The Translations of Beowulf Part 19

_Criticism of the Translation._

Hoffmann's translation is certainly not a contribution to scholars.h.i.+p.

It is a sufficient condemnation of the volume to quote the words of the Vorwort:--

'Die Uebersetzungen von Grein, Holder und Moller sind mir nicht zuganglich gewesen, auch wie es scheint, nicht sehr bekannt.'

It is not surprising that Hoffmann is unacquainted with the translations of Holder and Moller, 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-Wulker _Bibliothek_.

He bases his translation on Grein's text of 1867. He evidently considered it a sufficient recommendation of his work to a.s.sociate 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 schaumten.

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 Beowulf der Schilding. Wie hold dem Konig 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 pa.s.sed on the work of Hoffmann that was pa.s.sed 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 aet geaefndon swa (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 scholars.h.i.+p.

[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 Middles.e.x, 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 t.i.tle-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 princ.i.p.al 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 Magnusson 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.