The Translations of Beowulf Part 12

_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 pa.s.sages 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], eowes _for_ eofes.

2220, biorn _for_ beorna.

2211, geweoldum _for_ ge weoldum.

2223, b _for_ .

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 Heath.o.r.eamas; 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, epopee Anglo-Saxonne. Traduite en francais, pour la premiere fois, d'apres le texte original par L. Botkine, Membre de la Societe Nationale havraise d'etudes 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 Caedmoni 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 poeme n'est pas connu en France.' In 1876 Botkine published a historical and critical a.n.a.lysis 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 princ.i.p.al 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 presentant cette premiere traduction francaise de Beowulf, du double reproche qui pourrait m'etre adresse d'avoir supprime des pa.s.sages du poeme et de n'en avoir pas suffisamment respecte la lettre. D'abord je dois dire que les pa.s.sages que j'ai supprimes (il y en a fort peu) sont ou tres obscurs ou d'une superfluite choquante. Ensuite, il m'a semble qu'en donnant une certaine liberte a ma traduction et en evitant autant que possible d'y mettre les redites et les periphrases de l'original anglo-saxon, je la rendrais meilleure et plus conforme a l'esprit veritable de l'uvre. Est-ce sacrifier du reste la fidelite d'une traduction que d'epargner au public la lecture de details le plus souvent bizarres et inintelligibles?

N'est-il pas plus logique d'en finir de suite avec des artifices poetiques inconnus a nos litteratures modernes, plutot que de vouloir s'escrimer en vain a les reproduire en francais? Et alors meme qu'on poursuivrait jusqu'au bout une tache si ingrate, pourrait-on se flatter en fin de compte d'avoir conserve au poeme son cachet si indiscutable d'originalite? Non certes.'

--Avertiss.e.m.e.nt, p. 3.

'Il ne faut pas...o...b..ier que, la langue francaise differant completement par ses racines de l'anglo-saxon, il ne m'a pas ete permis d'eluder les difficultes 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 pa.s.sages 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:--

?r aet h?e stod hringed-stefna isig ond ut-fus. (l. 32 f.)