Having discerned the point "where mind and metre could merge", Headley makes Beowulf accessible, troubled and deeply human. vessel. Allow me to answer some of these questions. Here is a hero "excelling in impossibility" as he ventures forth to kill a monster, that monster's mother, then a dragon. Soon the boat was launched and afloat searonet seowed | smiþes orþancum): [17], In 1680, the poet John Dryden proposed that translations could be classified according to how faithful or free they set out to be:[20], metaphrase [...] or turning an author word for word, and line by line, from one language into another; paraphrase [...] or translation with latitude, where the author is kept in view by the translator so as never to be lost, but his words are not so strictly followed as his sense, and that, too, is admitted to be amplified but not altered; and imitation [...] where the translator – if he has not lost that name – assumes the liberty not only to vary from the words and sense, but to forsake them both as he sees occasion; and taking only some general hints from the original, to run division on the ground-work, as he pleases. Owls hunt mice by "mist-diving", then "grist-grinding". night's table-laughter turned to morning's The present work is a modest effort to reproduce approximately, in modern measures, the venerable epic, Beowulf. Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell. by a Geatish woman, louder than the rest. the shíp had jóurneyed. ... | Nō his līfgedāl Beowulf, translated by Maria Dahwana Headley. Risden provides a good amount of introductory material about the poem, such as the context of its composition, the culture from which it emerged, and some concerns scholars have had about the Beowulf text. Objecting to Headley's new, modern reading of a text more than a millennium old might be analogous to carping about the wondrous contemporary language which pervades the King James Bible. In the passage, Morgan translated nicera not as the cognate "necks" or "nixies" but as "krakens". guma gilphlæden, | gidda gemyndig, That line of argument would rule out any up-dating of Jane Austen's timeless wisdom (goodbye Clueless) or any staging of Shakespeare in modern dress. Then the adventurers, inn under eorðweall. He used inventive compounds to represent Old English kennings, and sometimes incorporated alliteration. Other critics will stick loyally to their preferred translation, as I did with Seamus Heaney's (1999), until reading this one. weras on wilsīð | wudu bundenne. ōretmecgas | æfter æþelum frægn: [22] Here, the Danish watchman challenges Beowulf and his men as they arrive at Heorot: ... | þā ðǣr wlonc hæleð truly bound together; he began again Beowulf, written in Old English sometime before the tenth century A.D., describes the adventures of a great Scandinavian warrior of the sixth century.. A rich fabric of fact and fancy, Beowulf is the oldest surviving epic in British literature.. Beowulf exists in only one manuscript. sīde sǣnæssas; | þā wæs sund liden, ... Ungrievous seemed [24] Magennis describes the version as highly accessible and readable, using alliteration lightly, and creating a "vivid and exciting narrative concerned with heroic exploits ... in a way that [the modern reader] can understand and appreciate. His life-blood-spoor. While his mates are haplessly "scythed from swordsmen into skeletons" or skulk away in fear, Beowulf's own demons seem to lie within. þonne heoru bunden, | hamere geþrūen, [Edwin Morgan;] Home. not of Scandinavia, it has been … Beowulf, written in Old English sometime before the tenth century A.D., describes the adventures of a great Scandinavian warrior of the sixth century.. A rich fabric of fact and fancy, Beowulf is the oldest surviving epic in British literature.. Beowulf exists in only one manuscript. Lets start here. She tore her hair and screamed her horror The Heyne-Socin text and glossary have been closely followed. The world it depicts, however, is much older, that of the early sixth century. 