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.