen, 1867. + +Grein never saw the MS. of the poem[2]. He based his text on a collation +of all the preceding editions. This was unfortunate, because, had Grein +seen the MS., he would doubtless have hastened to make a correct +transcription of it. As it was, his edition necessarily shares some of +the faults of its predecessors, since the text had never yet been +accurately transcribed. A simple illustration of this defect may be seen +by examining line 2218 of the text, where Grein reads, + + _be fire, fyrena hyrde_, + +following Thorpe[3]. As has been pointed out, this is an impossible +reading, and one for which there is no justification in the MS. Thorpe, +however, had presented it as the MS. reading, and Grein could not but +copy it. + +Like Kemble, Grein had a supreme respect for the readings of the MS., +and he announced his intention of following this reading wherever +possible:-- + + ‘Bei der Behandlung des Textes galt als erste Pflicht, + handschriftliche Lesarten, wo es nur immer möglich war, zu retten + und namentlich auch manche angezweifelte, den Lexicis fremde + Wörter als wolbegründet nachzuweisen: nur da, wo Verderbniss auf + der Hand liegt, habe ich mir mit der grössten Vorsicht Aenderungen + erlaubt oder bereits von Andern vorgeschlagene Aenderungen + aufgenommen, wobei ich mich möglichst eng an das handschriftlich + gebotene anzuschliessen suchte.’ --Vorwort, iv. (_Bibl._). + +This was wise. Since the days of Kemble, emendation had become +unnecessarily frequent. We have seen in what a light-hearted way Thorpe +spoke of the ‘blunders of the scribes,’ and how careless he was in the +preparation of his text. The dialect had not yet received proper +attention, and the copyists were blamed for errors that they never made. + +Grein was extremely clever in filling the lacunae of the MS., and his +conjectural emendations are frequently retained by later editors. + +Still another improvement which he introduced was the full punctuation +of the text; this was superior to any that had preceded it. In previous +editions defective punctuation had obscured the sense of the lines; here +it was made a factor in their interpretation. + + +_Theory of Translation._ + +Grein’s theory of translation is sufficiently expressed in the Vorrede +to the _Dichtungen_:-- + + ‘Die Sammlung von metrischen Uebersetzungen angelsächsischer + Dichtungen, deren erster Band hiermit der Oeffentlichkeit + übergeben wird, soll einen doppelten Zweck erfüllen. Einerseits + betrachte ich dieselben als eine wesentliche Ergänzung, gleichsam + als fortlaufenden Commentar zu meiner gleichzeitig in demselben + Verlag erscheinenden Textausgabe der angelsächsischen Dichter, + indem sie meine Interpretation der Originaltexte, worin ich oft + von meinen Vorgängern abweiche, einfach vor Augen legen. + Andrerseits aber bezweckte ich dadurch die Bekanntschaft mit den + in vieler Beziehung so herrlichen dichterischen Erzeugnissen des + uns engverwandten englischen Volkes aus der Zeit vor dem + gewaltsamen Eindringen des romanischen Elements durch die + normannische Eroberung auch in weiteren Kreisen anzubahnen, was + sie sowol nach ihrem Inhalte als auch nach der poetischen + Behandlung des Stoffes gewiss in hohem Grade verdienen. Daher war + ich eifrigst bemüht, die Uebersetzung dem Original in möglichster + Treue nach Inhalt, Ausdruck und Form eng anzuschliessen: + namentlich suchte ich, soweit es immer bei dem heutigen Stande + unserer Sprache thunlich war, auch den Rhythmus des Originals + nachzubilden, wobei es vor allem auf die Beibehaltung der + eigentümlichen Stellung der Stabreime ankam, ein Punkt, der bei + der Uebertragung alter Alliterationspoesien nur zu oft + vernachlässigt wird.’ --Vorrede, iii. + + +_Differences between the two Editions._ + +The second edition of the translation (see supra, p. 65) was edited from +Grein’s ‘Handexemplar’ of the _Dichtungen_ after his death by Professor +Wülker, who has also re-edited the text of the _Bibliothek_. The +differences are seldom more than verbal, and are largely in the early +parts of the poem. The second edition is, of course, superior. + + +EXTRACT. + + III. + + Darauf sprach Hunferd, Ecglafs Sohn, + der zu den Füssen sass dem Fürst der Skildinge, 500 + entband Streitrunen, (ihm war Beowulfs Reise + des mutigen Seefahrers sehr zum Aerger, + da er durchaus nicht gönnte, dass ein anderer Mann + je mehr des Ruhmes in dem Mittelkreise + besässe unterm Himmel, denn er selber hatte): 505 + ‘Bist du der Beowulf, der einst mit Breka schwamm + im Wettkampfe durch die weite See, + wo in Verwegenheit ihr die Gewässer prüftet + und aus tollem Prahlen in die tiefen Fluten + wagtet euer Leben? Nicht wehren konnt’ euch beiden 510 + weder Lieb noch Leid der Leute einer + die sorgenvolle Fahrt, als in den Sund ihr rudertet, + wo ihr den Oceansstrom mit euren Armen decktet, + die Holmstrassen masset, mit den Händen schluget + und über den Ocean glittet: der Eisgang des Winters 515 + wallete in Wogen; in des Wassers Gebiet + plagtet ihr euch sieben Nächte. + Im Schwimmspiel überwand er dich: + er hatte mehr der Macht; zur Morgenzeit + trug ihn der Holm da zu den Headorämen. + Von dannen suchte er die süsse Heimat 520 + lieb seinen Leuten, das Land der Brondinge, + die liebliche Friedeburg, wo er sein Volk hatte, + Burg und Bauge. Da hatte all sein Erbot wider dich + vollbracht in Wahrheit Beanstans Sohn[4].’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +The translation is a literal line-for-line version. Its superiority to +its predecessors is, therefore, one with the superiority of the text on +which it is founded. + +The translation became at once the standard commentary on _Beowulf_, and +this position it retained for many years. It is still the standard +literal translation in Germany, none of the later versions having +equaled it in point of accuracy. + + [Footnote 1: For biographical facts see Grein-Wülker, + _Bibliothek_, Band III, 2te Hälfte, p. vii.] + + [Footnote 2: See Grein-Wülker, _Bibliothek_, Vorrede.] + + [Footnote 3: See supra, p. 52.] [[Thorpe: Criticism of Text]] + + [Footnote 4: The second edition presents no variation from this + save the omission of the comma in line 501.] + + + + +SIMROCK’S TRANSLATION + + +Beowulf. Das älteste deutsche Epos. Uebersetzt und erläutert von Dr. +Karl Simrock. Stuttgart und Augsburg: J. G. Cotta’scher Verlag, 1859. +8vo, pp. iv, 203. + +Third German Translation. Imitative Measures. + + +_Simrock._ + +Dr. Karl Simrock (1802-1876) brought to the translation of _Beowulf_ the +thorough knowledge of a scholar, the fine feeling and technique of a +poet, and an enviable reputation as a translator of Old German poetry. +At the time when he made his translation of _Beowulf_, he was Professor +of Old German Literature at Bonn, whither he had been called because of +his contributions to the study of Old German mythology. His title to +remembrance rests, however, on his metrical rendering of the +_Nibelungenlied_, a work which, in 1892, had passed into its +fifty-second edition. As an original poet, Simrock is remembered for his +_Wieland der Schmied_ (1835), and _Gedichte_ (1844). + + +_Object of the Translation._ + +Simrock wished to do for _Beowulf_ what he had done for the +_Nibelungenlied_, _Walther von der Vogelweide_, and _Der arme Heinrich_. +He objected to the too literal work of Ettmüller[1] and Grein[2], hoping +in his own work to make the poem readable and to dispense with a ‘note +for every third word’: + + ‘Geist und Stimmung einer fernen Heldenzeit anklingen zu lassen, + und doch dem Ausdruck die frische Farbe des Lebens zu verleihen.’ + --Vorrede, iii. + +In this ambition he was justified by his success as a translator of Old +German poetry. + + +_Nature of the Translation._ + +The diction of the version is, on the whole, characterized by simplicity +and ease. Yet the author, like many another translator of Old English, +tries to give his style an archaic tinge by preserving the compound +forms characteristic of that language, such as Lustholz, Aelgelage, +Kampfrunen, a fault that Ettmüller had carried to excess. These forms he +sometimes used to the exclusion of simpler, or even more literal, words. +The nature of the German language, however, keeps these from being as +repulsive as they are in English, but they are sufficiently strange to +mystify and annoy the reader. + +The feature of his translation for which Simrock was most concerned was +the measure: + + ‘Vor Allem aber den Wohllaut, der echter Poesie unzertrennlich + verbunden ist, das schien mir die erste Bedingung, damit der Leser + ... den Sinn ahne und von der Schönheit des Gedichts ergriffen + von Blatt zu Blatt getragen werde. Nur so glaubte ich eine + tausendjährige Kluft überbrücken und dieser mit Angeln und Sachsen + ausgewanderten Dichtung neues Heimatsrecht bei uns erwerben zu + können.’ --Vorrede, iii, iv. + +He also preserved alliteration, believing that a fondness for that +poetic adornment may be easily acquired, and that it is by no means +inconsistent with the genius of modern tongues. + + +_Relation of Translation and other Parts of the Book._ + +The notes to the translation contain discussions of the episodes and of +the mythological personages of the poem. There is a discussion of the +poetic worth of _Beowulf_, and an argument for the German origin of the +poem. But the translation is the _raison d’être_ of the volume, and +other parts are strictly subordinated to it. The Finnsburg fragment is +inserted at the end of section 16. As the author does not wish to +disturb the order of _Beowulf_, he is obliged to place the poem at the +end of the Finnsburg episode (in _Beowulf_), a very ill-chosen position, +where it can only confuse the general reader more than the obscure lines +to which it is related. This practice of inserting the Finnsburg +fragment, lately revived by Hoffmann[3], has been generally repudiated. + + +_Text, and Indebtedness to Preceding Scholars._ + +The text followed is Grein’s (1857)[4]. The translator acknowledges his +indebtedness to the versions of Ettmüller and Grein. + + +EXTRACT. + + 8. HUNFERD. + + Da begann Hunferd, Ecglafs Sohn, + Der zu Füssen sass dem Fürsten der Schildinge, + Kampfrunen zu entbinden: ihm war Beowulfs Kunft, + Des kühnen Seeseglers, schrecklich zuwider. + Allzu ungern sah er, dass ein anderer Mann + In diesem Mittelkreiss mehr des Ruhmes + Unterm Himmel hätte als Hunferd selbst: + + ‘Bist du der Beowulf, der mit _Breka_ schwamm + Im Wettkampf einst durch die weite See? + Wo ihr tollkühn Untiefen prüftet, + Mit vermessnem Muth in den Meeresschlünden + Das Leben wagtet? Vergebens wehrten euch + Die Lieben und Leiden, die Leute zumal + So sorgvolle Reise, als ihr zum Sunde rudertet, + Das angstreiche Weltmeer mit Armen decktet, + Die Meerstrassen masset, mit den Händen schlugt + Durch die Brandung gleitend; aufbrauste die Tiefe + Wider des Winters Wuth. Im Wasser mühtet ihr + Euch sieben Nächte: da besiegt’ er dich im Schwimmen. + Seiner Macht war mehr: in des Morgens Frühe + Hob ihn die Hochflut zu den _Headorämen_. + Von dannen sucht’ er die süsse Heimat, + Das Leutenliebe, das Land der _Brondinge_, + Die feste Friedensburg, wo er Volk besass, + Burg und Bauge. Sein Erbieten hatte dir + Da _Beanstans_ Geborner vollbracht und geleistet.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +Simrock’s translation is commendable for its faithfulness. It is, +moreover, a simple and readable version, though in these respects it is +not equal to Heyne’s rendering which was to follow it; but it was easily +superior to Grein’s. Yet, in spite of this, the book is not well known +among German translations, and has never passed into a second edition. +This is surprising when we consider the success of Simrock’s previous +translations. The partial failure is accounted for by two facts: +(1) Simrock’s reputation as a scholar was not equal to that of Grein or +Heyne, nor had he the advantage of editing the text; (2) the measure +which the translation employed has never been popular among readers. No +German translation in imitative measures, with the single exception of +Grein’s (which has made its appeal as a scholarly work and not as a +piece of literature), has ever passed into a second edition; while +versions couched in iambic lines or Nibelungen meters have been +reprinted. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 37.] [[Ettmüller]] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 55.] [[Grein]] + + [Footnote 3: See infra, p. 99.] [[Hoffmann]] + + [Footnote 4: See supra, p. 56.] [[Grein’s Texts]] + + + + +HEYNE’S TRANSLATION + + +Beowulf. Angelsächsisches Heldengedicht übersetzt von Moritz Heyne. +Paderborn: Druck und Verlag von Ferd. Schöningh, 1863. 12mo, pp. viii, +127. + +Zweite Auflage. Paderborn: Schöningh, 1898. 8vo, pp. viii, 134. + +Fourth German Translation. Iambic Pentameter. + + +_Heyne._ + +The name of Moritz Heyne is one of the most illustrious in the history +of Beowulf scholarship. The Heyne editions of the text[1] have been +standard for nearly forty years, while the translation has been recently +reprinted (1898). Beside his work on the _Beowulf_, this scholar was to +become prominent as editor of the _Heliand_ and of _Ulfilas_, and as one +of the staff appointed to complete Grimm’s Dictionary. + +At the time when he printed his edition of the _Beowulf,_ Heyne was a +student at Halle, and but twenty-six years of age (born 1837)[2]. In his +work he had some assistance from Professor Leo[3] of Halle. + + +_Relation of Text and Translation._ + +The translation was founded on the text of 1863. At the time it was by +far the best edition that had yet appeared. It was furnished with an +excellent glossary. The text had the advantage of the valuable work done +by Grundtvig[4] in collating the two transcripts made by Thorkelin[5]. +It thus came a stage nearer the MS. readings than any other existing +edition, while it avoided the unnecessary conjectures of the Danish +editor. + +Heyne’s text having been five times re-edited, the first edition of the +translation often fails to conform to readings which have been +introduced into the text in later editions; but the free nature of the +translation makes this of no great importance. + + +_Differences between the First and Second Editions of the Translation._ + +The differences between the two editions are not of much importance. The +translation is in general, though not always, brought up to the late +editions of the text, and some changes are made for the improvement of +the meter. + +The first edition contains 3201 lines; the second 3207. The theory and +aim of the translation are not changed at all. + + +_Aim of Heyne’s Translation._ + +In this translation of the _Beowulf_, Heyne attempts to popularize what +he considers the most beautiful of the Old English poems. He says +of it-- + + ‘Es ist nicht die erste, die ich biete; gleichwol hoffe ich es + werde die erste sein, die auch einem grössern Publicum, das noch + nicht Gelegenheit hatte, sich mit den ältern Dialecten unserer + Sprache zu beschäftigen, verständlich ist. Die ältern deutschen + Uebersetzer haben, bei allen Verdiensten ihrer Arbeit, unserer + neuhochdeutschen Muttersprache teilweise übel mitgespielt.’ + --Vorwort, iii. + +With this in view, Heyne put his translation out in a form that would +make it accessible to all. This was in itself an innovation. The works +of Ettmüller[6] and Simrock[7] had been in a more elaborate _format_, +while Grein’s translation[8] was not only expensive, but encumbered with +other work, and intended primarily for the scholar. + + +_Nature of the Translation._ + +Heyne chose a new medium for his version, the unrimed iambic line. His +aim being to get his book read, he avoided a literal translation, and +rendered with commendable freedom, though not with inaccuracy. He used +no strange compounds, and shunned an unnatural verse. Thus he produced +the most readable translation that has ever appeared in Germany. Of his +own attempt he says-- + + ‘Die vorliegende Uebertragung ist so frei, dass sie das für uns + schwer oder gar nicht genau nachzubildende allitterierende Versmass + des Originals gegen fünffüssige Jamben aufgibt, und zu Gunsten des + Sinnes sich der angelsächsischen Wort- und Satzstellung nicht zu + ängstlich anschmiegt; dagegen auch wieder so genau, dass sie + hoffentlich ein Scherflein zum vollkommenern Verständniss des + Textes beitragen wird.’ --Vorwort, iii. + +Heyne’s theory of translation is one that has been very little in vogue +in Germany. He has been criticized on all sides for his freedom. Yet the +criticism is undeserved. Heyne is never paraphrastic--he never adds +anything foreign to the poem. He merely believes in translating the +obscure as well as the simple ideas of his text. His ‘freedom’ seldom +amounts to more than this-- + + Hē bēot ne āleh, l. 80 (he belied not his promise) + Was er gelobt, erfüllt er. + +He occasionally inserts a word for metrical reasons, and sometimes, in +the interests of clearness, a demonstrative or personal pronoun, or even +a proper name (cf. l. 500 of the extract). + + +EXTRACT. + + IX. + + Da sagte Hunferd, Ecglafs Sohn, der Hrodgar 500 + zu Füssen sass, dem Herrn der Schildinge, + des Streites Siegel löste er (denn sehr + war Beowulfes Ankunft ihm verhasst, + des kühnen Meerbefahrers; er vergönnte + es Niemand, mehr des Ruhmes als er selber 505 + sich unterm Himmel jemals zu erwerben): + ‘Bist du der Beowulf, der einst mit Breca + sich auf der weiten See im Schwimmkampf mass, + als ihr euch kühnlich in die Tiefen stürztet, + und mit verwegnem Brüsten euer Leben 510 + im tiefen Wasser wagtet? Niemand konnte, + nicht Freund, nicht Feind, des mühevollen Weges + euch hindern. Da schwammt ihr hinaus in See, + wo ihr die wilde Flut mit Armen decktet, + des Wassers Strassen masset und die Hände 515 + die Wogen werfen liesst; so glittet ihr + hin übers Meer. Die winterlichen Wellen, + sie giengen hoch. Der Tage sieben mühtet + ihr euch im Wasser: jener überwand dich + im Schwimmen, denn er hatte grössre Kraft. 520 + Da trug die Hochflut ihn zur Morgenzeit + auf zu den Hadorämen, von wo aus er, + der seinem Volke liebe, seinen Erbsitz + im Land der Brandinge, die schöne Burg + erreichte. Dort besass er Land und Leute 525 + und Schätze. Was er gegen dich gelobt, + das hatte Beanstans Sohn fürwahr erfüllt.’ + +The extract illustrates sufficiently the characteristics of Heyne’s +rendering. In the first place, attention may be called to the extreme +freedom of the verse, a freedom which at times makes the composition +verge upon prose. In the second place, the translation of the Old +English phrase _beadu-runen onband_ should be noticed, and compared with +the translations of Ettmüller, Grein, and Simrock, who have +respectively-- + + _entband beadurunen_ + _entband Streitrunen_ + _Kampfrunen ... entbinden._ + +Heyne is the only one who translates the phrase in such a way as to make +the words intelligible to a reader unacquainted with Old English. +Finally, it should be noticed that the translation is quite as accurate +as those which preceded it. Heyne certainly succeeded in his attempt to +make the poem more intelligible to the general reader than it had ever +been before. While not so serviceable to the scholar as Grein’s +translation, it is undoubtedly the most enjoyable of the German +versions. + + [Footnote 1: There have been six--1863, 1868, 1873, 1879, 1888, + 1898; the last two are by Dr. Adolf Socin.] + + [Footnote 2: Heyne is at present Professor in the University of + Göttingen.] + + [Footnote 3: See infra, p. 121.] [[Leo]] + + [Footnote 4: In _Beowulfs Beorh_. See also supra, p. 22.] + + [Footnote 5: See supra, p. 16.] [[Thorkelin]] + + [Footnote 6: See supra, p. 37.] [[Ettmüller]] + + [Footnote 7: See supra, p. 59.] [[Simrock]] + + [Footnote 8: See supra, p. 55.] [[Grein]] + + + + +VON WOLZOGEN’S TRANSLATION + + +Beovulf (Bärwelf). Das älteste deutsche Heldengedicht. Aus dem +Angelsächsischen von Hans von Wolzogen. Leipzig: Philipp Reclam, jun. +(1872?). + +Volume 430 of Reclam’s Universal-Bibliothek. Small 8vo, pp. 104. + +Fifth German Translation. Imitative Measures. + + +_Concerning the Translator._ + +Hans von Wolzogen (born 1848), popularly known as a writer on the +Wagnerian operas and as conductor of the _Bayreuther Blätter_, +translated three Germanic poems for Reclam’s ‘Bibliothek’: _Beowulf_, +1872, _Der arme Heinrich_, 1873, and the _Edda_, 1877. There is no +evidence that he had any _special_ interest in Old English studies. + + +_Aim of the Volume._ + +As expressed in the ‘Vorbemerkung,’ the aim of the translator was (1) to +provide a readable translation ‘für unser modernes Publicum,’ and (2) to +make a convenient handbook for the student, so that the beginner, with +Grein’s text[1] and the present translation, might read the _Beowulf_ +with no very great difficulty. So von Wolzogen made his version ‘more +literal than Heyne’s, but freer than Simrock’s’ (p. 1). + + +_Nature of the Translation._ + +The translation is in alliterative measures, called by the translator +imitative of the Old English. Von Wolzogen is concerned for this feature +of his work, and is at pains to give what he considers a full account of +the original verse as well as a lengthy defence of alliteration. Archaic +touches are occasional. The names are ‘re-translated into German’ +according to a system of which, apparently, von Wolzogen alone holds the +key:-- + + ‘... diese angelsächsische Form selbst nur eine Uebertragungsform + aus den ursprünglich deutschen Namen ist, wobei manch Einer sogar + sinnlos verdreht worden, wie z.B. der Name des Helden selbst, der + aus dem deutschen Bärwelf, Jungbär, zum Beovulf, Bienenwolf, + gemacht worden war.’ --Vorbemerkung, p. 5. + +The account of the Fall of Hygelac and of Heardred, 2354-96, is shifted +to line 2207 (p. 75). + + +_Text Used._ + +The translation is apparently founded on one of Grein’s texts[2], but +the work is so inaccurate that exact information on this point is +impossible from merely internal evidence. + + +EXTRACT. + + DRITTER GESANG. + + HUNFRID. + + _So sagte Hunfrid_[3], der Sohn des _Eckleif_, + Dem Schildingenfürsten zu Füssen gesessen, + Kampfrunen entbindend (es kränkte des _Bärwelf_ + _Muthige Meerfahrt_ mächtig den Stolzen, + Der an Ehren nicht mehr einem andern Manne 5 + Zu gönnen gemeint war im Garten der Mitte, + Als wie unter’m Himmel erworben er selbst!): + ‘Bist du der _Bärwelf_, der mit _Brecht_ bekämpfte + Auf weiter See im Wetteschwimmen, + Da übermüthig und ehrbegierig 10 + Eu’r Leben ihr wagtet in Wassertiefen, + _Die beid’ ihr durchschwammt?_ Da brachte zum Schwanken + Den Vorsatz der furchtbaren Fahrt euch Keiner + _Mit Bitten und Warnen_, _und_ Beide durchtheiltet + Mit gebreiteten Armen die Brandung ihr rudernd, 15 + Durchmasset das Meer mit _meisternden_ Händen + Auf wogenden Wegen, während der Wirbelsturm + Rast’ in den Well’n, und _ihr rangt mit_ dem Wasser + Durch sieben Nächte. Der Sieger im Neidspiel + Zeigte sich mächt’ger; zur Zeit des Morgens 20 + Riss zu den Haduraumen die Flut ihn; + ins eigene Erbe enteilt’ er von dort, + Zum Lande der Brandinge, lieb seinen _Mannen_, + Zur bergenden Burg. Da gebot er dem Volke + _Schlossreich und schatzreich_. Wie geschworen, so hielt 25 + Sein Versprechen dir redlich der Sprössling des _Bonstein_.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +Von Wolzogen’s translation is hardly trustworthy. A specimen of his free +interpretation of the _Beowulf_ diction may be seen in the footnote on +page 13, where he defines _horngēap_ (i.e. ‘with wide intervals between +its pinnacles of horn’) as ‘hornreich,’ and translates _hornreced_, +‘Hornburg.’ Inaccurate renderings of the Old English have been noted +above in italics. They reveal an especial difficulty with the kenning, +a device which von Wolzogen apparently did not understand, since the +entire translation shows an attempt to interpret the kenning +hypotactically. Had the translator been making a paraphrase, +inaccuracies like ‘muthige Meerfahrt’ and ‘ihr rangt mit dem Wasser’ +might be excused; but in a translation which was avowedly literal (more +literal than Heyne’s) they appear to be due to nothing less than +ignorance and carelessness. To give one example from the thousand that +bear out the truth of this statement, we may cite line 561 (p. 27), + + _Ic him þēnode + deoran sweorde swā hit gedēfe wæs._ + +which is translated, + + dawider doch diente + Mein treffliches Schwert, das treu mir beistand. (p. 27.) + +This is not paraphrase; it is sheer misapprehension of the Old English. + +A similar misapprehension is seen in line 15 of the extract, + + Mit Bitten und Warnen, + +which we are asked to accept as a translation for + + ne lēof nē lāð. (l. 511.) + +The verse of von Wolzogen’s translation is the poorest of the German +attempts at imitative measures. The translator is obliged at times to +append footnotes explaining the scansion of his lines (see pp. 33, 34, +65, 91). The cesura is frequently not in evidence (cf. lines 14 and 22, +both of which are also metrically incorrect); the lines are often +deficient in length (p. 29, line 26; p. 31, line 19; p. 32, line 19). + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 55.] [[Grein]] + + [Footnote 2: See Vorbemerkung, p. 3.] + + [Footnote 3: The italics, save those used for proper names + (which are von Wolzogen’s), indicate inaccurate renderings.] + + + + +ARNOLD’S EDITION + + +Beowulf, a heroic poem of the eighth century, with a translation, notes, +and appendix, by Thomas Arnold, M.A. London: Longmans, Green & Co., +1876. 8vo, pp. xliii, 223. + +Fourth English Translation. Prose. + + +_Circumstances of Publication._ + +No edition of the text of _Beowulf_ had appeared in England since the +work of Thorpe[1], now twenty years old. The textual criticism of the +Germans had, meanwhile, greatly advanced the interpretation of the poem. +Grein’s text of the poem had passed into a second, and Heyne’s into a +third, edition. There was an opportunity, therefore, for an improved +English edition which should incorporate the results of German +scholarship. This edition Mr. Thomas Arnold (1823-1900) undertook to +supply. + + +_Relation of the Parts._ + +The Introduction contained a new theory of the origin of the poem[2]. +But the important part of the book was the text and translation. There +is no glossary[3]. The notes are at the bottom of the page. Here +glossarial, textual, and literary information is bundled together. There +is a very inadequate bibliography in the Introduction. + + +_Nature of the Translation._ + +The translation is a literal prose version, printed under the text. It +resembles Kemble’s work[4], rather than Thorpe’s[5]. It eschews unwieldy +compounds, and makes no attempt to acquire an archaic flavor. Supplied +words are bracketed. + + +_Criticism of the Text._ + +Arnold had access to the MS., and gave the most thorough description of +it that had yet appeared. But, strangely enough, he did not make it the +basis of his edition. He speaks of a ‘partial collation’ of the MS., but +this appears to have been nothing more than a transcription of certain +fragmentary parts of the MS. One of these passages is printed in the +Introduction, where it is referred to as an ‘exact transcript’; yet, in +collating it with the Zupitza _Autotypes_, I have found the following +errors:-- + + Line 2219[6], þeowes _for_ þeofes. + 2220, biorn _for_ beorna. + 2211, geweoldum _for_ ge weoldum. + 2223, b _for_ þ. + 2225, wea ... _for_ weal ... + 2226, inwlitode, inwatode _for_ mwatide. + +Of course the faded condition of the MS. offers some excuse for one or +two of these errors, but, if we encounter mistakes in a short transcript +professedly exact, what would have been the fate of the text had the +entire MS. been collated? + +Professor Garnett[7] has noted that Arnold’s text was taken from +Thorpe’s, with some changes to suit the 1857 text of Grein. In order to +test the accuracy of these statements I have made a collation of the +texts of Arnold, Thorpe, and the MS. The list of errors in Thorpe’s +text, which I have mentioned in a discussion of that work[8], is +repeated bodily in Arnold’s. Yet there was no excuse at this time for +the retention of many of these readings. Grundtvig[9] had corrected +several of them as early as 1861 by his collation of the Thorkelin +transcripts[10]; Heyne had got rid of them by collating Thorpe’s work +with Kemble’s[11] and Grundtvig’s. Arnold makes almost no reference to +the work of Heyne, and incorporates none of his emendations. He also +overlooked Grein’s 1867 text, which contained new readings and a +glossary. Arnold himself did not emend the text in a single instance. + + +EXTRACT. + + VIII. + + Hunferth spake, the son of Ecglaf, who sat at the feet of the + master of the Scyldings; he unbound the secret counsel of his + malice. The expedition of Beowulf, the valiant mariner, was to him + a great cause of offence; for that he allowed not that any other + man on the earth should ever appropriate more deeds of fame under + heaven than he himself. ‘Art thou that Beowulf who strove against + Breca in a swimming-match on the broad sea? where ye two for + emulation explored the waves, and for foolish boasting ventured + your lives in the deep water. Nor could any man, either friend or + foe, warn you off from your perilous adventure. Then ye two rowed + on the sea, where with your arms [outspread] ye covered the + ocean-stream, measured the sea-ways, churned up [the water] with + your hands, glided over the deep; the sea was tossing with waves, + the icy wintry sea. Ye two toiled for seven nights in the watery + realm; he overcame thee in the match, he had more strength. Then, + at dawn of morn, the sea cast him up on [the coast of] the + Heathoreamas; thence he, dear in the sight of his people, sought + his loved native soil, the land of the Brondings, the fair safe + burgh where he was the owner of folk, burgh, and precious jewels.’ + --Pages 37, 38. + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +The translation is literal, and its value is therefore in direct ratio +to the value of the text, which has been discussed above. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 49.] [[Thorpe]] + + [Footnote 2: A theory which the author continued to regard as + partially tenable. See _Notes on Beowulf_ (London, 1898), p. 114.] + + [Footnote 3: Contrast this with the editions of Heyne. See p. 64.] + + [Footnote 4: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]] + + [Footnote 5: See supra, p. 49.] [[Thorpe]] + + [Footnote 6: The numbers are those of Wyatt’s text; for Zupitza’s + and Arnold’s add 1.] + + [Footnote 7: See _Amer. Journal of Philol._ I. 1. 90.] + + [Footnote 8: See supra, p. 51.] [[Thorpe: Criticism...]] + + [Footnote 9: See _Beowulfs Beorh_, and p. 22.] + + [Footnote 10: See supra, p. 15.] [[Thorkelin]] + + [Footnote 11: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]] + + + + +BOTKINE’S TRANSLATION + + +Beowulf, Épopée Anglo-Saxonne. Traduite en français, pour la première +fois, d’après le texte original par L. Botkine, Membre de la Société +Nationale havraise d’Études diverses. Havre: Lepelletier, 1877. 8vo, pp. +108. + +First French Translation. Prose. + + +_Old English Studies in France._ + +The only attention that _Beowulf_ had received in France prior to this +time was in the work of Sandras, _De Carminibus Cædmoni adiudicatis_[1]. +Other scholars, if they devoted themselves to English at all, studied +chiefly the later periods of the literature[2]. In 1867 the author of +the article on _Beowulf_ in Larousse’s Dictionary could say, ‘Le poème +n’est pas connu en France.’ In 1876 Botkine published a historical and +critical analysis of the poem[3]. This was the first scholarly attention +that the poem received in France. In the following year Botkine’s +translation appeared. + +France has added nothing to our knowledge of _Beowulf_; there has never +been another translation, nor even a reprint of Botkine’s. There has +been no further scholarly work done on the poem; and the principal +literary notices of it, such as Taine’s and Jusserand’s, have been +notoriously unsympathetic. The genius of Old English poetry is at the +furthest possible remove from that of the French. + + +_Aim of the Translation._ + +It will be made evident in the section that follows on the nature of +Botkine’s translation that his work could never have been intended for +scholars. Had it been so intended, the translator would have rendered +more literally. His introduction[4] proves that the book was addressed +to the general reader rather than the student of Old English. + +The Introduction deals with the nature of Old English poetry, and makes +historical and critical remarks on the _Beowulf_. There are occasional +notes explanatory of the text. + +In his critical work the author is chiefly indebted to Grein[5] and +Heyne[6]. + + +_Nature of the Translation._ + +The translation, which is in prose, is characterized, as the author +himself admits, by extreme freedom and occasional omission of words and +phrases. The author’s defence of these may be given here:-- + + ‘Je crois devoir me disculper, en présentant cette première + traduction française de Beowulf, du double reproche qui pourrait + m’être adressé d’avoir supprimé des passages du poëme et de n’en + avoir pas suffisamment respecté la lettre. D’abord je dois dire + que les passages que j’ai supprimés (il y en a fort peu) sont ou + très obscurs ou d’une superfluité choquante. Ensuite, il m’a + semblé qu’en donnant une certaine liberté à ma traduction et en + évitant autant que possible d’y mettre les redites et les + périphrases de l’original anglo-saxon, je la rendrais meilleure et + plus conforme à l’esprit véritable de l’œuvre. Est-ce sacrifier du + reste la fidélité d’une traduction que d’épargner au public la + lecture de détails le plus souvent bizarres et inintelligibles? + N’est-il pas plus logique d’en finir de suite avec des artifices + poétiques inconnus à nos littératures modernes, plutôt que de + vouloir s’escrimer en vain à les reproduire en français? Et alors + même qu’on poursuivrait jusqu’au bout une tâche si ingrate, + pourrait-on se flatter en fin de compte d’avoir conservé au poëme + son cachet si indiscutable d’originalité? Non certes.’ + --Avertissement, p. 3. + + ‘Il ne faut pas oublier que, la langue française différant + complètement par ses racines de l’anglo-saxon, il ne m’a pas été + permis d’éluder les difficultés de l’original comme on a pu le + faire parfois en anglais et en allemand.’ --Note, p. 4. + +It has been customary, in speaking of the work of M. Botkine, to call +attention to the numerous omissions. This is misleading. The passages +which the translator has omitted are not the obscure episodes or the +long digressions, but the metaphors, the parenthetical phrases, and +especially kennings and similar appositives. + +For example, the original has:-- + + Þǣr æt hȳðe stōd hringed-stefna + īsig ond ūt-fūs. (l. 32 f.) + +which Botkine renders:-- + + Dans la porte se trouvait une barque bien équipée. (p. 29.) + +The principal passages which Botkine omits entirely are: 1002b-1008a; +1057b-1062; 1263-1276; 1679-1686. + + +_Text Used._ + +The author seems to have been well acquainted with the scholarly work +done on _Beowulf_ up to his time. He mentions in his Notes the +interpretations of Grein, Grundtvig[7], Ettmüller[8], Thorpe[9], and +Kemble[10]. He appears to follow, in general, the text of Heyne, not, +however, invariably. + + +EXTRACT. + + IX. + + Hunferth, fils d’Ecglaf, qui était assis aux pieds du prince des + Scyldingas, parla ainsi (l’expédition de Beowulf[11] le + remplissait de chagrin, parce qu’il ne voulait pas convenir + qu’aucun homme[12] eût plus de gloire[13] que lui-même): + + ‘N’es-tu pas le Beowulf qui essaya ses forces à la nage sur la mer + immense avec Breca quand, par bravade, vous avez tenté les flots + et que vous avez follement hasardé votre vie dans l’eau profonde? + Aucun homme, qu’il fût ami ou ennemi, ne put vous empêcher + d’entreprendre ce triste voyage.--Vous avez nagé alors sur la + mer[14], vous avez suivi les sentiers de l’océan. L’hiver agitait + les vagues[15]. Vous êtes restés en détresse pendant sept nuits + sous la puissance des flots, mais il t’a vaincu dans la joûte + parce qu’il avait plus de force que toi. Le matin, le flot le + porta sur Heatho-ræmas et il alla visiter sa chère patrie[16] le + pays des Brondingas, où il possédait le peuple, une ville et des + trésors. Le fils de Beanstan accomplit entièrement la promesse + qu’il t’avait faite.’ + + +_Criticism of the Extract and Translation._ + +If the translation is compared with the text, the reader will be struck +by the characteristic beauty of the words omitted. We may agree with the +translator regarding the difficulty of rendering compound and kenning +into French, and yet the very absence of an attempt to do this +jeopardizes the value of the translation more than the omission of many +episodes, for it brings it dangerously near to paraphrase. ‘Vous avez +nagé alors sur la mer, vous avez suivi les sentiers de l’océan,’ cannot +possibly be called a translation of-- + + þā git on sund rēon; + þǣr git ēagor-strēam earmum þehton, + mǣton mere-strǣta, mundum brugdon, + glidon ofer gār-secg. + +ll. 512, ff. + +A part of the story has been thrown away with the adjectives. The force +and beauty of the passage are gone. + +But there is another danger in this paraphrastic method. In omitting +words and phrases, the translator will often misinterpret his original. +This is especially true of Botkine’s work in the obscure episodes where +he wishes to make the meaning perfectly clear. In attempting to simplify +the Old English, he departs from the original sense. Instances of this +may be brought forward from the Finn episode: + + Folcwaldan sunu + dōgra gehwylce Dene weorþode, + Hengestes hēap hringum wenede, + efne swā swīðe sinc-gestrēonum + fǣttan goldes, swā hē Frēsena cyn + on bēor-sele byldan wolde. + +ll. 1089 ff. + +The idea is misinterpreted in Botkine’s-- + + Le fils de Folcwalda (stipulait qu’il) leur ferait chaque jour une + distribution de trésors. (p. 50.) + +Again, at line 1117 it is said of the lady-- + + earme on eaxle ides gnornode, + +meaning that the lady stood by the body (shoulder) of the corpse as it +lay on the pyre. Botkine makes of this-- + + ‘Elle poussait des lamentations en s’appuyant sur le bras de son + fils.’ (p. 50.) + +The rendering is not without its amusing features, chiefly illustrations +of the inability of the French language to accommodate itself to +typically Germanic expressions. Thus when Hrothgar says what is the +equivalent of ‘Thanks be to God for this blessed sight,’ Botkine puts +into his mouth the words: ‘Que le Tout-Puissant reçoive mes profonds +remercîments pour ce spectacle!’--which might have been taken from a +diplomatic note. + + [Footnote 1: See infra, p. 123.] [[Sandras]] + + [Footnote 2: Save Michel. An account of his work may be found in + Wülker’s _Grundriss_, § 102.] + + [Footnote 3: _Analyse historique et géographique._ Paris, Leroux, + 1876.] + + [Footnote 4: p. 4.] + + [Footnote 5: See supra, p. 55.] [[Grein]] + + [Footnote 6: See supra, p. 63.] [[Heyne]] + + [Footnote 7: See supra, p. 22.] [[Gruntvig]] + + [Footnote 8: See supra, p. 37.] [[Ettmüller]] + + [Footnote 9: See supra, p. 49.] [[Thorpe]] + + [Footnote 10: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]] + + [Footnote 11: Omits mōdges mere-faran.] + + [Footnote 12: Omits middan-geardes.] + + [Footnote 13: Omits under heofonum.] + + [Footnote 14: Omits lines 513-515a.] + + [Footnote 15: Omits wintrys wylum.] + + [Footnote 16: Omits lēof his lēodum.] + + + + +LUMSDEN’S TRANSLATION + + +Beowulf, an Old English Poem, translated into Modern Rhymes, by +Lieut.