The Translations of Beowulf: A Critical Bibliography
Chapter 2
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_]