The difficulty of translating Beowulf has been explored by scholars including J. Alexander, Roy Liuzza, and Seamus Heaney.
Among the best-known modern translations are those of Edwin Morgan, Burton Raffel, Michael J. The poem was first transcribed in 1786 some verses were first translated into modern English in 1805, and nine complete translations were made in the 19th century, including those by John Mitchell Kemble and William Morris.Īfter 1900, hundreds of translations, whether into prose, rhyming verse, or alliterative verse were made, some relatively faithful, some archaising, some attempting to domesticate the work. The Nowell Codex is housed in the British Library. It survived, but the margins were charred, and some readings were lost. In 1731, the manuscript was damaged by a fire that swept through Ashburnham House in London, which was housing Sir Robert Cotton's collection of medieval manuscripts. It has no title in the original manuscript, but has become known by the name of the story's protagonist. The poem survives in a single copy in the manuscript known as the Nowell Codex. More definite are Biblical parallels, with clear allusions to the books of Genesis, Exodus, and Daniel. Persistent attempts have been made to link Beowulf to tales from Homer's Odyssey or Virgil's Aeneid. There has long been research into similarities with other traditions and accounts, including the Icelandic Grettis saga, the Norse story of Hrolf Kraki and his bear- shapeshifting servant Bodvar Bjarki, the international folktale the Bear's Son Tale, and the Irish folktale of the Hand and the Child. Scholars have debated whether Beowulf was transmitted orally, affecting its interpretation: if it was composed early, in pagan times, then the paganism is central and the Christian elements were added later, whereas if it was composed later, in writing, by a Christian, then the pagan elements could be decorative archaising some scholars also hold an intermediate position.īeowulf is written mostly in the West Saxon dialect of Old English, but many other dialectal forms are present, suggesting that the poem may have had a long and complex transmission throughout the dialect areas of England. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a tower on a headland in his memory. Fifty years later, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is mortally wounded in the battle. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then defeated. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel. The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 6th century. Scholars call the anonymous author the " Beowulf poet". The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars the only certain dating is for the manuscript, which was produced between 9. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The battles of Beowulf, the Geatish hero, in youth and old ageīeowulf, Hygelac, Hrothgar, Wealhtheow, Hrothulf, Æschere, Unferth, Grendel, Grendel's mother, Wiglaf, Hildeburh.īeowulf ( / ˈ b eɪ ə w ʊ l f/ Old English: Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. Manuscript suffered damage from fire in 1731 (Translation: What! We of Spear-Da/nes, in days gone by, of kings / the glory have heard.) WE GARDE / na in geardagum, þeodcyninga / þrym gefrunon. We will also discuss a number of Beowulf films and their presentation of the poem’s monsters.First page of Beowulf in Cotton Vitellius A. In this course, we will consider some of these mysteries and study the text itself, looking at selected passages in Old English, but also considering the whole poem in various modern English translations and adaptations. It is not even known how the manuscript survived – it was missing for 500 years. The poet is unknown and the narrative itself is rich with supernatural mystery, but there are questions too about why a poem featuring a Scandinavian hero was copied down in Anglo-Saxon England, why an apparently Christian scribe recorded an apparently pagan oral poem, and why he chose to do so in a manuscript with very diverse other texts. But Beowulf is as mysterious as it is celebrated. Interlaced with its heroic exploits are tales of human struggle and suffering in the face of darkness and evil – and more simply in the face of inevitable old age and death. A proseminar aimed at second and third yearsīeowulf is the tale of a man who kills monsters – dragons, and shadowy swamp-dwellers.
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