-Colonel H. W. Lumsden[1]. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1881. +8vo, pp. xx, 114. + +Beowulf, an Old English Poem, translated into Modern Rhymes, by +Lieut.-Colonel H. W. Lumsden, late Royal Artillery. Second edition, +revised and corrected. London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Co., 1883. 8vo, +pp. xxx, 179. + +Fifth English Translation. Ballad Measures. + + +_Differences between the two Editions, and Indebtedness to Preceding +Scholars._ + +In the first edition of the translation a number of passages were +omitted. Some of these omissions were owing to corrupt text, some to +extreme obscurity of the original, and some merely to the fact that the +original was deemed uninteresting. The principal omissions were: 83-86; +767-770; 1724-1758; 1931-1963; 2061-2062; 2214-2231; 2475; 2930-2932; +3150-3156. These passages were inserted in the second edition. + + ‘In this edition I have endeavoured to remove some of the blunders + which disfigured its predecessor.... Some parts have been entirely + rewritten, and the passages formerly omitted ... have been + inserted.... A few notes have been added; and the introduction has + been materially altered and, I hope, improved.’ --Preface to the + Second Edition, p. v. + + +_Aim and Nature of the Translation._ + +Lumsden’s desire was to produce a readable version of the poem. Thus his +work resembles that of Wackerbarth[2]; and, like Wackerbarth, he couched +his translation in ballad measures. Lumsden does not vary his measure, +but preserves the iambic heptameter throughout. His lines rime in +couplets. + +No attempt is made to preserve alliteration or archaic diction. + +The Introduction and Notes contain popular expositions of the work of +preceding scholars. Several of the Notes are original and well worth +while (see Notes A, C, G, M). + + +_Texts Used._ + +The translation is based on Grein’s text of 1857[3] and Arnold’s text +(1876)[4]. Garnett has shown[5] that Lumsden ignored the 1867 text of +Grein and the editions of Heyne. These defects were remedied to some +extent in the second edition. Lumsden himself never emends the text. + + +EXTRACT[6]. + + IV. HUNFERD AND BEOWULF. + + Hunferd the son of Ecglaf spoke--at Hrothgar’s feet sat he-- + And thus let loose his secret grudge; + (for much did him displease + The coming of Beowulf now--bold sailor o’er the seas. + To none on earth would he allow a greater fame ’mong men + Beneath the heavens than his): ‘Art thou the same Beowulf then, + Who swam a match with Breca once upon the waters wide, + When ye vainglorious searched the waves, + and risked your lives for pride + Upon the deep? Nor hinder you could any friend or foe + From that sad venture. Then ye twain did on the waters row; + Ye stretched your arms upon the flood; + the sea-ways ye did mete; 10 + O’er billows glided--with your hands them tossed--though + fiercely beat + The rolling tides and wintry waves! Seven nights long toilèd ye + In waters’ might; but Breca won--he stronger was than thee! + And to the Hathoræms at morn washed shoreward by the flood, + Thence his loved native land he sought--the Brondings’ + country good, + And stronghold fair, where he was lord of folk and burg + and rings. + Right well ’gainst thee his vaunt he kept. + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +The extract illustrates the paraphrastic nature of parts of the +translation. Lumsden frequently seems to feel it necessary to read a +meaning into the obscure lines and passages that do not easily lend +themselves to translation; cf. lines 11, 12. At line 2258 Lumsden +translates:-- + + The mail that bite of sword + O’er clashing shield in fight withstood must follow its dead lord. + Never again shall corselet ring as help the warriors bear + To comrades far. + +The Old English from which this passage is taken reads:-- + + ge swylce sēo here-pād, sīo æt hilde gebād + ofer borda gebræc bite īrena, + brosnað æfter beorne; ne mæg byrnan hring 2260 + æfter wīg-fruman wīde fēran + hæleðum be healfe. + +The passage is certainly obscure, and the readings are not all +undoubted, but the words can never be tortured into meaning what Lumsden +tries to make them mean. + +But it would be manifestly unfair to judge a translation addressed to +the general reader merely by scholarly tests. The work must make its +appeal as a literary rendering. + +The propriety of adopting a ballad measure may be questioned. Probably +no measure could be found more unlike the Old English lines. Moreover, +by reason of its long association with purely popular poetry, it +constantly suggests the commonplace and the trivial. But above all, it +is reminiscent of a medievalism wholly different from that of _Beowulf_. + +The saving grace of the ballad measure is its readableness. It is rather +effective in passages not too dignified, calling for action. But in +passages of elevation the line is found wanting:-- + + They mourned their king and chanted dirge, + and much of him they said; + His worthiness they praised, + and judged his deeds with tender dread. + +But, like Wackerbarth’s, Lumsden’s translation had the advantage of +being readable. + + [Footnote 1: Col. Lumsden’s translation of the Battle of Maldon, + _Macmillan’s Magazine_, 55: 371, has been generally admired.] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 45.] [[Wackerbarth]] + + [Footnote 3: See supra, p. 56.] [[Grein’s Texts]] + + [Footnote 4: See supra, p. 72.] [[Arnold: Criticism...]] + + [Footnote 5: See _American Journal of Philology_, ii. p. 355.] + + [Footnote 6: From the second edition.] + + + + +GARNETT’S TRANSLATION + + +Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Poem, and the Fight at Finnsburg, translated by +James M. Garnett, M.A., LL.D., Boston, U.S.A.: published by Ginn, Heath, +& Co., 1882. 8vo, pp. xl, 107. + +Second Edition, Ginn, Heath, & Co., 1885. 8vo, pp. xlvi, 110. + +Third Edition, Ginn & Co., 1892. Reprinted 1899. 8vo, pp. liii, 110. + +Fourth Edition, 1900. + +Sixth English Translation. Imitative Measures. + + +_Differences between the Editions._ + +In the second edition the translation was collated with the Grein-Wülker +text, and wherever necessary, with the Zupitza _Autotypes_. Additions +were made to the bibliography:-- + + ‘I have revised certain passages with a view to greater accuracy, + but I have not changed the plan of the work, for that would have + necessitated the re-writing of the whole translation.’ --Preface + to the second edition. + +The third and fourth editions are simple reprints, with some additions +to the bibliography. + + +_Circumstances of Publication._ + +As has been pointed out above in the sections on Arnold[1] and +Lumsden[2], no satisfactory literal translation of _Beowulf_ existed in +English. Furthermore, an American translation had never appeared. It was +with a view to presenting the latest German interpretations of the poem +that Garnett prepared his literal version of the poem. The original +draft of the translation was made at St. John’s College, Md., in the +session of 1878-79.--Preface to first edition. + + +_Texts Used._ + +The translation is based on Grein’s text of 1867. Notes are added +showing the variants from Heyne’s text of 1879. In the second edition +notes are added showing the variants from the Grein-Wülker text of 1883. + + +_Method of Translation._ + +The translation is intended for ‘the general reader’ and for the ‘aid of +students of the poem.’ --Preface to second edition. + +The translation is a literal line-for-line version. Of this feature of +his work Professor Garnett says:-- + + ‘This involves naturally much inversion and occasional obscurity, + and lacks smoothness; but it seemed to me to give the general + reader a better idea of the poem than a mere prose translation + would do, in addition to the advantage of literalness. While it + would have been easy, by means of periphrasis and freer + translation, to mend some of the defects chargeable to the + line-for-line form, the translation would have lacked literalness, + which I regarded as the most important object.’ --Preface to the + first edition. + + +_Nature of the Verse-form._ + + ‘In respect to the rhythmical form, I have endeavored to preserve + two accents to each half-line, with cæsura, and while not seeking + alliteration, have employed it purposely wherever it readily + presented itself. I considered that it mattered little whether the + feet were iambi or trochees, anapæsts or dactyls, the preservation + of the two accents being the main point, and have freely made use + of all the usual licences in Early English verse.... To attain + this point I have sometimes found it necessary to place unemphatic + words in accented positions, and words usually accented in + unaccented ones, which licence can also be found in Early English + verse.... While the reader of modern English verse may sometimes + be offended by the ruggedness of the rhythm, it is hoped that the + Anglo-Saxon scholar will make allowances for the difficulty of + reproducing, even approximately, the rhythm of the original. The + reproduction of the sense as closely as possible had to be kept + constantly in view, even to the detriment of the smoothness of the + rhythm.’ --Preface to the first edition. + + +EXTRACT. + + III. + + Hunferth’s taunt. The swimming-match with Breca. Joy in Heorot. + + IX. Hunferth then spoke, the son of Ecglaf, + Who at the feet sat of the lord of the Scyldings, 500 + Unloosed his war-secret (was the coming of Beowulf, + The proud sea-farer, to him mickle grief, + For that he granted not that any man else + Ever more honor of this mid-earth + Should gain under heavens than he himself): 505 + ‘Art thou that Beowulf who strove with Breca + On the broad sea in swimming-match, + When ye two for pride the billows tried + And for vain boasting in the deep water + Riskéd your lives. You two no man, 510 + Nor friend nor foe, might then dissuade + From sorrowful venture, when ye on the sea swam, + When ye the sea-waves with your arms covered, + Measured the sea-ways, struck with your hands, + Glided o’er ocean; with its great billows 515 + Welled up winter’s flood. In the power of the waters + Ye seven nights strove: he in swimming thee conquered, + He had greater might. Then him in the morning + On the Heathoremes’ land the ocean bore up, + Whence he did seek his pleasant home, 520 + Dear to his people, the land of the Brondings + His fair strong city, where he had people, + A city and rings. All his boast against thee + The son of Beanstan truly fulfilled.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +The translation, in its revised form, is throughout a faithful version +of the original text. The fault of Garnett’s translation is the fault of +all merely literal translations--inadequacy to render fully the content +of the original. The rendering may be word for word, but it will not be +idea for idea. Examples of this inadequacy may be given from the printed +extract. ‘Grief’ in line 502 is a very insufficient rendering of +_æf-þunca_, a unique word which suggests at once vexation, +mortification, and jealousy. Had the poet simply meant to express the +notion of _grief_, he would have used _sorh_, _cearu_, or some other +common word. In line 508 ‘pride’ hardly gives full expression to the +idea of _wlence,_ which signifies not only _pride_, but _vain pride, of +empty end_. In line 517 ‘conquered’ is insufficient as a translation of +_oferflāt_, which means to _overcome in swimming, to outswim_. + +Examples of this sort can be brought forward from any part of the poem. +At line 2544 Garnett translates-- + + Struggles of battle when warriors contended, + +a translation of-- + + Gūða ... þonne hnitan fēðan + +Here ‘hnitan fēðan’ refers to the swift clash in battle of two armed +hosts, a notion which is ill borne out by the distributive ‘warriors’ +and the vague ‘contended.’ + +At line 2598 we find-- + + they to wood went + +for + + hȳ on holt bugon, + +which, whatever be the meaning of ‘bugon,’ is surely a misleading +translation. + +The nature of the verse has been sufficiently illustrated by the +quotations from the author’s preface. It would seem from the way in +which the measure is used that it was a kind of second thought, incident +upon the use of a line-for-line translation. It is hard to read the +lines as anything but prose, and, if they appeared in any other form +upon the page, it is to be questioned whether any one would have guessed +that they were intended to be imitative. + + +_Reception of Garnett’s Translation._ + +Garnett’s volume had a flattering reception. The book received long and +respectful reviews from the Germans. Professor Child and Henry Sweet +expressed their approbation. The book has passed through four editions. +This cordial welcome has been due in large measure to the increasing +attention given the poem in American colleges and secondary schools. +Being strictly literal, the book has been of value as a means of +interpreting the poem. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 71.] [[Arnold]] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 79.] [[Lumsden]] + + + + +GRION’S TRANSLATION + + +Beovulf, poema epico anglosassone del vii secolo, tradotto e illustrato +dal Dott. Cav. Giusto Grion, Socio Ordinario. + +_In_ Atti della Reale Accademia Lucchese di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. +Tomo XXII. Lucca: Tipografia Giusti, 1883. 8vo, pp. 197-379. + +First Italian Translation. Imitative Measures. + + +_Contents._ + +Full discussions of (1) Mito; (2) Storia; (3) Letteratura. The latter is +a fairly complete bibliography of what had been done on _Beowulf_ up to +this time. + + +_Author’s Preliminary Remarks._ + + ‘Il poema consiste di 3183 versi fra cui alcuni in frammenti che + noi abbiamo cercato di completare senza alterare lettera del + testo. Una mano recente lo ha diviso in 43 canti, detti in ags. + fitte; ne notiamo il numero anche nella versione. I versi che il + Müllenhoff reputa interpolati, sono disposti in linee rientranti; + quelli attributi ad A portano di più questa lettera nella versione + nostra interlineare, che segue la parola del testo in maniera da + mantenervi anche la sintassi, e sì che nessuna parola d’un verso + prenda posto in un’ altra riga. Le parentesi quadre [ ] segnano + nel testo riempiture di lacune. Nella versione sono queste segnate + per lettere corsive.’ --Prefazione, p. 251. + + +_Texts Used._ + +The translator makes use of all the texts and commentaries that had +appeared up to his time, and even goes so far as to emend the text for +himself (cf. lines 65, 665, 1107, 2561, 3150). + +The Notes are rather full. They are sometimes merely explanatory; +sometimes there are discussions of the MS. readings, of proposed +emendations, of history, myth, &c. + + +_Method of Translation._ + +The translation is literal; the medium an imitative measure of four +principal stresses, varied occasionally by the expanded line. The +diction is simple. + + +EXTRACT. + + VIII. + + Hunferd disse, il nato di Eclaf, + che a’ piedi sedea del prence de’ Schildinghi, 500 + sbrigliò accenti di contesta--eragli la gita di Beóvulf, + del coraggioso navigatore, molto a fastidio, + perchè non amava, che un altro uomo + vieppiù di gloria nell’ orbe di mezzo + avesse sotto il cielo che lui stesso--: 505 + ‘Sei tu quel Beóvulf, che con Breca nuotò + nel vasto pelago per gara marina, + quando voi per baldanza l’acque provaste, + e per pazzo vanto nel profondo sale + la vita arrischiaste? nè voi uomo alcuno, 510 + nè caro nè discaro, distorre potè + dalla penosa andata, quando remigaste nell’ alto, + la corrente dell’ oceano colle braccia coprendo + misuraste le strade del mare, colle mani batteste, + e scivolaste sopra l’astato. Nelle onde del ghebbo 515 + vagavano i cavalloni d’inverno: + voi nel tenere dell’ acqua + sette notti appenàstevi. Egli nel nuoto ti superò, + ebbe più forza. E al tempo mattutino lo + portò suso il flutto verso la marittima Ramia + donde ei cercò la dolce patria, 520 + cara a sue genti, la terra dei Brondinghi, + il vago castel tranquillo, ov’ egli popolo avea, + rocche e gioie. Il vanto intero contro te + il figlio di Beanstan in verità mantenne.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +The present writer cannot attempt a literary criticism of the +translation. + +In purpose and method this version may be compared with that of +Kemble[1] and of Schaldemose[2]. In each case the translator was +introducing the poem to a foreign public, and it was therefore well that +the translation should be literal in order that it might assist in the +interpretation of the original. There has been no further work done on +the poem in Italy[3]. + +While the verse is not strictly imitative in the sense that it preserves +exactly the Old English system of versification, it aims to maintain the +general movement of the original lines. The four stresses are kept, save +where a fifth is used to avoid monotony. These ‘expanded lines’ are much +commoner in the Italian than in the Old English. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 41.] [[Schaldemose]] + + [Footnote 3: Of a work by G. Schuhmann, mentioned by Wülker + in his _Grundriss_, § 209, I can ascertain nothing.] + + + + +WICKBERG’S TRANSLATION + + +Beowulf, en fornengelsk hjeltedikt, öfversatt af Rudolf Wickberg. +Westervik, C. O. Ekblad & Comp., 1889. 4to, pp. 48, double columns. + +First Swedish Translation. Imitative Measures. + + +_Aim of the Volume._ + +The translator begins his introduction with a discussion of the +importance of _Beowulf_ as a historical document. For this reason he is +especially interested in the episodes:-- + + ‘This important historical interest may then explain the reason + for translating the poem into Swedish, and also serve as an excuse + for the fact that in the translation the poetic form has not been + considered of first importance.’ --Inledning, p. 3. + + +_Nature of the Translation._ + + ‘In the translation I have endeavored to make the language + readable and modern. A translation out of an ancient tongue ought + never to strive after archaic flavor in point of words and + expressions. Since the poet wrote in the language of his day, the + translation ought also to use contemporary language.... I have + tried to follow the original faithfully, but not slavishly. For + the sake of clearness the half-lines have often been + transposed.... The rhythm is still more irregular than the Old + English. Alliteration has generally been avoided.’ --Inledning, + p. 6. + + +_Texts Used._ + +The author constructs his own text. He explains (p. 6) that he has in +general taken the MS. as the basis of his text. He has emended by making +those changes which ‘seemed most necessary or most probable.’ In places +where this departure from the MS. has been made, he italicizes the words +of his translation. + + +EXTRACT. + + 8. + + Ecglafs son Hunferð talade; + Vid Scyldingafurstens fötter satt han, + Löste stridsrunan--den modige sjöfaranden + Beovulfs resa förtröt honom mycket, + Förty han unnade ej, att någon annan man + Under himlen skulle någonsin vinna + Större ära på jorden än han sjelf--: + ‘Är du den Beovulf, som mätte sig med Breca + I kappsimning öfver det vida hafvet, + Der I öfvermodigt pröfvaden vågorna + Och för djerft skryt vågaden lifvet + I det djupa vattnet? Ej kunde någon man, + Ljuf eller led, förmå eder att afstå + Från den sorgfulla färden. Sedan summen I i hafvet, + Der I med armarna famnaden hafsströmmen, + Mätten hafsvågorna, svängden händerna, + Gleden öfver hafsytan; vintersvallet + Sjöd i vågorna. I sträfvaden sju nätter + I hafvets våld; han öfvervann dig i simning, + Hade större styrka. Sedan vid morgontiden + Bar hafvet upp honom till de krigiska rämerna. + Derifrån uppsökte han, dyr för de sina, + Sitt kära odal i brondingarnes land, + Den fagra fridsborgen, der han hade folk, + Berg och ringar. Hela sitt vad med dig + Fullgjorde noga Beanstans son.’ + + + + +EARLE’S TRANSLATION + + +The Deeds of Beowulf, an English Epic of the Eighth Century, done into +Modern Prose, with an Introduction and Notes by John Earle, M.A., rector +of Swanswick, Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of +Oxford. At the Clarendon Press, 1892 (February). 8vo, pp. c, 203. + +Seventh English Translation. Prose. + + +_Circumstances of Publication._ + +Sixteen years had elapsed since the publication of a scholarly +translation in England--for Lumsden’s[1] can hardly be said to count as +such. In the meantime Heyne’s text[2] had passed into a fifth edition +(1888); Wülker’s revision of Grein’s _Bibliothek_ had appeared with a +new text of _Beowulf_ (1881); Zupitza’s _Autotypes_ of the MS. had +appeared 1882, making it possible to ascertain exactly what was in the +original text of the poem; the studies of Sievers[3], Cosijn[4], +Kluge[5], and Bugge[6] had been published, containing masterly +discussions of text revision. Some of these materials had been used by +Garnett in his translation, but the majority of them were of later date. + + +_Aim of the Translation._ + +Nothing is said in the introduction respecting the aim of the +translation; but it is evident from the Notes that the purpose was +twofold--to present the latest interpretation of the text, and to afford +a literary version of the poem. + + +_Texts Used._ + + ‘This translation was originally made from the Fourth Edition of + Moritz Heyne’s text. His Fifth Edition came out in 1888, and I + think I have used it enough to become acquainted with all the + changes that Dr. Adolf Socin, the new editor, has introduced. + Where they have appeared to me to be improvements, I have modified + my translation accordingly.’ --Preface. + +But the translator does not depend slavishly upon his text. He +frequently uses emendations suggested by the scholars mentioned above, +especially those of Professor Sophus Bugge in _Studien über das +Beowulfsepos_[7]; see lines 457, 871, 900, 936, 1875, 2275. + +The Introduction presents a new theory of the origin of the poem. The +notes are especially interesting because of the large body of quotations +cited for literary comparison and for the light they throw on Old +Germanic and medieval customs. + + +EXTRACT. + + VIII. + + _Unferth the king’s orator is jealous. He baits the young + adventurer, and in a scoffing speech dares him to a night-watch + for Grendel. Beowulf is angered, and thus he is drawn out to boast + of his youthful feats._ + + Unferth made a speech, Ecglaf’s son; he who sate at the feet of + the Scyldings’ lord, broached a quarrelsome theme--the adventure + of Beowulf the high-souled voyager was great despite to him, + because he grudged that any other man should ever in the world + achieve more exploits under heaven than he himself:-- ‘Art thou + _that_ Beowulf, he who strove with Breca on open sea in + swimming-match, where ye twain out of bravado explored the floods, + and foolhardily in deep water jeoparded your lives? nor could any + man, friend or foe, turn the pair of you from the dismal + adventure! What time ye twain plied in swimming, where ye twain + covered with your arms the awful stream, meted the sea-streets, + buffeted with hands, shot over ocean; the deep boiled with waves, + a wintry surge. Ye twain in the realm of waters toiled a + se’nnight; he at swimming outvied thee, had greater force. Then in + morning hour the swell cast him ashore on the Heathoram people, + whence he made for his own patrimony, dear to his Leeds he made + for the land of the Brondings, a fair stronghold, where he was + lord of folk, of city, and of rings. All his boast to thee-ward, + Beanstan’s son soothly fulfilled. Wherefore I anticipate for thee + worse luck--though thou wert everywhere doughty in battle-shocks, + in grim war-tug--if thou darest bide in Grendel’s way a night-long + space.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +As a whole, the translation may fairly be called faithful. The +emendations from which Professor Earle sometimes renders are always +carefully chosen, and the discussions of obscure lines in the poem are +of real scholarly interest. But this is not always true of the simpler +passages of the poem. These are often strained to make them square with +the translator’s personal notions. Thus, at line 1723, Earle reads for + + _Ic þis gid be þē āwraec_ + It is about thee ... that I have told this tale, + +adding in a note, ‘(In this passage) the living poet steps forward out +of his Hrothgar, and turns his eyes to the prince for whom he made it +up’ (p. 168). Now this is nothing more than an attempt on the part of +the translator to wring from the Old English lines some scrap of proof +for the peculiar theory that he holds of the origin of the poem. + +Similarly, he often reads into a single word more than it can possibly +bear. At line 371 he translates-- + + _Hrothgar, helm Scyldinga,_ + Hrothgar, crown of Scyldings. + +But ‘crown’ is an impossible rendering of ‘helm,’ which is here used +figuratively to denote the idea of protection[8], rather than the idea +of the crowning glory of kingship. Further, in the same passage, 375-6, +_heard eafora_ (bold son), is wrenched into meaning ‘grown-up son.’ +These are but two examples of what is common throughout the translation. + + +_Diction._ + +The archaic style used by Professor Earle cannot be regarded as highly +felicitous, since it mixes the diction of various ages. Here are Old +English archaisms like ‘Leeds’ and ‘burnie’; here are expressions like +‘escheat,’ ‘page’ (attendant), ‘emprize,’ ‘bombard’ (drinking-vessel), +‘chivalry.’ Here are such specialized words as ‘harpoon,’ ‘belligerent,’ +‘pocket-money,’ and combinations like ‘battailous grip’; while +throughout the entire translation are scattered modern colloquialisms +like ‘boss’ (master), ‘tussle,’ ‘war-tug.’ + +The reason for these anomalies is evident--the translator wishes to +imitate the remoteness of the original style. The style is certainly +remote--at times almost as remote from the language of to-day as is the +style of _Beowulf_ itself. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 79.] [[Lumsden]] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 64.] [[Heyne: Relation of...]] + + [Footnote 3: Paul und Braune’s _Beiträge_, XI, 328; Ang. XIV, 133.] + + [Footnote 4: _Beiträge_, VIII, 568; _Aanteekeningen_, Leiden 1891.] + + [Footnote 5: _Beiträge_, IX, 187; VIII, 532.] + + [Footnote 6: _Beiträge_, XI, 1; _Studien über das Beowulfsepos_.] + + [Footnote 7: _Beiträge_, XI, 1 ff.] + + [Footnote 8: See the glossaries of Grein and Wyatt.] + + + + +J. L. HALL’S TRANSLATION + + +Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem, translated by John Lesslie Hall. +Boston: D. C. Heath and Co., 1892 (May 7). + +Reprinted 1900. 8vo, pp. xviii, 110. + +Eighth English Translation. Imitative Measures. + + +_Circumstances of Publication._ + +Presented to the Philosophical Faculty of Johns Hopkins University in +candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by John Lesslie Hall, +late Professor in the college of William and Mary. + + +_Aim of the Translation._ + + ‘The work is addressed to two classes of readers.... The + Anglo-Saxon scholar he [the translator] hopes to please by + adhering faithfully to the original. The student of English + literature he aims to interest by giving him, in modern garb, the + most ancient epic of our race.’ --Preface, vii. + + +_Nature of the Translation._ + +The translation is in imitative measures and in archaic style. + + ‘The effort has been made to give a decided flavor of archaism to + the translation. All words not in keeping with the spirit of the + poem have been avoided. Again, though many archaic words have been + used, there are none, it is believed, which are not found in + standard modern poetry.... + + ‘The measure used in the present translation is believed to be as + near a reproduction of the original as modern English affords.... + The four stresses of the Anglo-Saxon verse are retained, and as + much thesis and anacrusis is allowed as is consistent with a + regular cadence. Alliteration has been used to a large extent; but + it was thought that modern ears would hardly tolerate it in every + line. End-rhyme has been used occasionally; internal rhyme, + sporadically.... + + ‘What Gummere calls the “rime-giver” has been studiously kept; + viz., the first accented syllable in the second half-verse always + carries the alliteration; and the last accented syllable + alliterates only sporadically.... + + ‘No two accented syllables have been brought together, except + occasionally after a cæsural pause.... Or, scientifically + speaking, Sievers’s C type has been avoided as not consonant with + the plan of translation.’ --Preface, viii, ix. + + +_Text._ + + ‘The Heyne-Socin text and glossary have been closely followed. + Occasionally a deviation has been made.... Once in a while ... + (the translator) has added a conjecture of his own to the + emendations quoted from the criticisms of other students of the + poem.’ --Preface, vii. + +The footnotes which contain the conjectural readings are interesting, +and in one or two cases valuable additions to the suggested emendations +(cf. p. 15; p. 103, note 3). + + +EXTRACT. + + IX. + + UNFERTH TAUNTS BEOWULF. + + [Sidenote: Unferth, a thane of Hrothgar, is jealous of Beowulf, + and undertakes to twit him.] + + Unferth spoke up, Ecglaf his son, + Who sat at the feet of the lord of the Scyldings, + Opened the jousting (the journey of Beowulf, + Sea-farer doughty, gave sorrow to Unferth + And greatest chagrin, too, for granted he never 5 + That any man else on earth should attain to, + Gain under heaven, more glory than he): + + [Sidenote: Did you take part in a swimming-match with Breca?] + + [Sidenote: ’Twas mere folly that actuated you both to risk + your lives on the ocean.] + + ‘Art thou that Beowulf with Breca did struggle, + On the wide sea-currents at swimming contended, + Where to humor your pride the ocean ye tried, 10 + From vainest vaunting adventured your bodies + In care of the waters? And no one was able + Nor lief nor loth one, in the least to dissuade you + Your difficult voyage; then ye ventured a-swimming, + Where your arms outstretching the streams ye did cover, 15 + The mere-ways measured, mixing and stirring them, + Glided the ocean; angry the waves were, + With the weltering of winter. In the water’s possession, + Ye toiled for a seven-night; he at swimming outdid thee, + In strength excelled thee. Then early at morning 20 + On the Heathoremes’ shore the holm-currents tossed him, + Sought he thenceward the home of his fathers, + Beloved of his liegemen, the land of the Brondings, + The peace-castle pleasant, where a people he wielded + Had borough and jewels. The pledge that he made thee 25 + The son of Beanstan hath soothly accomplished. + + [Sidenote: Breca outdid you entirely. Much more will Grendel + outdo you, if you vie with him in prowess.] + + Then I ween thou wilt find thee less fortunate issue, + Though ever triumphant in onset of battle, + A grim grappling, if Grendel thou darest + For the space of a night near-by to wait for! 30 + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +The translation is faithful, but not literal. The chief difference, for +example, between this and the translation by Garnett is that Hall makes +an attempt to preserve the poetic value of the Old English words. He is +never satisfied with the dictionary equivalent of an Old English +expression. Thus, in the extract given above, ‘from vainest vaunting’ is +given as a translation of _dol-gilpe_--a great improvement over +Garnett’s rendering, ‘for pride.’ Similarly, ‘mixing and stirring’ is +given as a translation of _mundum brugdon_. This method often leads the +translator some distance, perhaps too great a distance, from the Old +English. The following may serve as examples of the heightened color +that Hall gives to the Old English forms:-- + + 548, ‘the north-wind whistled, fierce in our faces,’ + for _norþan-wind heaðo-grim ondhwearf_. + + 557, ‘my obedient blade,’ for _hilde-bille_. + + 568, ‘foam-dashing currents,’ for _brontne ford_. + + 587, ‘with cold-hearted cruelty thou killedst thy brothers,’ + for _ðū þīnum brōðrum tō banan wurde_. + + 606, ‘the sun in its ether robes,’ for _sunne swegl-wered_. + + 838, ‘in the mist of the morning,’ for _on morgen_. + + 1311, ‘As day was dawning in the dusk of the morning,’ + for _ǣr-dæge_. + +Perhaps these paraphrastic renderings are what Dr. Hall is referring to +when he says in his preface, regarding the nature of the translation, +‘Occasionally some loss has been sustained; but, on the other hand, +a gain has here and there been made.’ + +As for the archaism, that is well enough for those who like it. It is +never so strange as that of Earle, or the marvelous diction of William +Morris. But it is not, therefore, dignified or clear. How much dignity +and clarity a translator has a right to introduce into his rendering is +a matter of opinion. Mr. Hall was quite conscious of what he was doing, +and doubtless regarded his diction as well suited to convey the original +Beowulf spirit. + +The chief criticism of the verse is that it is often not verse at all. +Many passages are indistinguishable from prose. This is a stricture that +cannot be passed on the Old English, nor on the best modern imitations +of it. + + The atheling of Geatmen uttered these words and + Heroic did hasten. --Page 51, line 19. + + In war ’neath the water the work with great pains I + Performed. --Page 57, line 6. + + Gave me willingly to see on the wall a + Heavy old hand-sword. --Page 57, line 11. + + The man was so dear that he failed to suppress the + Emotions that moved him. --Page 64, line 59. + +There might be an excuse for some of this freedom in blank verse, but in +measures imitative of the Old English it is utterly out of place. There +is always a pause at the end of a line in Old English; run-on lines are +uncommon. There is not an example in _Beowulf_ of an ending so light as +’the’ or ‘a’ in the verses quoted above. + + + + +HOFFMANN’S TRANSLATION + + +Beówulf. Aeltestes deutsches Heldengedicht. Aus dem Angelsächsischen +übertragen von P. Hoffmann. Züllichau. Verlag von Herm. Liebich (1893?). +8vo, pp. iii, 183. + +*Zweite Ausgabe, Hannover, Schaper, 1900. + +Sixth German Translation. Nibelungen Measures. + + +_The Translator._ + +In _Minerva_ (1902), P. Hoffmann is recorded as ‘Ord. Professor’ of +Philosophy and Pedagogy at Gent. + + +_Aim of the Volume._ + +The translator desired to present a rendering of the poem that should +attract the general reader. He regarded Simrock’s version as too literal +and archaic[1], the version of von Wolzogen as not sufficiently clear +and beautiful[2], and the version of Heyne as not sufficiently varied in +form[3] (Vorwort, i). He regards the _Beowulf_ as of great importance in +inspiring patriotism--he always calls the poem German--and even offers a +comparison of _Beowulf_ with Emperor William I. With the scholarship of +his subject the author hardly seems concerned. + + +_Text, and Relation of Parts._ + +The translation is founded on Grein’s text of 1867[4]. + +In addition to the translation, the volume contains articles on the +history of the text, origin, the Germanic hero-tales, the episodes, the +esthetic value of the poem. These are decidedly subordinate in interest +to the translation. + + +_Nature of the Translation._ + +The translation is in the so-called Nibelungen measures. Archaisms and +unnatural compounds are avoided. + +The Finnsburg fragment is inserted in the text at line 1068, p. 44 of +the volume. The episode is furnished with a beginning and ending +original with Hoffmann. + + +EXTRACT. + + VIERTES ABENTEUER. + + VON BEOWULF’S SCHWIMMFAHRT. + + Da hub der Sohn der Ecglaf, Hunferd, zu reden an; + Er sass dem Herrn der Schildinge zu Füssen, und begann + Kampfworte zu entbieten. Dass her Beowulf kam, + Der kühne Meerdurchsegler, schuf seinem Herzen bitter’n Gram. + + Dass unter dem Himmel habe ein andrer Recke mehr, 5 + Denn er, des Ruhms auf Erden, war ihm zu tragen schwer: + ‘Bist {der} Beówulf Du, der einst sich in der weiten Flut + Mit Breca mass im Schwimmen? Zu hoch vermass sich da Dein Mut! + + ‘Ihr spranget in die Wellen, vermessen wagtet ihr + Das Leben in die Tiefe, aus Ruhm und Ehrbegier! 10 + Die Fahrt, die schreckensvolle, + nicht Freund noch Feind verleiden + Euch konnte. Also triebet im Sund dahin ihr Beiden! + + ‘Als ihr mit Euren Armen des Meeres Breite decktet, + Die Meeresstrassen masset, die Hände rudernd recktet + Durch Brandungswirbel gleitend, vom Wintersturm getrieben 15 + Hoch auf die Wellen schäumten; + ihr mühtet Euch der Nächte sieben! + + ‘So rangt ihr mit den Wogen! Da wurde Dir entrafft + Der Sieg von ihm, im Schwimmen, sein war die gröss’re Kraft, + Ihn trug der Hochflut Wallen am Morgen an den Strand + Der Hadurämen, bald er von da die süsse Heimat wiederfand. 20 + + ‘Im Lande der Brondinge wie gerne man ihn sah! + Zu seiner schönen Feste kam er wieder da, + Wo er zu eigen hatte Mannen, Burg und Ringe, + Der Sohn Beanstan’s hatte geleistet sein Erbot Dir allerdinge!’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +Hoffmann’s translation is certainly not a contribution to scholarship. +It is a sufficient condemnation of the volume to quote the words of the +Vorwort:-- + + ‘Die Uebersetzungen von Grein, Holder und Möller sind mir nicht + zugänglich gewesen, auch wie es scheint, nicht sehr bekannt.’ + +It is not surprising that Hoffmann is unacquainted with the translations +of Holder and Möller, as these works have never been made; but that a +German translator should ignore the version of Grein is a revelation +indeed. + +Even though a translator may not care to embody in his work any new +interpretations, it is nevertheless his duty to base his translation on +the best text that he can find. But apparently Hoffmann had never heard +of the Heyne editions of the text, nor of the Grein-Wülker _Bibliothek_. +He bases his translation on Grein’s text of 1867. He evidently +considered it a sufficient recommendation of his work to associate with +it the name of Grein, not troubling himself to discover what advance had +been made upon the work of that scholar. + +Examples of antiquated renderings may be brought forward:-- + + P. 1, line 1, Wie grosse Ruhmesthaten. + 2, line 1, So soll mit Gaben werben im Vaterhause schon. + 21, line 15 (see Extract), Vom Wintersturm getrieben Hoch + auf die Wellen schäumten. + 84, line 3, Mothrytho. + +Petty inaccuracies due to the nature of the translation also appear. An +example of this is seen on page 3, at the opening of the first canto-- + + Ueber Burg und Mannen nun herrschte manches Jahr + Beówulf der Schilding. Wie hold dem König war + Sein Volk! in allen Landen seinen Ruhm man pries + Als lange schon sein Vater von dieser Erde Leben liess. + + +_Literary Criticism._ + +The translation resembles the work of Lumsden[5] and Wackerbarth[6] in +affording a version of the tale easily readable. And the same criticism +may be passed on the work of Hoffmann that was passed on the two +Englishmen. The style and medium chosen are not well fitted to render +the spirit of the poem. The _Nibelungenlied_ is a poem of the late +twelfth century. The _Beowulf_ at latest belongs to the eighth. To +choose for the translation of _Beowulf_, therefore, a medium surcharged +with reminiscence of a time, place, and style quite different from those +of the original is certainly an error. It may find an audience where +another and more faithful rendering would fail; but it will never win +the esteem of scholars. In his introduction Hoffmann calls attention to +the lack of variety in blank verse, but surely it does not have the +monotony inherent in a recurring rime and strophe. + +Again, rime and strophe force upon the author the use of words and +phrases needed to pad out the verse or stanza. Attention must also be +called to the fact that the original seldom affords a natural pause at +the exact point demanded by the use of a strophic form. See the close of +the following stanzas in the Extract: I, III, IV, V. One effect of the +forced pause is that there is confusion in the use of kennings, which +often have to do duty as subject in one stanza and as object in another +stanza. + +Commonplace expressions, incident perhaps upon the use of the measure, +are not unfrequent. Thus + + Gesagt! gethan! + +translates + + ond þæt geæfndon swā (line 538). + +Traces of this are also found in the extract; see beginning of last +stanza. + +In conclusion, it may be said that Hoffmann’s version marks an advance +in one way only, readableness; and in this it is hardly superior to +Heyne’s rendering, which has the advantage of scholarship. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 59.] [[Simrock]] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 68.] [[von Wolzogen]] + + [Footnote 3: See supra, p. 63.] [[Heyne]] + + [Footnote 4: See supra, p. 56.] [[Grein’s Texts]] + + [Footnote 5: See p. 79.] [[Lumsden]] + + [Footnote 6: See p. 45.] [[Wackerbarth]] + + + + +MORRIS AND WYATT’S TRANSLATION + + +Colophon: Here endeth the story of Beowulf done out of the old English +tongue by William Morris and A. J. Wyatt, and printed by said William +Morris at the Kelmscott Press, Uppermall, Hammersmith, in the county of +Middlesex, and finished on the tenth day of January, 1895. Large 4to, +pp. vi, 119. + +Troy type. Edition limited to 300 copies on paper and eight on vellum. + +Second edition. The Tale of Beowulf, Sometime King of the Folk of the +Weder Geats, translated by William Morris and A. J. Wyatt. London and +New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1895. 8vo, pp. x, 191. + +Ninth English Translation. Imitative Measures. + + +_Differences between the First and Second Editions._ + +In the second edition a title-page is added. The running commentary, +printed in rubric on the margin of the first edition, is omitted. + + +_Text Used._ + +The translation is, in general, conformed to Wyatt’s text of 1894, +departing from it in only a few unimportant details. + + +_Part Taken in the Work by Morris and Wyatt respectively._ + +The matter is fortunately made perfectly clear in Mackail’s _Life of +William Morris_, vol. ii. p. 284:-- + + ‘(Morris) was not an Anglo-Saxon scholar, and to help him in + following the original, he used the aid of a prose translation + made for him by Mr. A. J. Wyatt, of Christ’s College, Cambridge, + with whom he had also read through the original. The plan of their + joint labours had been settled in the autumn of 1892. Mr. Wyatt + began to supply Morris with his prose paraphrase in February, + 1893, and he at once began to “rhyme up,” as he said, “very eager + to be at it, finding it the most delightful work.” He was working + at it all through the year, and used to read it to Burne-Jones + regularly on Sunday mornings in summer.’ + +The plan of joining with his own the name of his principal teacher was +one which Morris had used before when translating from a foreign tongue. +He published his rendering of the _Volsunga Saga_ as the work of ‘Eirikr +Magnússon and William Morris.’ There is no evidence that Mr. Wyatt had +any hand in forming the final draft of the translation. In defending it, +Morris took all the responsibility for the book upon himself, and he +always spoke of it as his own work. In writing to a German student +toward the end of his life Morris spoke of the translation as his own +without mentioning Mr. Wyatt[1]. Nor has Mr. Wyatt shown a disposition +to claim a share in the work. In the preface to his edition of the text +of _Beowulf_ (Cambridge, 1894), he says:-- + + ‘Mr. William Morris has taken the text of this edition as the + basis of his modern metrical rendering of the lay.’ --Page xiii. + +Finally, it may be added that the specimens of Mr. Wyatt’s translation +printed in the glossary and notes of his book bear no resemblance to the +work of Morris. + + +_Morris’s Theory of Translation._ + +None despised the merely literal rendering of an epic poem more than +William Morris. In writing of his version of the _Odyssey_ to Ellis, +Morris said: ‘My translation is a real one so far, not a mere periphrase +of the original as _all_ the others are.’ In translating an ancient +poem, he tried to reproduce the simplicity and remoteness of phrase +which he found in his original. He believed it possible, e.g., to +suggest the archaic flavor of Homer by adopting a diction that bore the +same relation to modern English that the language of Homer bore to that +of the age of Pericles. The archaism of the English would represent the +archaism of the Greek. This method he used in rendering Vergil and +Homer. + +But when he approached the translation of _Beowulf_, he was confronted +by a new problem. It was evident that fifteenth-century English was +ill-adapted to convey any just notion of eighth-century English. +_Beowulf_ required a diction older than that of Sir Thomas Malory or +Chaucer. Hence it became necessary to discard the theory altogether, +or else to produce another style which should in some true sense be +imitative of _Beowulf_. This latter Morris tried to accomplish by +increasing the archaism of his style by every means in his power. This +feature is discussed in the following section. + + +_Nature of the Translation._ + +The translation of _Beowulf_ is written in extremely archaic language. +An imitative measure of four principal stresses is used. Wherever +possible, the Old English syntax has been preserved (see line 1242); the +word-order of the original is retained. The archaic language is wrought +of several different kinds of words. In the first place, there is the +‘legitimate archaism,’ such as ‘mickle,’ ‘burg,’ ‘bairn’; there are +forms which are more closely associated with the translation of Old +English, such as ‘middle-garth,’ ‘ring-stem.’ There are modern words +used with the old signification, such as ‘kindly’ (in the sense ‘of the +same kind’), ‘won war’ (in the sense ‘wage war’), ‘fret’ (in the sense +‘eat’). Finally, there are forms which are literally translated from Old +English: ‘the sight seen once only’ from _ansȳn_, face, 251; ‘spearman’ +from _garsecg_, ocean (see extract), ‘gift-scat’ from _gif-sceatt_, gift +of money, 378; ‘the Maker’s own making’ from _metod-sceaft_, doom, 1180. +Romance words are excluded whenever possible. A glossary of ‘some words +not commonly used now’ is included in the book, but none of the words +cited above, save ‘burg,’ is found in it. + + +EXTRACT. + + IX. UNFERTH CONTENDETH IN WORDS WITH BEOWULF. + + Spake out then Unferth that bairn was of Ecglaf, + And he sat at the feet of the lord of the Scyldings, 500 + He unbound the battle-rune; was Beowulf’s faring, + Of him the proud mere-farer, mickle unliking, + Whereas he begrudg’d it of any man other + That he glories more mighty the middle-garth over + Should hold under heaven than he himself held: + Art thou that Beowulf who won strife with Breca + On the wide sea contending in swimming, + When ye two for pride’s sake search’d out the floods + And for a dolt’s cry into deep water + Thrust both your life-days? No man the twain of you, 510 + Lief or loth were he, might lay wyte to stay you + Your sorrowful journey, when on the sea row’d ye; + Then when the ocean-stream ye with your arms deck’d, + Meted the mere-streets, there your hands brandish’d! + O’er the Spearman ye glided; the sea with waves welter’d, + The surge of the winter. Ye twain in the waves’ might + For a seven nights swink’d. He outdid thee in swimming, + And the more was his might; but him in the morn-tide + To the Heatho-Remes’ land the holm bore ashore, + And thence away sought he to his dear land and lovely, 520 + The lief to his people sought the land of the Brondings, + The fair burg peace-warding, where he the folk owned, + The burg and the gold rings. What to theeward he boasted, + Beanstan’s son, for thee soothly he brought it about. + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +The Morris-Wyatt translation is thoroughly accurate, and is, so to +speak, an official commentary on the text of Wyatt’s edition. It is +therefore of importance to the student of the _Beowulf_. + +As a literary rendering the translation is disappointing. In the first +place, it must be frankly avowed that the diction is frequently so +strange that it seems to modern readers well-nigh ridiculous. There are +certain sentences which cannot but evoke a smile. Such are: ‘(he) spoke +a word backward,’ line 315; ‘them that in Scaney dealt out the scat,’ +line 1686. + +Secondly, the translation is unreadable. There is an avalanche of +archaisms. One example of the extreme obscurity may be given:-- + + ‘Then rathe was beroom’d, as the rich one was bidding, + For the guests a-foot going the floor all withinward.’ + l. 1975-76. + +It would seem that the burden of ‘rathe,’ ‘beroomed,’ and ‘withinward,’ +were sufficient for any sentence to carry, but we are left to discover +for ourselves that ‘rich one’ does not mean rich one, but ruler, that +the ‘floor’ is not a floor but a hall, and that the guests are not +guests, but the ruler’s own men. + +Morris himself was conscious of the obscurity of the work:-- + + ‘For the language of his version Morris once felt it necessary to + make an apology. Except a few words, he said, the words used in it + were such as he would not hesitate to use in an original poem of + his own. He did not add, however, that their effect, if slipped + sparingly in amid his own pellucid construction and facile + narrative method, would be very different from their habitual use + in a translation.... As the work advanced, he seems to have felt + this himself, and his pleasure in the doing of it fell off.’ + --Mackail’s _Life_, ii. 284-5. + +Finally, the version does not _translate_. Words like ‘Spearman’ for +_Ocean_, and combinations like ‘the sight seen once only’ for _the +face_, can be understood only by the intimate student of Old English +poetry, and there is no reason why such a person should not peruse +_Beowulf_ in the original tongue rather than in a translation +occasionally as obscure as the poem itself. + +If one can peer through the darkness of Morris’s diction, he will +discover a fairly pleasing use of the so-called imitative measure. The +verse is not nearly so rough as the original; many of the characteristic +substitutions are avoided. There is evident a tendency toward the +‘rising verse’ and the anapestic foot. The feminine ending is frequently +used. The verse is, therefore, not strictly imitative in that it retains +the Old English system of versification, but rather in that it attempts +to suggest the Old English movement by the use of four principal +stresses and a varying number of unstressed syllables. Morris’s verse is +the best of all the ‘imitative’ measures. + + [Footnote 1: See Mackail’s _Life_, i. 198.] + + + + +SIMONS’S TRANSLATION + + +Beówulf, Angelsaksisch Volksepos, vertaald in Stafrijm, en met Inleiding +en Aanteekeningen voorzien door Dr. L. Simons, Briefwisselend Lid der +Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, Leeraar aan +’t koninklijk Athenaeum te Brussel. Gent, A. Siffer, 1896. Large 8vo, +pp. 355. + +Published for the Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie voor Taal- en +Letterkunde. + +First Dutch Translation. Iambic Pentameter. + + +_Aim and Contents of the Volume._ + +The author’s purpose, as stated in ‘Een Woord Vooraf,’ is to make the +_Beowulf_ better known to the Dutch public. With this in view he adds to +his translation copious notes and an exhaustive comment. The titles of +his various chapters are: De Beschaving in den Beowulf, Christendom, +Heldensage en Volksepos, Geschiednis, Mythos, Geatas, Nationaliteit van +den Beowulf, Tijd van Voltooiing, Het Handschrift, De Versbouw, Epische +Stijl, Innerlijke Geschiednis. Explanatory and critical comment is given +in the footnotes, and textual criticism in the Notes at the end of the +volume. + + +_Text Used._ + + ‘I have followed the text of Socin[1]; where I have preferred to + give another reading I have justified my proceeding in the Notes + at the end of the work.’ --Een Woord Vooraf. + + +_Nature of the Translation._ + +It is a literal translation in iambic pentameter. + + ‘Of the translation nothing in particular needs to be said. I have + followed my original as closely as possible.’ --Een Woord Vooraf. + +He adds that this was no easy task, as Dutch does not afford the same +variety of simile as the Old English. + +A page is then given to the discussion of the nature of his verse. +He first gives his reasons for preferring iambic pentameter to the +‘Reinartsvers,’ which some might think best to use. + + ‘Moreover, the iambic pentameter lends itself well to division + into hemistichs, the principal characteristic of the ancient epic + versification.’ --Een Woord Vooraf. + +He has often preferred the simple alliteration (aa, bb) to the Old +English system[2]. + + +EXTRACT. + + IX. + + En Hunferd zeide toen, de zoon van Ecglaf, + Die aan die voeten zat des Schyldingvorsten, + Het kampgeheim ontkeetnend: (Beowulfs aankomst, + Des koenen golfvaart gaf hem grooten aanstoot, + Omdat hij geenszins aan een ander gunde + Der mannen, meerder roem op aard te rapen, + Beneên de wolken, dan hem was geworden.) + ‘Zijt gij die Beowulf, die met Brecca aanbond + Den wedstrijd op de wijde zee, in ’t zwemmen + Met dezen streven dorst, toen boud gij beiden + Navorschtet in den vloed en gij uit grootspraak + Uw leven waagdet in het diepe water? + Geen stervling was in staat, noch vriend noch vijand, + De roekelooze reis u af te raden. + Toen braakt gij beiden roeiend door de baren + En dektet onder uwen arm de deining, + Gij maat de zeebahn, zwaaiend met de handen, + Doorgleedt de waterwieling, schoon met golven + De kil opklotste bij des winters branding. + Op deze wijze wurmdet gij te gader + Wel zeven nachten in ’t bezit der zeeën. + Doch gene ging in vaart u ver te boven; + Hij had toch meerder macht. De strooming stuwde + Hem met den morgen heen ten Headoraemen, + Van waar hij wedervond, de volksgevierde, + Het lieve stambezit, het land der Brondings, + De schoone schatburg, waar hij wapenlieden + En goed en goud bezat. De zoon van Beanstan + Hield tegen u geheel zijn woord in waarheid.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +The translation seems to aim chiefly at accuracy, which accounts for the +rather large number of notes containing readings suggested by various +commentators. The translator uses freely compounds and metaphors similar +to those in the original text. This seems occasionally to militate +against the clearness of the work. Thus, it is doubtful whether +‘kampgeheim ontkeetnend’ of the extract conveys to the modern Dutch +reader any notion similar to that of the Old English _beadu-runen +onband_. + +The present writer is unable to offer any literary criticism of the +translation. + + [Footnote 1: Fifth edition of Heyne’s text, 1888.] + + [Footnote 2: At this point Simons speaks as if ab, ab, were the + common form of alliteration in Old English, whereas it is rather + uncommon.] + + + + +STEINECK’S TRANSLATION + + +Altenglische Dichtungen (Beowulf, Elene, u.a.) in wortgetreuer +Uebersetzung von H. Steineck. Leipzig, 1898, O. R. Reisland. 8vo, +Beowulf, pp. 1-102. + +Seventh German Translation. Line for line. + + +_Aim of the Volume, and Nature of the Translation._ + + ‘Die vorliegende Uebersetzung ist aus dem Bedürfnis einer + wortgetreuen Wiedergabe altenglischer Denkmäler entstanden. Soweit + es der Sinn zuliess, ist das Bestreben dahin gegangen, für jedes + altenglische Wort das etymologisch entsprechende neuhochdeutsche, + wenn vorhanden, einzusetzen. So ist die Uebersetzung zugleich ein + sprachgeschichtliches Werk.’ --Vorwort. + + +_Text Used._ + +The translation is based on Heyne’s text of 1863[1] (Vorwort). +Fragmentary passages are not restored. + + +EXTRACT. + + IX. + + Hunferd sprach, des Ecglâf Sohn, 500 + Welcher zu Füssen sass des Herren der Scyldinge; + Er löste der Streiter Geheimniss--ihm war Beowulfs Fahrt, + Des mutigen Meerfahrers, zu grossem Neid, + Weil er nicht gönnte, dass irgend ein anderer + Jemals nun mehr Ruhmesthaten + Unter dem Himmel der Erde erwarb als er selbst: + ‘Bist du Bêowulf, der du mit Breca kämpftest + Auf weiter See in einem Wettschwimmen, + Dort durchforschtet ihr beide aus Stolz die Fluten + Und wagtet aus verwegener Ruhmsucht im tiefen Wasser + Euer Leben? Euch beiden konnte keiner, 510 + Weder Freund noch Feind, vorwerfen + Die gefahrvolle Reise; da rudertet ihr beide im Wasser, + Dort überdecktet ihr beide den Wasserstrom mit Armen, + Ihr masst die Meeresstrassen, mit Händen schwangt ihr, + Ihr glittet über die Flut; das Meer wallte in Fluten, + Des Winters Gewoge; ihr mühtet euch in des Wassers Gewalt + Sieben Nächte ab; er besiegte dich beim Schwimmen, + Er hatte grössere Kraft. Da warf ihn in der Morgenzeit + An das Headoræmenland die See, + Von dort aus suchte er das traute Stammgut auf, 520 + Der seinen Leuten Teure, das Land der Brondinge, + Die schöne Friedensburg, wo er Volk besass, + Burg und Ringe. Alles, wozu er sich dir verpflichtete, + Leistete der Sohn Bêanstâns wahrhaftig.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +It would be manifestly unfair to criticize this translation for its want +of grace and melody, because it is avowedly a literal rendering, and a +literal rendering makes no attempt to attain these qualities. But there +are certain things which are indispensable in a good literal +translation. It is imperative that such a translation should be based on +the best text of the original poem. What has Steineck done? He has gone +back thirty-five years and chosen an early and inaccurate edition of a +work that has been five times re-edited, Heyne’s text of 1863! It seems +almost incredible that a German, living in the midst of scholars who +have done more than any other people to interpret the _Beowulf_, should +ignore the fruits of their efforts. + +It is unnecessary to enumerate the faults of this translation due to +dependence upon an antiquated edition of the text. Suffice it to say +that when the edition of 1863 was printed the text had not yet been +properly transcribed from the MS.[2] + +But there are evidences of an inaccuracy of a different kind that betray +a carelessness utterly reprehensible. The author is apparently unable to +transliterate properly the Old English names. Thus he has Vealhpeon and +Vealhpeo (for Wealhtheow), Ecgpeow, Halbdaene (for Healfdene), +Ermanarich, &c. + +In his attempt to produce an etymological document, the translator uses +many compounds such as even the German language might be better without; +such are--Sippenschar (sibbegedriht), 730; Schattenwandler +(sceadugenga), 704; Wangenpolster (hlēor-bolster), 689; Leibpanzer +(līc-syrce), 550. As compounds these may not be offensive to a German; +but the trouble with them is that they do not translate the Old English +ideas. + +Finally, it may be asked why a translation that appeals only as a +literal rendering should not be strictly literal, noting its every +variation from the original, italicizing supplied words, holding to the +original word-order. + +Steineck’s translation did not advance the interpretation of _Beowulf_ +a whit. In point of accuracy the book is not worthy to stand with good +translations thirty years old. