List of translations of Beowulf

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The Sutton Hoo helmet, a high-status treasure from the time of, and with parallels to, Beowulf Sutton Hoo helmet 2016.png
The Sutton Hoo helmet, a high-status treasure from the time of, and with parallels to, Beowulf

This is a list of translations of Beowulf, one of the best-known Old English heroic epic poems. Beowulf has been translated many times in verse and in prose. By 2020, the Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database listed some 688 translations and other versions of the poem, from Thorkelin's 1787 transcription of the text, and in at least 38 languages. [1]

Contents

The poet John Dryden's categories of translation have influenced how scholars discuss variation between translations and adaptations. [2] In the Preface to Ovid's Epistles (1680) Dryden proposed three different types of translation:

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. [2]

The works listed below may fall into more than one of Dryden's categories, but works that are essentially direct translations are listed here. Versions of other kinds that take more "latitude" are listed at List of adaptations of Beowulf.

Translations

There are hundreds of translations or near-translations of Beowulf, and more are added each year, so a complete list may well be unattainable. Listed here are the major versions discussed by scholars, along with the first versions in different languages.

English Translations

DateTitleTranslatorLocationPublisherTypeNotes
1837Beowulf Kemble, John Mitchell LondonWilliam PickeringProseFirst complete translation into modern English; archaizing, and translating word-for-word. [3] The 1st ed. in 1833 had no translation.
1849Beowulf, an epic poem translated from the Anglo-Saxon into English verse Wackerbarth, A. Diedrich LondonWilliam PickeringVerse Walter Scott-like romance verse using rhyme and modern metre (iambic tetrameters), no attempt to imitate alliterative verse [4]
1855Anglo-Saxon Poems of Beowulf Thorpe, Benjamin OxfordJames WrightVerse, prosaicParallel text, with "literal" translation "reading like prose ... chopped up into short lines" as if verse [5]
1876Beowulf: a Heroic Poem of the Eighth Century, with a translation Arnold, Thomas, the Younger London Longmans, Green ProseAn archaizing version, translating word-for-word. [6] [7]
1881Beowulf: an old English poem, translated into modern rhymesLumsden, Henry WilliamLondon Kegan Paul Verse
1882Beowulf: an Anglo-Saxon poem, & the Fight at FinnsburgGarnett, James Mercer, the youngerBostonGinn, Heath, & Co.Verse"With facsimile of the unique manuscript in the British Museum". [8]
1888I. Beówulf: an Anglo-Saxon poem. II. The Fight at Finnsburh: a fragmentHarrison, James Albert;
Moritz Heyne;
Robert Sharp
BostonX. Ginn & Co.ProseNot exactly a translation. Annotated text and long glossary
1892The Deeds of Beowulf Earle, John OxfordClarendon PressProseAn archaizing version. [9]
1894BeowulfWyatt, Alfred JohnCambridgeCambridge University PressProseNot exactly a translation. Annotated text and long glossary
1897Beowulf: an Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem Hall, John Lesslie Lexington D. C. Heath Verse [10]
1901Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg Hall, J. R. Clark CambridgeCambridge University PressProseA literal approach, somewhat archaic; smoother and more uniform than Kemble. [11] "One of the most enduringly popular of all translations of the poem". [5] [12]
1910The tale of Beowulf sometime King of the folk of the Weder Geats Morris, William;
Alfred John Wyatt
London Longman Verse"Genuinely foreignizing ... medievalizes" in a distinctive style, with "breaking rhythms and irregular syntax ... an insistently archaizing diction and a striking literalism to produce a defamiliarizing effect". [13]
1910BeowulfGummere, Francis B.New YorkThe Collier PressVerseThe Harvard Classics, Charles W. Eliot, (Ed.)