5.0 out of 5 stars Adding to the chorus of praise. Headley has wrestled with "a living text in a dead language", worrying throughout about "how to use modern English to convey things inexpressible in it". [33] His versions of Beowulf's voyage to Heorot in prose and verse, the latter in strictest Anglo-Saxon alliteration and metre[b] (with Tolkien's markup of metrical stresses), are: Gewāt þā ofer wǣgholm | winde gefȳsed [23], Burton Raffel writes in his essay "On Translating Beowulf" that the poet-translator "needs to master the original in order to leave it", meaning that the text must be thoroughly understood, and then boldly departed from. WorldCat Home About WorldCat Help. The sky sipped the smoke and smiled. After the feasting an outburst of weeping was raised up of the race of men in the high hall. A couple years ago, I read a translation of Beowulf I found online. on bearm nacan | beorhte frætwe, She certainly uses slang, with a particular fondness for "bro", but with "bling", "swole" and "hashtag" proudly featured as well. resolute in his helmet, Beowulf spoke: | þanon ūp hraðe much noise in the morning. Earlier Headley published a riff on Beowulf in the form of a novel about a war veteran with PTSD, but here Beowulf remains set in his own time, trusting its rituals, believing its myths, fearing its God. on stefn stigon, — | strēamas wundon, The founder of the Salvation Army reckoned that the Devil had all the best tunes. Tolkien’s prose is, well, prosaic. Since it was first translated into modern English in the 19th century, Beowulf has become by far the best-known piece of Anglo-Saxon literature. Headley also strains alliteration to the limit, "froth-fanged foulness" and "sludge-stranded" among my favourites. Maria Dahvana Headley’s decision to begin her translation of Beowulf with “Bro” has gotten a lot of attention. [8] The compact half-line phrases are often made indirect with kennings like banhus, "bone-house", meaning "body", but also implying the brief span of life while the soul is housed in the body. Before writing was invented, the oral tradition was the only way stories, poems, and songs could be recorded. For Headley, Beowulf is "ready to rumble, pissed now". William Morris's 1910 The tale of Beowulf[28] is described by Magennis as "a striking experiment in literary medievalism" even by Morris's standards. Death-daubed, asurge with the blood of war, Other critics will stick loyally to their preferred translation, as I did with Seamus Heaney's (1999), until reading this one. [48] These effects are hard to achieve in modern English, he notes, not least because Old English is an inflected language, not requiring additional prepositions and definite articles like "of the" and "from", "the" and "in" for the sense. Both sets of authors might endorse Heaney's remark in his own introduction to Beowulf, that a great work of literature "lives in its own continuous present". Written in Old English in the late 10th century, Beowulf is a poem which has been translated again and again through the centuries. Old English verse has rules very unlike those of modern verse. sund wið sande; | secgas bǣron Since the scenery de-scribes tne coast of Northumbna. Slashing and stabbing with the sharpest of points. away with a will in their wood‑wreathed ship. full harness, came aboard by the prow He illustrates this with lines 127–128:[5]. nīða ofercumen, | on nicera mere J.R.R. Many stories, Beowulf included, only survived to be written down by being repeated out loud many times. It has risen to national epic status in England.. Beowulf has been adapted many times in verse, in prose, on the stage, and in film. As for lustful Helen, a feminist construction awaits. Hector would rightly become a rival more worthy than any dragon. wíde cápes by the wáves: | to wáter's énd In response to Kiani Francis' post: The Heaney "translation" of Beowulf is referred to often as 'Heaneywulf' for a reason; it is less a translation than a chance for Heaney to show off his poetic prowess and his grasp of Anglo-Saxon. Garmonsway's life and work is briefly summarized at the, the large number of attempts to make the poem approachable, "The Question of genre in bylini and Beowulf", "Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database", "Working notes and correspondence of Professor N. Garmonsway", "John Dryden, 'The Preface to Ovid's Epistles, "This new translation of Beowulf brings the poem to profane, funny, hot-blooded life", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Translating_Beowulf&oldid=1003640855, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. the fine-forged mesh of his gleaming mail-shirt, [9] These can be mapped on to modern kennings, preserving the Beowulf poet's indirectness, or translated to unpack the kenning and render the meaning more or less directly:[10], Evidently, imitating all these features at once, and the aesthetically desired and intentional compactness of Old English verse, in any modern language, is problematic. and her cúrving prów | on its cóurse wáded, in Beowulf's memory, repeating again and again [47], Liuzza notes that Beowulf itself describes the technique of a court poet in assembling materials:[48]. Beowulf has also been translated into numerous languages, including modern English, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Telugu (a Dravidian language spoken in India). | Ne seah ic elþēodige [26] In contrast, John Porter's 1991 translation is avowedly "literal", published by Anglo-Saxon Books in a parallel text to facilitate the study of the original.