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 64.] [[Heyne: Relation of...]] + + [Footnote 2: See also supra, p. 8.] [[Preliminary Remarks]] + + + + +J. R. C. HALL’S TRANSLATION + + +Beowulf, and the Fight at Finnsburg, a translation into modern English +prose, with an Introduction and Notes, by John R. Clark Hall, M.A., +Ph.D. With twelve illustrations[1]. London: Swan Sonnenschein and +Company, Lim., 1901. 8vo, pp. xlv, 203. + +Tenth English Translation. Prose. + + +_Translator, and Circumstances of Publication._ + +Hitherto Dr. Hall had been chiefly known to the learned world for his +excellent _Anglo-Saxon Dictionary for Students_. + +Up to this time no prose translation had appeared in England since 1876, +save Earle’s[2], which for the elementary student was practically +useless. Moreover, this translation was the first to embody the results +of various studies on the poem during the past decade. + + +_Contents._ + +Unlike the preceding works on _Beowulf_, it may be said that the +introductory and illustrative matter in this book is of quite as much +importance as the translation. The author says of his book:-- + + ‘The following pages comprise a short statement of what is + actually known with respect to the poem of _Beowulf_, another + statement of what seems to me most likely to be true amongst the + almost innumerable matters of conjecture concerning it, and a few + words of literary appreciation.’ --Introduction, p. ix. + +Statements similar to these have been put forth by other translators of +the poem, but the material of their volume has not always borne them +out. The studies of the poem in the Introduction are sufficient for a +school edition of _Beowulf_--a similar body of information is not found +in any of the existing editions--while annotations of some importance to +the elementary student are found in the notes and running comment. The +book contains, beside the translation, a discussion of the form, +language, geographical allusions, date, and composition of the poem, +as well as a useful, though inaccurate, bibliography[3]. + + +_Text Used._ + +The translation is founded on the text of A. J. Wyatt, Cambridge, 1894. +Dr. Hall does not always follow the interpretations given in Wyatt’s +glossary, nor is the punctuation of the translation conformed to that of +the Old English text. + + +_Indebtedness to Preceding Scholars._ + +In his translation Dr. Hall seems to be most indebted to the work of +Professor Earle[4] (see lines 4, 71, 517, 852, 870, 926, 996, 1213, +1507, 2021, 3034, &c.). + +Frequent reference is also made to the work of Cosijn, _Aanteekeningen +op den Beowulf_ (1892). The work of other scholars, such as Bugge, +Heyne, Socin, is also referred to. + + +_Nature of the Translation._ + +The translation is a literal prose version. It is constantly interrupted +by bits of running comment, designed to overcome the inherent obscurity +of the poem, or to afford an elaborate digest of the story if read +without the translation (p. 7). + +The rendering avoids archaisms. + +Bugge’s restoration is used at line 3150; the passage at line 2215 is +not restored. + + +EXTRACT. + + VIII. + + UNFERTH TAUNTS BEOWULF. BEOWULF’S CONTEST WITH BRECA. + + (Lines 499-558.) + + (499-505). _Now comes a jarring note. Unferth, a Danish courtier, + is devoured by jealousy, and taunts Beowulf._ + + Then Unferth, the son of Ecglaf, who sat at the feet of the lord + of the Scyldings, spoke, and gave vent to secret thoughts of + strife,--the journey of Beowulf, the brave sea-farer, was a great + chagrin to him, for he grudged that any other man under heaven + should ever obtain more glory on this middle-earth than he + himself. + + (506-528). _‘Art thou the same Beowulf,’ says he, ‘who ventured on + a foolhardy swimming match with Breca on the open sea in winter, + for seven days, and got beaten? A worse fate is in store for thee + when thou meetest Grendel!’_ + + ‘Art thou that Beowulf who strove with Breca, contested with him + on the open sea, in a swimming contest, when ye two for vainglory + tried the floods, and ventured your lives in deep water for idle + boasting? Nor could any man, friend or foe, dissuade you from your + sorry enterprise when ye swam on the sea; when ye compassed the + flowing stream with your arms, meted out the sea-paths, battled + with your hands, and glided over the ocean; when the sea, the + winter’s flood, surged with waves. Ye two toiled in the water’s + realm seven nights; he overcame you at swimming, he had the + greater strength. Then, at morning time, the ocean cast him up on + the Heathoræmas’ land. Thence, dear to his people, he sought his + beloved fatherland, the land of the Brondings, his fair + stronghold-city, where he had subjects and treasures and a + borough. The son of Beanstan performed faithfully all that he had + pledged himself to. So I expect for thee a worse fatality,--though + thou hast everywhere prevailed in rush of battle,--gruesome + war,--if thou darest await Grendel at close quarters for the space + of a night.’ + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +The extract is typical of all that is best in the translation. It is a +thoroughly accurate piece of work, failing only where Wyatt’s edition of +the text is unsatisfactory. Translations like ‘gave vent to secret +thoughts of strife’ and ‘thou hast prevailed in the rush of battle’ show +that the work is the outcome of long thought and deep appreciation. At +times the translation, as here, verges on a literary rendering. But in +this respect the first part of the poem is vastly superior to the later +parts, though all three are marred by extreme literalness. Dr. Hall did +not always escape the strange diction that has so often before +disfigured the translations of _Beowulf_:-- + + Line 2507, ‘my unfriendly hug finished his bony frame.’ + „ 2583, ‘The Geat’s free-handed friend crowed not in pride + of victory.’ + „ 2655, ‘Fell the foe and shield the Weder-Geat Lord’s life.’ + „ 2688, ‘the public scourge, the dreadful salamander.’ + „ 2834, ‘show his form’ (said of the Dragon). + „ 2885, ‘hopelessly escheated from your breed.’ + +It is also rather surprising to learn from Dr. Hall that Beowulf was one +of those that ‘advanced home government’ (l. 3005). + +It should be added that the explanatory comment which constantly +interrupts the translation, often six or eight times in a section, is +annoying, both because it distracts the attention and because it is +often presented in a style wholly inappropriate to the context. + +But this absence of ease and dignity does not hinder Dr. Hall’s +translation from being an excellent rendering of the matter of the poem, +at once less fanciful than Earle’s[5] and more modern than Garnett’s[6], +its only rivals as a literal translation. That it conveys an adequate +notion of the style of _Beowulf_, however, it is impossible to affirm. + + [Footnote 1: Chiefly of Anglo-Saxon antiquities.] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 91.] [[Earle]] + + [Footnote 3: See my forthcoming review of the book in the + _Journal of Germanic Philology_.] + + [Footnote 4: See supra, p. 91.] [[Earle]] + + [Footnote 5: See supra, p. 91.] [[Earle]] + + [Footnote 6: See supra, p. 83.] [[Garnett]] + + + + +TINKER’S TRANSLATION + + +Beowulf, translated out of the Old English by Chauncey Brewster Tinker, +M.A. New York: Newson and Co., 1902. 12mo, pp. 158. + +Eleventh English Translation. Prose. + + +_Aim of the Volume and Nature of the Translation._ + + ‘The present translation of _Beowulf_ is an attempt to make as + simple and readable a version of the poem as is consistent with + the character of the original. Archaic forms, which have been much + in favor with translators of Old English, have been excluded, + because it has been thought that vigor and variety are not + incompatible with simple, idiomatic English.... + + The principal ways in which the present version differs from a + merely literal translation are the following: (1) in a rather + broad interpretation of pregnant words and phrases; (2) in a + conception of some of the Old English compounds as conventional + phrases in which the original metaphorical sense is dead; (3) in a + free treatment of connecting words; (4) in frequent substitution + of a proper name for an ambiguous pronoun. + + The translation is based on the text of A. J. Wyatt (Cambridge, + 1898); a few departures from his readings are enumerated in the + Notes.’ --Preface, pp. 5, 6. + + +EXTRACT. + + VIII and IX. + + _Unferth, a thane of Hrothgar, grows jealous of Beowulf and taunts + him, raking up old tales of a swimming-match with Breca. Beowulf + is angered and boastfully tells the truth touching that adventure, + and puts Unferth to silence. Queen Wealhtheow passes the cup. + Hrothgar commends Heorot to the care of Beowulf._ + + Unferth, the son of Ecglaf, who sat at the feet of the lord of the + Scyldings, spoke, and stirred up a quarrel; the coming of Beowulf, + the brave seafarer, vexed him sore, for he would not that any + other man under heaven should ever win more glories in this world + than he himself. ‘Art thou that Beowulf who didst strive with + Breca on the broad sea and didst contend with him in swimming, + when ye two, foolhardy, made trial of the waves and for a mad + boast risked your lives in the deep water? None, friend or foe, + could turn you from the sorry venture when ye two swam out upon + the sea. But ye enfolded the ocean-streams with your arms, + measured the sea-streets, buffeted the water with your hands, + gliding over the deep. The ocean was tossing with waves, + a winter’s sea. Seven nights ye toiled in the power of the waters; + and he overcame thee in the match, for he had the greater + strength. Then at morning-tide the sea cast him up on the coast of + the Heathoræmas, whence he, beloved of his people, went to his + dear fatherland, the country of the Brondings, and his own fair + city where he was lord of a stronghold, and of subjects and + treasure. Verily, the son of Beanstan made good all his boast + against thee. Wherefore, though thou hast ever been valiant in the + rush of battle, I look to a grim fight, yea, and a worse issue, + for thee, if thou darest for the space of one night abide near + Grendel.’ + + + + +APPENDIX I + +INCOMPLETE TRANSLATIONS, AND PARAPHRASES + + + + +LEO’S DIGEST + + +Bëówulf, dasz[1] älteste deutsche in angelsächsischer mundart erhaltene +heldengedicht nach seinem inhalte, und nach seinen historischen und +mythologischen beziehungen betrachtet. Ein beitrag zur geschichte alter +deutscher geisteszustände. Von H. Leo. Halle, bei Eduard Anton, 1839. +8vo, pp. xx, 120. + +Selections Translated into German Prose. + + +_Contents of the Volume, and Nature of the Translation._ + +This was the first German book to give any extended account of the poem. + +The titles of the chapters are: I. Historische Anlehnung; II. Mythischer +Inhalt; III. Die geographischen Angaben; IV. Genealogische Verhältnisse +der in dem Liede vorkommenden Helden; V. Uebersicht des Inhalts des +Gedichtes von Bëówulf. In this fifth chapter are found the extracts from +_Beowulf_. It will be seen that the chapter is somewhat subordinate to +the others, its chief purpose being to furnish a kind of digest of the +poem, to be used principally as a work of reference. A desire to +condense leads the translator to omit lines that he does not deem +essential to an understanding of the events and characters of the poem. +Unfortunately his omissions are often the most poetical lines of the +_Beowulf_. For example, he omits the description of Beowulf’s +sea-voyage; Hrothgar’s account of the haunt of Grendel and his dam is +curtailed; the dying words of Beowulf, perhaps the most beautiful lines +in the poem, are clipped. Further examples may be found in the extract +given below. This insufficiency is excused by the fact that Leo’s main +object in preparing the book was to prove certain theories that he held +respecting the origin and date of the poem. + +The text from which he translates is Kemble’s[2]. + + +EXTRACT. + + ACHTER GESANG. + + Hûnferð Ecglâfs sohn, der zu des scildingenfürsten füssen sasz, + began da ein streiterregendesz gespräch; denn er wird eifersüchtig + auf den rum, den Bëówulf sich zu erwerben geht. Er selbst wil der + berümteste sein unter den wolken. Er sagte: ‘Bistu der Bëówulf, + der mit Brëcca ein wetschwimmen hielt sieben tage und nächte lang, + bis er dich in schwimmen besigte, der kräftigere man; dann am + achten morgen stig er auf Heáðorämes ansz land und gieng heim zu + den Brondingen, wo er eine burg und edlesz gefolge und reichtum + hatte? Bëánstânes sohn hat dir allesz geleistet, wasz er gewettet + hatte.’ + +_Omissions_:-- + + Line 502, mōdges mere-faran. + „ 507-517 _entire_. + „ 520, swǣsne ēðel, lēof his lēodum. + + +_Criticism of the Extract._ + +As an analysis this is good enough; as a translation of the passage it +is of course utterly inadequate--it omits the very best lines in the +original. The book served, however, as a running digest of the story, +and as such gave an excellent idea of the contents of the poem. But +Ettmüller was justified in calling the translation which he published +the next year, ‘the first German translation[3].’ + + [Footnote 1: Leo was a spelling reformer.] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]] + + [Footnote 3: See supra, p. 37.] [[Ettmüller]] + + + + +SANDRAS’S ACCOUNT + + +De carminibus anglo-saxonicis Cædmoni adjudicatis Disquisitio. Has +theses Parisiensi Litterarum Facultati proponebat S. G. Sandras in +Lycaeo Claromontensi Professor. Parisiis, Apud A. Durand, Bibliopolam, +1859. 8vo, pp. 87. Beowulf described _Cap. Primum_, § 2, De Profana +Poesi, pp. 10-19. + +Extracts Translated into Latin Prose. + + +The only significance of this book is that it contained the first +information about _Beowulf_ given to the French public. About ten lines +are literally translated in Cap. I, § 1, all under the general title, De +Poesi Saxonica. In § 2 the poem is rather carefully sketched, much after +the manner of Leo[1], from Beowulf’s arrival in the Danish land to the +fight with Grendel. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 122.] [[Leo]] + + + + +E. H. JONES’S PARAPHRASE + + +Popular Romances of the Middle Ages. By George W. Cox, M.A., and Eustace +Hinton Jones. London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1871. 8vo, _Beowulf_ (by +E. H. Jones), pp. 382-398. + +*Second edition, in one volume (containing, in addition to the romances +in the first edition, those formerly published under the title ‘Tales of +the Teutonic Lands’). C. Kegan Paul & Company: London, 1880 (1879). + +A Paraphrase for General Readers. + + +_Aim of the Volume._ + + ‘The thought that these old romances may be presented to + Englishmen of the present day in a form which shall retain their + real vigour without the repulsive characteristics impressed on + them by a comparatively rude and ignorant age may not, perhaps, be + regarded as inexcusably presumptuous. With greater confidence it + may be affirmed that, if we turn to these old legends or romances + at all, it should be for the purpose of learning what they really + were, and not with any wish of seeing them through a glass which + shall reflect chiefly our own thoughts about them and throw over + them a colouring borrowed from the sentiment of the nineteenth + century. + + ‘These two conditions have, it is hoped, been strictly observed in + the versions here given of some of the great romances of mediæval + Europe. While special care has been taken to guard against the + introduction even of phrases not in harmony with the original + narratives, not less pains have been bestowed on the task of + preserving all that is essential in the narrative; and thus it may + perhaps be safely said that the readers of this volume will obtain + from it an adequate knowledge of these time-honoured stories, + without having their attention and their patience overtaxed by a + multiplicity of superfluous and therefore utterly irksome + details.’ --Preface, pp. vi, vii. + + +_Nature of the Paraphrase._ + +The poem is relieved of all the episodes except the prolog and King +Hrothgar’s discourse. Sometimes these omissions seem unnecessary. It is +certainly a mistake to sacrifice the swimming-match, lively in its +narrative, dramatic in setting. + +On the other hand, the author makes an attempt to preserve as much as +possible of the original style. So anxious is he to save every +picturesque word of the original, that he sometimes transfers +expressions from the passages which he is obliged to drop and inserts +them in other parts of the story. + + +EXTRACT[1]. + + ‘Away to the westward among the people of the Geáts lived a man, + strongest of his race, tall, mighty-handed, and clean made. He was + a thane, kinsman to Hygelác the Geátish chief, and nobly born, + being son of Ecgtheow the Wægmunding, a war-prince who wedded with + the daughter of Hrethel the Geát. This man heard of Grendel’s + deeds, of Hrothgár’s sorrow, and the sore distress of the Danes, + and having sought out fifteen warriors, he entered into a + new-pitched ship to seek the war-king across the sea. Bird-like + the vessel’s swan-necked prow breasted the white sea-foam till the + warriors reached the windy walls of cliff and the steep mountains + of the Danish shores. They thanked God because the wave-ways had + been easy to them; then, sea-wearied, lashed their wide-bosomed + ship to an anchorage, donned their war-weeds, and came to Heorot, + the gold and jewelled house. Brightly gleamed their armour and + merrily sang the ring-iron of their trappings as they marched into + the palace.’ --Pages 384-5. + + +_Criticism of the Paraphrase._ + +The object of a paraphrase is to present all the essential matter of the +original, in a style materially simpler than, though not unrelated to, +the original. + +The matter of Mr. Jones’s paraphrase is not above criticism. It is full +of minor errors. In the extract, for example, the original does not say +that the heroes ‘donned their war-weeds,’ nor that there were mountains +on the shores of Denmark. + +The style of the work is much better. It is throughout strong and clear, +not over-sentimental. It is, perhaps, too intimate; it savors slightly +of the _Märchen_. This absence of vigor and remoteness may be due to the +nature of the volume of which this paraphrase is only a part. + + [Footnote 1: Swimming-match omitted.] + + + + +ZINSSER’S SELECTION + + +Jahresbericht über die Realschule zu Forbach (Lothringen) für das +Schuljahr 1880 bis 1881, mit welchem zu der öffentlichen Prüfung am +Freitag den 12. August 1881 ergebenst einladet der Director A. +Knitterscheid. + +Voran geht eine Abhandlung des ordentlichen Lehrers G. Zinsser: Der +‘Kampf Beowulfs mit Grendel,’ als Probe einer metrischen Uebersetzung +des angelsächsischen Epos ‘Beóvulf.’ Saarbrücken. Druck von Gebrüder +Hofer. 1881. 4to, pp. 18, double columns, Schulnachrichten 6. + +The First 836 Lines translated in Iambic Pentameter. + + +_Aim, Contents, and Method of Translation._ + + ‘Gleichwol wird das Gedicht in deutscher Sprache noch wenig + gelesen; und es mag darum gerechtfertigt sein, wenn auch ein + weniger Berufener ein Schärflein zum weiteren Bekanntwerden dieses + altehrwürdigen Erzeugnisses germanischen Geistes beitragen will. + Derselbe hat in seiner Uebersetzung, von welcher im Folgenden von + 3184 Versen nur die ersten 826[1], nämlich der Kampf Beowulfs mit + Grendel mit vorausgehender Genealogie der dänischen Könige, + vorgeführt werden, alles vermieden, was dem Laien das Verständnis + erschweren könnte. Die am Schluss beigefügten mythologischen, + historischen und geographischen Erläuterungen können auch denen + willkommen sein, welche sich eingehender mit dem Gedicht + beschäftigen wollen.’ --Einleitung, 4. + + +_Text Used._ + +The text used is Heyne’s edition of 1873 (see Einleitung, 4). + + +EXTRACT. + + 9. + + Doch Hunferd, Ecglafs Sohn, der beim Gelage + Zu Füssen Hrodgars, seines Herren, sass, + War voll Verdruss, der Ruhm des Beowulf + Erregte bittren Neid im Busen ihm. + Er konnte nicht ertragen, wenn beim Volke + Ein andrer mehr gepriesen ward, als er. + Voll Aerger sucht’ er Händel, also sprechend: + ‘Du bist gewiss der Beowulf, der einst + Im Meer mit Breca um die Wette schwamm? + Ihr masset damals euch in kühnem Wagen! + Das mühevolle Werk euch auszureden + Vermochte niemand, tollkühn setztet ihr + Das Leben ein und schwammt ins Meer hinaus. + Zerteiltet mit den Armen kraftgemut + Des Meeres Wogen, glittet rasch dahin + In kalter Flut. Ihr mühtet sieben Nächte + Euch ab, und endlich siegte Brecas Stärke, + Er war dir doch voran an Heldenkraft. + Ihn trug die Flut zur Morgenzeit hinauf + Zum Hadorämenstrand. Von dort gelangt’ + Er dann zu seiner Burg in Brondingland, + Die, starkbefestigt, funkelndes Geschmied, + Der Spangen und Juwelen viele birgt. + Es jubelte sein Volk dem Herren zu, + Der kühn sein Wort gelöst, nachdem er so + Im Wettkampf glänzend hatte obgesiegt!’ + + +_Criticism of the Extract._ + +The translation is very free. Lines that are obscure in the original are +not allowed to be obscure in the translation, even if they have to have +a meaning read into them. For example, in the extract quoted above, +_beadu-runen onband_ of the original is rendered ‘sucht’ er Händel,’ +thoroughly intelligible, but not accurate. There is at times a tendency +to paraphrase, or even to introduce an original sentence into the poem. +An example of this may be seen at the close of the first canto:-- + + ‘unerforschlich sind + Und dunkel oft die Wege des Geschickes[2].’ --Page 5, l. 54. + +Words are occasionally omitted. In the extract above _ne lēof nē lāð_ +(l. 511) and _sunu Bēanstānes_ (l. 524) are omitted in translation. +There are no lines in the original which correspond to the last line and +a half of the extract. + +Of course by adopting this method of translation the writer attains his +purpose. His poem is readable, but readable at the expense of accuracy. +As a paraphrase, the version is commendable; but it is hardly of +importance in any other way. + + [Footnote 1: According to the Old English text, 836.] + + [Footnote 2: The Old English reads:-- + + Men ne cunnon + secgan tō sōðe, sele-rǣdende + hæleð under heofenum, hwā þǣm hlæste onfēng. --Lines 50-52.] + + + + +GIBB’S PARAPHRASE + +*Gudrun and other Stories, from the Epics of the Middle Ages, by John +Gibb. M. Japp & Company: London: Edinburgh (printed), 1881. + +Gudrun, Beowulf, and Roland, with other mediaeval tales by John Gibb, +with twenty illustrations. Second edition. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1884 +(1883). + +8vo, _Beowulf_, pp. 135-168, with three illustrations[1]. + +A Paraphrase in English Prose. + + +_Aim of the Volume._ + + ‘I have not translated them (the poems) literally, but have told + their stories faithfully in simple language, with the special + design of interesting young people, although I am not without hope + that they will be read by some who can no longer be called young.’ + --Prefatory Note. + + +_Nature of the Paraphrase._ + +The following parts are omitted: (1) All episodes except the Prolog; +(2) All lines that do not have to do directly with the story; (3) All +the descriptive adjectives and kennings of the poem. + +Gibb seems to care nothing for the beauties of the style. How much he +has sacrificed may be seen by noting his rendering of the celebrated +description of Grendel’s haunt:-- + + ‘I know not their home. It is in a dark lake overshadowed by + trees. Into that lake the stag will not plunge, even although the + hounds are close upon it, so fearful and unholy is the place.’ + +An illustration of the same thing may be seen by noting the omission of +phrases from the swimming-match. + + +EXTRACT. + + But Hunferth, the son of Ecglaf, who sat at the feet of King + Hrothgar, was displeased. He was grieved that any hero should come + to the land boasting that he could do what no one among the Danes + could do. He said scornfully to Beowulf-- + + ‘Tell me, art thou the Beowulf whom Breca overcame in a swimming + match? I heard the tale. You both ventured out like foolish men + among the waves in the days of winter. For seven nights you swam + together, but Breca was the stronger. Thou wilt have a worse + defeat shouldst thou venture to meet Grendel in the darkness of + the night.’ --Page 144. + + +_Criticism of the Paraphrase._ + +In comparison with the work of Mr. Jones[2], it may be said that Mr. +Gibb’s paraphrase is fuller, reproduces more events, and follows more +faithfully the original order. He supplies fewer explanatory words and +sentences. But, on the other hand, Mr. Gibb’s work, unlike Mr. Jones’s, +has no merits of style--it is all on a dead level of prose. Thus it sins +against one of the laws of paraphrase: that the writer, in relieving +himself of the exacting duties of translator, must present the story in +a more literary and more truly adequate medium. Mr. Gibb’s is one of the +poorer paraphrases. + + +_Indebtedness to Arnold._ + +At page 280 of the concluding chapter, the author speaks of the history +and character of the poem. It will be found on reference to this section +that the author is a follower of the views set forth in the edition of +Mr. Thomas Arnold[3]. It is probable that Mr. Gibb was indebted to this +book for much of his paraphrase, but the free character of the version +prevents any decision on this point. + + [Footnote 1: Woodcuts; two of them are identical with the ones + given in the Wägner-MacDowall paraphrase: see infra, p. 130.] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 123.] [[Sandras]] + + [Footnote 3: See supra, p. 71.] [[Arnold]] + + + + +THE WÄGNER-MACDOWALL PARAPHRASE + + +Epics and Romances of the Middle Ages. Adapted from the Work of Dr. W. +Wägner by M. W. MacDowall, and edited by W. S. W. Anson. Philadelphia: +J. B. Lippincott & Co., London: W. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1883. 8vo, +_Beowulf_, pp. 347-364, with two illustrations[1]. + +Second Edition, Oct. 1883. + +Sixth Edition, 1890. + +Eighth Edition, 1896. + +_Beowulf_ Retold, with Changes and Additions. + +The paraphrase is adapted from _Deutsche Heldensagen für Schule und +Haus_, by Dr. W. Wägner (Leipzig, 1881). + + +_Aim of the Book._ + +From the nature of the changes made in the story, it is evident that an +appeal is made to younger readers. This is borne out by the statement on +p. 9 of the Introduction. + + +_Changes in the Story._ + +The story does not pretend to do more than follow the most general +outlines of the original. The most important changes are in the first +division of the poem, where it would seem that no changes whatever were +needed. The principal additions are the following:-- + +(1) A minstrel flees from plague-stricken Heorot, sails to the Geatish +land, and sings the terror wrought by Grendel, urging Beowulf to come +and save the people. + +(2) The swimming-match is introduced into the action of the story, with +the _motif_ radically altered. Breca is represented as winning the +match. + +(3) The incident of Beowulf’s refusal of the crown is amplified and +introduced into the story at the opening of the third part. + +(4) The story differs from the original in a number of minor details. + + +EXTRACT. + + The minstrel tuned his harp and sang of Beowulf’s heroic deeds, + and prophesied that he would conquer and slay the monster of the + morass. This praise made Hunford, one of the courtiers, angry and + jealous. He said it was Breka, not Beowulf, that had won the + golden chain[2]; that the Gothic hero was undertaking an + enterprise that would very likely lead him to his death; and he + advised him to think twice before attacking Grendel. Upon this, + Beowulf exclaimed indignantly that he had won a good sword instead + of the golden chain, and that it was sharp enough both to pierce + the hide of the monster and to cut out a slanderous tongue. + + +_Criticism of the Paraphrase._ + +The extract gives a good idea of the author’s sins of omission and +commission. It will be seen, for example, that the tone of the entire +passage is altered. The bit of repartee in the last sentence is wholly +foreign to the Beowulf manner, which is outright and downright--the very +opposite of subtilty. The false manner is evident at once when we +compare the reply of the hero in the original, ‘Thou art the murderer of +thine own brethren, and thou shalt be damned in Hell. Wait till +to-night, and thou shalt see which of us is the stronger.’ + +The story is, if possible, more garbled than the style. The mission of +the minstrel and the mangled account of the swimming-match have no +essential or artistic relation to the context. They are merely inserted +to add to the action of the piece. + +The popularity of the book is attested by the number of editions through +which it has passed. The volume contains also paraphrases of the legends +about Arthur, Charlemagne, and Tannhäuser, as well as the story of the +Nibelungs. These must account for its enduring success; but it is +unfortunate that this, the poorest of the Beowulf paraphrases, should +thus have found an audience which it did not deserve and could never +have commanded for itself. + + [Footnote 1: Woodcuts; inaccurate.] + + [Footnote 2: A prize offered by King Hygelak for the victor in + the match.] + + + + +THERESE DAHN’S PARAPHRASE + + +Walhall. Germanische Götter- und Heldensagen. Für Alt und Jung am +deutschen Herd erzählt von Felix Dahn und Therese Dahn, geb. Freiin von +Droste-Hülshoff. Mit neunundfünfzig Bildertafeln, Textbildern, +Kopfleisten und Schlussstücken nach Federzeichnungen von Johannes +Gehrts. Kreuznach, Verlag von R. Voigtländer, 1883. + +Seventh Edition, 1885. + +Eleventh Edition, 1891. + +Twelfth Edition (Leipzig), 1898. + +8vo, _Beowulf_ (by Therese Dahn[1]), pp. 361-405, with two +illustrations. + +A Paraphrase in German Prose for General Readers. + + +_Therese Dahn._ + +Therese Dahn, born Freiin von Droste-Hülshoff, was born in 1845, and +married Felix Dahn in 1873. With him she published in 1873 at Leipzig a +volume of poems (_Gedichte_). For certain of her verses in this volume +she received high praise. She has since continued creative work. She +resides at Breslau, where Felix Dahn is professor in the University. +Of the stories in the present volume she wrote, beside _Beowulf_, _Die +Wölsungen_, _Kudrun_, the story of König Wilkinus, &c., _Wieland der +Schmied_, _Walther und Hildgund_, and the stories from the _Dietrich_ +saga and the _Nibelungen_ saga. + + +_Nature of the Paraphrase._ + +The following parts of the story are omitted entirely: the account of +the first King Beowulf in the Prolog; the Sigemund episode, Hrothgar’s +Discourse; the Thrytho episode; the Freawaru episode; Beowulf’s account +of his Fight with Grendel as told to King Hygelac; the Battle of +Ravenswood. + +Other changes in the story are as follows: the sorrows of the Danes as +told in the Prolog are attributed to the reign of King Heremod; in a +separate Kapitel (III) are gathered the Sorrows of King Hrethel, the +account of Ongentheow, the Fall of Hygelac, and the Death of Heardred. +The Fight at Finnsburg is added and an original beginning provided +for it. + +Obscure words, phrases, and lines are omitted; and explanatory words are +inserted from time to time. + + +_Indebtedness to Simrock._ + +The translation was evidently made with Simrock’s translation[2] in +hand; possibly it may have been made directly from that version. +Evidence of the dependence upon Simrock may be found at every step. The +forms of the proper names invented by Simrock are repeated here (e.g., +Aeskhere, Hädkynn, Ochthere). His renderings of the unique words in the +poem (sometimes in a slightly simplified form) are used in the +paraphrase. Often the original word used by Simrock is added in +parentheses (cf., e.g., Simrock, p. 72.6 with Dahn, p. 382, and p. 73.44 +with Dahn, p. 383). Further evidence may be found by comparing the +extracts given in this work. + + +EXTRACT. + + _Hunferd_, des Königs erster Sänger, hub da ein Streitlied an; ihm + war Beowulfs Ankunft leid: denn er liebte es nicht, dass ein ihn + anderer an Ruhm übertreffe. + + ‘Bist du der Beowulf, der einst im Wettkampf mit _Breka_ durch die + See schwamm? Wo ihr tollkühn in vermessenem Mut euer Leben in den + tiefen Wassern wagtet? Weder Freund noch Feind konnten euch + abhalten. Da rudertet ihr in den Sund, masset die Meeresstrassen, + schlugt die Wasser mit den Händen, über die Tiefen gleitend. Die + winterkalte See stürmte und brauste: sieben Nächte schwammt ihr im + Wasser. Breka besiegte dich: er hatte mehr Kraft. Die Hochflut + warf ihn am nächsten Morgen ans Land, von we er in seine Heimat + eilte, in das Land der _Brondinge_, wo er über Burg und Volk + gebietet.’ --Page 370. + + +_Criticism of the Paraphrase._ + +In many places the work is practically a translation, so closely has the +original been followed. The style is agreeable and simple; but most of +what is beautiful in the diction belongs to Simrock rather than to Frau +Dahn. + +The omissions are the most sensible that I have found in a paraphrase. +Nothing of first importance has been lost. + + [Footnote 1: See p. 662.] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 59.] [[Simrock]] + + + + +STOPFORD BROOKE’S SELECTIONS + + +The History of Early English Literature, being the History of English +Poetry from its Beginnings to the Accession of King Ælfred. By Stopford +A. Brooke. New York and London: The Macmillan Co., 1892. 8vo, _Beowulf_, +pp. 12-92. + +English Literature from the Beginning to the Norman Conquest. By +Stopford A. Brooke. New York and London: The Macmillan Co., 1898. +8vo, _Beowulf_, pp. 58-83. + +Digest, Running Comment, and Translation of Copious Extracts into +Imitative Measures. + + +_Reasons for including this Book._ + +This volume is included here because of the great influence it has had +in forming popular notions regarding the _Beowulf_. The eminence of Mr. +Brooke as a critic and as a poet has given him the attention of an +audience hardly commanded by any other writer included in this paper. + +Again, the number of lines actually translated by Mr. Brooke is equal to +that in many of the volumes described in this section. + + +_Difference between the two Editions._ + +The account in the second volume is much shorter than that in the first; +only twelve pages are given to the story of Beowulf, while the first +volume gives forty-three. The later book omits all discussion of the +episodes, and, although parts of the older volume are retained, the +matter is, in general, re-written. + + +_Method of Translation._ + +Translated extracts accompany the story as told by Mr. Brooke. + +In his Preface (p. ix), the author speaks of the futility of prose +translations of poetry, and of the inadequacy of modern English media +for translating the spirit of the poetry. Finally he adopts a line which +he hopes will ‘fulfil the needs and follow closely the peculiarities’ of +Old English. + + ‘I chose after many experiments, the trochaic movement used in + this book, each half-line consisting of trochees following one + another, with a syllable at the end, chiefly a long one, to mark + the division of the line. I varied the line as much as I could, + introducing, often rashly, metrical changes; for the fault of this + movement is its monotony. I have sometimes tried an iambic + movement, but rarely; for this trochaic line with a beat at the + end of each half-verse seemed to me to get the nearest to the + sound of the Anglo-Saxon line, even though it is frequently + un-similar to that line itself. I used alliteration whenever I + could, and stressed as much as possible the alliterated words, and + I changed the length of the line with the changes of the original. + But when I could not easily alliterate my line or stress the + alliterated word, I did not try to do so.’ + +The author adopts an archaic diction. The word-order of the Old English +is followed whenever possible. + + +_Text Used._ + +The text appears to be that of Grein-Wülker (1883). + + +EXTRACT[1]. + + There at haven stood, hung with rings the ship, + Ice-bright, for the outpath eager, craft of Aethelings. + So their lord, the well-beloved, all at length they laid + In the bosom of the bark, him the bracelet-giver,-- + By the mast the mighty king. Many gifts were there + Fretted things of fairness brought from far-off ways.-- + Never heard I of a keel hung more comelily about + With the weeds of war, with the weapons of the battle, + With the bills and byrnies. On his breast there lay + A great heap of gems that should go with him, + Far to fare away in the Flood’s possession[2]. --Page 26. + + [Footnote 1: The swimming-match is not available for illustration + here.] + + [Footnote 2: In the second edition, the penultimate line reads, + ‘Jewels great and heaped,’ &c.] + + +_Criticism of the Translation._ + +While the extracts cannot always be praised for their accuracy, they +are, perhaps, sufficiently faithful for a popular work. When the author +undertakes to emend the text for himself, or offers an original +interpretation, his work is not always trustworthy. Emendations in his +Beowulf selections, however, are rare. + +The style of the extracts seems needlessly obscure. This is due in part +to following too closely the original word-order (see lines 4 and 5 of +the extract), and in part to the free use of archaic language. Mr. +Brooke does not hesitate to employ such forms as, ‘house-carles,’ +‘grit-wall,’ ‘ness-slopes,’ ‘host-shafts,’ ‘war-wood,’ ‘gold-flakèd +shields,’ ‘grinning-masked helms,’ which it would seem must be quite +unintelligible to the majority of Mr. Brooke’s readers. + +The verse, which has been fully discussed above, is, perhaps, the most +satisfactory feature of Mr. Brooke’s work. Of course it is not strictly +imitative, as he himself explains, but it gives a fairly good impression +of the movement of the Old English verse. + + + + +MISS RAGOZIN’S PARAPHRASE + + +Tales of the Heroic Ages. Siegfried, the Hero of the North, and Beowulf, +the Hero of the Anglo-Saxons, by Zenaïde A. Ragozin. G. P. Putnam’s +Sons, New York and London, 1898. 8vo, _Beowulf_, pp. 211-323, with Note +at p. 323, and with four illustrations by George T. Tobin. + +School Edition, New York, W. B. Harison, 1900. + +A Paraphrase in English Prose. + + +_The Author, and the Aim of her Book._ + +Miss Zenaïde Alexeievna Ragozin, a Russian by birth, an American by +adoption, has devoted herself to the popularization of history and +mythology. In the series _Stories of the Nations_, she has published, +_The Story of Chaldea_, _The Story of Assyria_, _The Story of Media, +Babylon, and Persia_, _The Story of Vedic India_. Of late she has turned +her attention to the mythology of the various European nations, and has +written of Siegfried, Frithjof, and Roland. + +The object of her work may be given in her own words:-- + + ‘(The series is) intended as parallel reading to history, and + planned to illustrate history.... Great changes are coming over + the schools, ... changes in the right direction, which may shortly + amount to a revolution, when there will be no reason why these + _Tales of the Heroic Ages_ should not, although addressed to young + people at large, find a place, if not in the school curriculum, at + least in the wide margin of so-called ‘Supplementary Reading.’ May + they prove acceptable, not alone to the young, to whom they are + specially addressed, but also, as has been felicitously said, to + “the old with young tastes.”’ --Pages xx, xxii. + + +_Method of Paraphrase._ + + ‘(The style) should be simple and epical; faithfully following the + main lines, bringing out also the characteristic details--the + poetical beauties, picturesque traits, and original dialogue, + as much as may be consistent with necessary condensation and, + frequently, elimination. It should be a consecutive, lively + narrative, with the necessary elucidating explanations + incorporated in the text and with the fewest and briefest possible + footnotes, while it should contain no critical or mythological + digressions.... What we want in telling it to the young, is to + take the epic just as it is, condensing and expurgating, but not + changing; rendering the characters, scenes and situations with the + faithfulness and reverence due to the masterpiece of a race; using + as much as possible, especially in the dialogue, the words of the + original.... (The language) should be simple, though not untinged + with quaintness, and even in places a certain degree of archaism.’ + --Pages xvi, xix, xxi. + + +_Indebtedness to Earle._ + + ‘Professor Earle’s[1] version has been fully utilized in the + present volume, even to the extent of frequently making use of its + wording, where it is not too archaic or literal for ordinary + purposes.’ --Page 330, footnote. + +Some notion of the extent of this borrowing may be had by examining the +extract printed below and the criticism that follows. + + +EXTRACT. + + Yet there was one eye that gleamed not with merriment and + goodwill, one head that hatched no friendly thoughts, because the + heart swelled with malice and envy. Unferth it was, the king’s own + story-teller, who sat at his feet, to be ready at all times to + amuse him. He broached a quarrelsome theme--an adventure in + Beowulf’s youth, the only contest in his record the issue of + which, though hard fought, might be called doubtful. For this + Unferth was an envious wight, whose soul grudged that any man + should achieve greater things than himself. + + ‘Art thou not,’ he began tauntingly, ‘that same Beowulf who strove + with Breca on open sea in a swimming-match, in which ye both + wantonly exposed your lives, and no man, either friend or foe, + could turn you from the foolish venture? A se’nnight ye twain + toiled in the realm of the waters, and, if I err not, he outdid + thee in swimming, for he had greater strength. Wherefore I fear me + much that thou mayest meet with sorry luck if thou darest to bide + here for Grendel for the space of a whole night.’ + + +_Criticism of the Paraphrase._ + +It may be inferred from the dependence upon the work of Earle that Miss +Ragozin’s knowledge of Old English is of the slightest. This inference +is borne out by frequent misapprehension of the original sense, due in +large measure to the use of a single translation. Thus on page 245, +Grendel is called ‘the God-sent scourge,’ and, again, on p. 322, Beowulf +is described as having been ‘most genial to his nobles.’ Both of these +errors are due to misapprehension of Professor Earle’s translation. The +list of proper names on p. 331 reveals an ignorance of some fundamental +facts of Old English pronunciation. Of course, an intimate knowledge of +the Beowulf style and diction is not indispensable to the writer of a +paraphrase, but the writer who has it will naturally be superior to the +writer without it. For illustration, Miss Thomson[2] never misinterprets +a passage as does Miss Ragozin on page 264, where nearly every sentence +is false to the Beowulf manner. + +The paraphrase is slightly disfigured by the distinctively Romance words +which disfigure Earle’s translation. + +But these slight defects need not blind us to the service done by Miss +Ragozin in making Beowulf accessible to school children. The style is, +in general, strong and effective, not without some of the beauty and +dignity of the Old English, but relieved of the more obscure and +recondite features of that style. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 91.] [[Earle]] + + [Footnote 2: See infra, p. 143.] [[Thomson]] + + + + +MR. CHURCH’S PARAPHRASE + + +Heroes of Chivalry and Romance. By the Rev. A. J. Church, M.A. London: +Seeley and Company, 1898. 8vo, _Beowulf_, pp. 3-60. With two +illustrations in colours by George Morrow. + +Beowulf Retold. + + +_Contents of the Volume._ + +‘The Story of Beowulf,’ ‘King Arthur and the Round Table,’ ‘The Treasure +of the Nibelungs.’ + + +_Indebtedness to Kemble and Earle._ + + ‘In writing the story of Beowulf I have been helped by Kemble’s + translation and notes[1], and still more by Professor Earle’s[2] + admirable edition.’ --Author’s Note. + + +_Nature of the Paraphrase._ + +All obscure words (especially kennings) and lines are dropped. Many +explanatory remarks are inserted to elucidate the story. All speeches +are greatly shortened. Beowulf’s tale of the fight is omitted entirely. +The episodes are omitted, with the exception of the Sigemund episode, +one-half of which is translated into heroic couplets, and the Finn +episode, which is referred to in a single stanza which paraphrases the +story. + + +_Concerning the Author._ + +The Rev. Alfred John Church (born 1829) is known chiefly for his +popularizations of the classics. His best-known works are _Stories from +Homer_ and _Stories from Virgil_. The present volume is an attempt to do +for some of the Germanic legends what had already been done for Homer +and Virgil. + + +EXTRACT. + + But while they feasted envy stirred in the heart of Unferth, son + of Ecglaf. He was the King’s orator, and he took it ill that + Beowulf should have come to the land of the Danes on this great + enterprise, for he was one who could not endure that any man under + heaven should do greater deeds than himself. Therefore he stood up + in the hall and spake: ‘Art thou that Beowulf who contended with + Breca in swimming on the open sea? ‘Twas, indeed, a foolhardy + thing so to put your lives in jeopardy, yet no man could turn you + from your adventure. Seven days and nights ye toiled, one against + the other, but he in the end prevailed, for he had the greater + strength. And on the eighth morning the waves cast him ashore on + the land of the Heathoram, whence he journeyed back to the city of + the Bronding, of which he was lord. So did Breca, son of Beanstan, + make good his boast against thee.’ + + +_Criticism of the Paraphrase._ + +The extract is so much fuller than the other parts of the paraphrase +that it hardly gives a fair notion of the nature of the work. The author +has appreciated the dramatic quality of the swimming episode and +preserved it nearly entire. Other parts of the story are much less +fortunate. + +A little knowledge of Old English would have done the author no harm, +and would have saved him from some errors. His most evident mistakes are +in the forms of the proper names. Such forms as these occur in his book: +Veleda, Hugon, Weopstan (sic), Hrethin, Hrethet. + +The diction is unfortunate. The coast-warden becomes a ‘squire’ (p. 7); +Heorot is a ‘banqueting hall’ (p. 4, showing the influence of Kemble’s +translation); Beowulf and Breca were ‘pages at the King’s court’ (p. 13, +showing the influence of Earle’s translation). + +Petty inaccuracies occur throughout, such as, ‘I counsel that thou +refuse not’ (p. 9); ‘A faithful squire must needs know the troubles of +his lord’ (p. 7). In point of accuracy this version is quite inferior to +the work of Miss Thomson[3]; and in point of style and atmosphere to +that of Mr. Jones[4], Miss Ragozin[5], or Miss Thomson. The book, +however, is readable, and the author’s name will doubtless serve to give +it a certain success. + + [Footnote 1: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]] + + [Footnote 2: See supra, p. 91.] [[Earle]] + + [Footnote 3: See infra, p. 143.] [[Thomson]] + + [Footnote 4: See supra, p. 123.] [[Sandras]] + + [Footnote 5: See supra, p. 138.] [[Ragozin]] + + + + +MISS THOMSON’S PARAPHRASE + + +The Adventures of Beowulf, translated from the Old English and adapted +to the Use of Schools by Clara Thomson[1]. London: Horace Marshall and +Son, 1899. 8vo, pp. 95. In the ‘New English Series,’ edited by E. E. +Speight. + +A Paraphrase in English Prose. + + +_Aim of the Volume._ + + ‘It is meant mainly to arouse in children an interest in the + beginnings of our literature--a subject that is still terribly + neglected in schools. It makes no pretension to being an adequate + or satisfactory version for grown-up readers.’ --Page 6. + + +_Method of Paraphrase._ + + ‘[Discrepancies in the poem] I have endeavoured to smooth over by + omission or by very slight additions; and whenever of two readings + of a doubtful passage, one is more easily comprehensible than the + other, I have always adhered to this, even if on philological + grounds it seems less probable.’... + + ‘Many of the episodes in the story have been greatly shortened or + altogether omitted, since they interrupt the course of the + narrative, or divert the interest from the main theme.’ + --Pages 5, 6. + +This statement is more modest than need be. It will be found that only +two of the episodes are passed without mention--the Prolog and the Tale +of Thrytho. The Legend of Sigemund and the Tale of Finn are rather fully +treated, and the Story of Freawaru and the Battle of Ravenswood are both +referred to. In each case the episodes are carefully woven into the +story, and that without superfluous words. + +The words and sentences which are supplied are very carefully chosen, +and most of them have a prototype somewhere in the poem. + + +EXTRACT. + + Now, though most of Hrothgar’s men rejoiced to see Beowulf, and + honoured him for his generous thought in coming to their help, + there was one who looked on him with dislike and envy, and was + jealous of the favour shown him by the king. This was Hunferth, + who was sitting on the daïs at Hrothgar’s feet. And when he heard + what this visitor intended to do, he grew angry and moody, because + he could not bear that any other man on earth should obtain + greater honour than he himself. So he began to rake up old tales + that he had heard of Beowulf, and tried to turn them to his hurt, + saying scornfully: + + ‘Art thou that Beowulf who once strove on the wide sea in a + swimming-match with Breca, when ye two in boasting dared to breast + the wave, and for vainglory risked your lives in the deep water? + There was no man, friend nor foe, who could dissuade you from that + sorrowful journey; but ye swam in the surf, stretching out your + arms over the waves, and stirring up the surge with your hands. So + did ye glide across the ocean, while the waves weltered in wintry + storms, and for seven nights ye laboured in the tumult of the + seas. But in the end the victory was with Breca, for his might was + the greater. Then on the morning of the eighth day the tide bore + him to the shore of Norway, whence he visited his beloved home, + the fair city of safety, where he ruled over many people, over + towns and treasure. Truly he did perform all his boast against + thee.’ + + +_Criticism of the Paraphrase._ + +In the opinion of the present writer, no better paraphrase of _Beowulf_ +exists. + +It is perhaps unfortunate that the word ‘translated’ is used on the +title-page, for this is misleading. The proper form is that used on the +cover of the book, ‘Beowulf, told by Miss Clara Thomson.’ + +It were sufficient praise to point out that the author has contrived to +retain practically all of the poem, without ever falsifying its spirit +by introducing a superabundance of explanatory phrases[2]. She is always +true to the story (as Miss Ragozin[3] is not, for example, in the first +section of her work); she is equally true to the spirit of the poem (as +Mr. Gibb[4] is not). The style is both vigorous and simple, not unworthy +of the story it tells. + +It will be surprising if Miss Thomson’s work is not popular in England, +and the book should be known and used in this country. + + [Footnote 1: Miss Thomson is better known as the biographer of + Samuel Richardson. See _Samuel Richardson, a Biographical and + Critical Study_. London, 1900.] + + [Footnote 2: The author’s argument against inserting the Prolog + is sound enough; but the omission of any part of the poem in a + paraphrase so good as Miss Thomson’s is to be regretted.] + + [Footnote 3: See supra, p. 138.] [[Ragozin]] + + [Footnote 4: See supra, p. 128.] [[Gibb]] + + + + +APPENDIX II + +A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS WHICH CONTAIN SELECTIONS FROM BEOWULF +TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH + + +(_Only works which translate at least thirty lines are noted._) + +TEN BRINK, BERNHARD, AND KENNEDY, HORACE, in Early English Literature +(to Wiclif). London and New York, 1883. Verse. + +BROWN, ANNA R., in Poet Lore, II, 133, 185. Verse, ll. 26-53, and +1493-1571. + +GUMMERE, F. B., in the American Journal of Philology, VII, 77, +ll. 1-52. Verse. + +---- in Germanic Origins (New York, 1892), pp. 109 ff. Verse. + +LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH, in Poets and Poetry of Europe, lines 18-40; +53-83; 189-257; 1789-1803; 2455-2462. Verse. + +MORLEY, HENRY, in English Writers, I, pp. 287 ff. (second edition, +London, 1887). Verse. + +ROBINSON, W. CLARKE, in Introduction to our Early English Literature +(London, 1885). Lines 87-98 (verse), and 1-52 (prose). + +SMITH, C. SPRAGUE, in the New Englander, IV, p. 49. Lines 711-838; +Section XII, Section XIII, 1493-1652; Section XXIII, Section XXIV. +Verse. + +SWEET, HENRY, in Warton’s History of English Poetry, ed. W. Carew +Hazlitt (London, 1877). Vol. II, pp. 11-12. Prose. + +TOLMAN, A. H., in Transactions of the Modern Language Association, III, +pp. 19 ff. In the ‘Style of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.’ Prose. + + +_Incomplete Paraphrase._ + +PALMER, BERTHA, in Stories from the Classic Literature of many Nations +(New York, 1898), pp. 262-263. Beowulf’s Fight with Grendel, using J. L. +Hall’s translation as a basis. + + + + +APPENDIX III + +TWO WORKS NAMED ‘BEOWULF’ + + +I. + +Beowulf, Roman von Karl Manno (pseud. Carl von Lemcke). In _Deutsche +Roman-Zeitung_, Jahrg. 19, Bde. 1, 2. Berlin, 1882. + +A modern romance, having no relation to the Old English poem. + + +II. + +_Mr. S. H. Church’s ‘Beowulf.’_ + +Beowulf, a Poem by Samuel Harden Church. New York: Stokes and Co., 1901. + +An original poem, using some of the Beowulf material. + +After speaking of his original intention of translating the _Beowulf_, +which he later discarded, the author says:-- + + ‘I have ... composed an original narrative in which the leading + characters and some of the incidents of the early work[1] have + been freely used, but as materials only. I have transferred to my + hero, Beowulf, the picturesque history of Sceaf[2]; have changed + the relationship of characters and incidents; have inserted the + illumination of Beowulf’s soul, and his banishment; and have + introduced the love motive between Beowulf and Freaware that runs + through the poem to the end. Indeed the structure, language, + style, description, elaboration, interpretation, and development + of the story are new. I have arbitrarily laid the scene in + England, under purely idealized conditions; and have initiated + nearly all that the poem contains of womanhood, of love, of + religion, of state-policy, and of domestic life and manners. It + is clear, therefore, that my work must not be judged either as a + translation, version, or paraphrase of the old Beowulf.’ + + [Footnote 1: i.e., the translation.] + + [Footnote 2: Scyld] + + + + +INDEX OF TRANSLATORS + + + Arnold, Thomas, 71-4. + Botkine, L., 75-9. + ten Brink, B., and Kennedy, H. M., 146. + Brooke, S. A., 135-7. + Brown, Anna R., 146. + Church, A. J., 141-3. + Conybeare, J. J., 28-32. + Cox and Jones, _see_ Jones. + Dahn, T., 132-4. + Earle, John, 91-5. + Ettmüller, L., 37-41. + Garnett, J. M., 83-7. + Gibb, J., 128-30. + Grein, C. W. M., 55-9. + Grion, G., 87-9. + Grundtvig, N. F. S., 22-8. + Gummere, F. B., 146. + Hall, John Lesslie, 95-9. + Hall, John R. Clark, 114-8. + Heyne, M., 63-7. + Hoffmann, P., 99-103. + Jones, E. H., 123-5. + Kemble, J. M., 33-7. + Kennedy, H. M., _see_ ten Brink. + Lemcke, Carl von, _see_ Manno. + Leo, H., 121-3. + Longfellow, H. W., 146. + Lumsden, H. W., 79-82. + MacDowall, M. W., 130-2. + Morley, H., 146. + Morris, W., 104-9. + Palmer, B., 147. + Ragozin, Z. A., 138-40. + Robinson, W. C., 146. + Sandras, G. S., 123. + Schaldemose, F., 41-5. + Simons, L., 109-11. + Simrock, K., 59-63. + Smith, C. S., 146. + Steineck, H., 112-4. + Sweet, H., 147. + Thomson, C., 143-5. + Thorkelin, G. J., 15-21. + Thorpe, B., 49-55. + Tinker, C. B., 118-20. + Tolman, A. H., 147. + Turner, S., 9-15. + Wackerbarth, A. D., 45-9. + Wägner, W., 130-2. + Wickberg, R., 90, 91. + von Wolzogen, H., 68-71. + Wyatt, A. J., 104-9. + Zinsser, G., 126-8. + + + * * * * * + * * * * + * * * * * + +ERRATA (noted by transcriber): + +The word “invisible” means that there is an appropriately sized gap, +but the character itself is not present. + +In German texts, the word or word element “wohl” is consistently +spelled “wol”. Other variant spellings are not noted. + +Translations marked with a bracketed asterisk [*] were checked against +the original texts. + +THORKELIN + Dr J V. [_periods printed as shown_] + (Criticism) ... swæsne · ᛟ · (i.e. ēðel). + [_“edhel” is the name of the runic letter; + second period in “i.e.” invisible_] + +GRUNDTVIG + Bjowulf’s Draape [Drape] + Bjovulvs-Draapen, et Høinordisk Heltedigt [Drapen ... Hoinordisk] + +ETTMÜLLER[*] + (Theory) nach dem gewonnenen Schema [gewonnen] + (Extract) bei Headhoræmes [Headoræmes] + +SCHALDEMOSE + Beo-wulf og Scopes Widsið [_letter ð printed as d with bar_] + +SIMROCK[*] + (Nature) der Schönheit des Gedichts [Gedichtes] + (Extract) In diesem Mittelkreiss [Mittelkreis] + da besiegt’ er dich im Schwimmen. + [_letter “i” in “Schwimmen” invisible_] + +HEYNE[*] + (Aim) nicht die erste, die ich biete + [_“ich” emphatic (gesperrt) in Heyne original_] + (Nature) allitterierende Versmass [alliterierende] + fünffüssige Jamben [Iamben] + (Extract) mit verwegnem Brüsten [verwegnen] + Da schwammt ihr hinaus in See [_shown as printed_] + das hatte Beanstans Sohn + [_text corrects misspelled “Banstan” in Heyne original_] + +ARNOLD + (Criticism) nothing more than a transcription [mroe] + +GARNETT + (Nature) ... ‘In respect to the rhythmical form + [_open quote invisible_] + +GRION + [_All apostrophes are spaced as in the original_] + (Preliminary) e sì che nessuna parola [si che] + +J. L. HALL + (Criticism) ... a gain has here and there been made. + [_close quote missing_] + ’the’ or ‘a’ in the verses quoted above + [_open quote in “the” invisible_] + +SIMONS[*] + Leeraar aan ’t koninklijk Athenaeum [aan’t] + (Aim and Contents) Geschiednis [Geschiedenis] + (Extract) Gij maat de zeebaan [zeebahn] + +J. R. C. HALL + (Nature) without the translation (p. 7). + [_closing parenthesis invisible_] + (Criticism) ‘... the Weder-Geat Lord’s life.’ + [_close quote missing_] + +WÄGNER-MACDOWALL + Adapted from the Work of Dr. W. Wägner by M. W. MacDowall [W. M.] + +RAGOZIN + _The Story of Vedic India_. + [_extraneous close quote at end of sentence_] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Translations of Beowulf, by +Chauncey Brewster Tinker + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRANSLATIONS OF BEOWULF *** + +***** This file should be named 25942-0.txt or 25942-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/9/4/25942/ + +Produced by Louise Hope, David Starner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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