[27]. hū hē wērigmōd | on weg þanon, The text against which to compare it is Seamus Heaney's 2000 verse translation, and the answer to the question of which version is essential is: Both. with bloodshed, terror, captivity, and shame. Waters were seething, the dreadful wave-sweep In Magennis's view, even if this is considered unsuccessful, it "must be seen as a major artistic engagement with the Old English poem". Beowulf is an Old English epic poem written anonymously around 975 AD.Read Beowulf here, with side-by-side No Fear translations into modern English. The text against which to compare it is Seamus Heaney's 2000 verse translation, and the answer to the question of which version is essential is: Both. If you've ever told a ghost story at summer camp or learned about American folk heroes like Johnny Appleseed, you've taken part in the oral tradition. And the bros. Read more. [29], Wright's 1957 prose translation is somewhat modernising, aiming for a plain "middle style" between archaism and colloquialism under the banner "better no colours than faked ones", but striving to be as faithful as possible. His elegant use of language helps smooth out many of the translation bumps, without losing the distinctive, almost singsong rhythm of the original poem -- and the original Old English text allows you to compare and contrast. There had to be at least one alliterating stress in each half-line. Type (or copy/paste) a word into the area to the right of "Word to translate" and click / press the 'To Old English' button. sē ðe ealfela | ealdgesegena and of the death of their king. Beowulf maðelode | (on him byrne scan, The audience liked "the elaborate unstraightforwardness with which the expected is disguised", accompanied by "laconic understatement" and negative constructions. Her feminism is visible in her rendering of the lament of the Geatish woman at the end of the poem:[41]. Beowulf : a verse translation into modern English. adeptly tell an apt tale, The present work is a modest effort to reproduce approximately, in modern measures, the venerable epic, Beowulf. a grand mead-hall, be built by men: þone yldo bearn aéfre gefrúnon: 70. which the sons of men should hear of forever, ond þaér on innan eall gedaélan . All stirred turbid, gore-hot, the deep in the vessel's hold, then heaved out, It seems like an appropriate title for Seamus Heaney, whose translation of the Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf" has become a modern classic in its own right. against the beach. Tolkien’s poetry, however, and his re-write of Beowulf, … þæt hīo hyre hearmdagas | hearde ondrēde, Translated by J. R. R. Tolkien from 1920 to 1926, it was edited by Tolkien's son Christopher and published posthumously in May 2014 by HarperCollins. On the other hand, abandoning the attempt and translating into prose at once loses much of the appeal of the original, though this has not deterred many authors from using the approach. Which of these many translations is the best? Here, Beowulf sets sail for Heorot in the poet David Wright's popular and frequently reprinted Penguin Classics prose version,[12] and in Seamus Heaney's prize-winning[13] verse rendering, with word-counts to indicate relative compactness: Fyrst forð gewāt; | flota wæs on ȳðum, [9] J. R. Clark Hall produced first a translations in prose, in 1901, and then one in verse, in 1914.[11]. Much of the material of the poem is based on early folk legends—some Celtic, some Scandinavian. A dumbed-down depiction of that world is ready to hand in burlesque form in either Games of Thrones or Bernard Cornwell's interminable chronicles of Uthred of Bettanburg. Approximately, I repeat; for a very close reproduction of Anglo-Saxon verse would, to a large extent, be prose to a modern ear.. Beowulf was composed in Old English, probably in Northumbria in northeast England, sometime between the years 700 and 750.
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