1910BeowulfSedgefield, Walter JohnManchesterUniversity of ManchesterProseNot exactly a translation. Annotated text and long glossary
1913The Story of BeowulfKirtlan, Ernest John BrighamLondonC. H. KellyProseDecorated and designed by Frederick Lawrence.
1914Beowulf. A Metrical Translation into Modern English Hall, J. R. Clark CambridgeCambridge University PressVerse
1921Widsith; Beowulf; Finnsburgh; Waldere; Dior [sic], done into Common English after the Old Manner Charles Scott Moncrieff [14] LondonChapman and HallVerseWith an introduction from Lord Northcliffe. Moncrieff had studied Old English at the University of Edinburgh in 1913. [14]
1922Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg Klaeber, Frederick Boston D. C. Heath and Company ProseClassic, continuously in print through 4 editions. Not exactly a translation. Annotated text and long glossary
1923The Story of Beowulf and Grendel. Retold in modern English proseSpencer, Richard AugustusLondon, EdinburghW. & R. ChambersProse
1923The Song of Beowulf rendered into English prose Gordon, R. K. LondonJ.M. Dent & SonsProse
1925Beowulf. Translated into modern English rhyming verse Strong, Archibald London Constable Verse
1926Beowulf. Translated into English verseCrawford, D. H.London Chatto & Windus Verse
1933The Story of Beowulf. Retold from the ancient epicRiggs, StraffordNew York D. Appleton-Century Decorated by Henry Clarence Pitz.
1940Beowulf. the oldest English epic. Translated into alliterative verse with a critical introductionKennedy, Charles W.New YorkOxford University PressVerse, alliterative OCLC   185407779.
1945Beowulf. In modern verse with an essay and picturesBone, Gavin DavidOxford Basil Blackwell Verse
1949Beowulf in Modern English. A translation in blank verseWaterhouse, Mary ElizabethCambridge Bowes & Bowes Verse, blank
1952Beowulf: A Verse Translation into Modern English Morgan, Edwin Berkeley University of California Press VerseBased on Klaeber's text; "of special significance in its own right but also as the beginning of translation of Beowulf into a genuinely modern poetic idiom, leading the way for many later followers down to and beyond Seamus Heaney". [15]
1953Beowulf, with the Finnsburg fragment Wrenn, C. L. London George G. Harrap & Co. Wrenn was one of the Inklings.
1953Beowulf and Judith Dobbie, Elliott van KirkNew York Columbia University Press
1954Beowulf the Warrior Serraillier, Ian Oxford Oxford University Press Illustrated by John Severin.
1957Beowulf Wright, David Harmondsworth Penguin Classics ProseReprinted by Panther Books, 1970
1963Beowulf Raffel, Burton New York Signet Classics VerseRaffel writes in his essay "On Translating Beowulf" that the poet-translator "needs to master the original in order to leave it". [16]
1966Beowulf Donaldson, Ethelbert Talbot London Longman ProseWidely read in The Norton Anthology of English Literature ; accurate, "foreignizing" prose, using asyndetic coordination, "somewhat ponderous but ... dignified tone ... viewed by teachers as dull". [17]
1968Beowulf Crossley-Holland, Kevin LondonMacmillan OCLC   1200055128
1968Beowulf and its AnaloguesGarmonsway, George N.LondonJ.M. Dent & SonsProse Hugh Magennis calls this "much-used"; Michael J. Alexander says it has "dignity and rhythmical shape". [18]
1973Beowulf: A Verse Translation Alexander, Michael J. HarmondsworthPenguin ClassicsVerseClosely "shadows" the original [19]
1977Beowulf: A Dual-Language EditionHowell D. ChickeringNew YorkAnchor BooksVerse
1983Beowulf: a Verse Translation with Treasures of the Ancient North Osborn, Marijane Berkeley University of California Press Verse [20]
1985A Readable Beowulf Greenfield, Stanley B. Carbondale Southern Illinois University Press "Simultaneously a poem and, by virtue of the nature of translation, an act of criticism".(Greenfield, p. ix) [21]
1991Beowulf: A Verse TranslationRebsamen, FrederickNew York HarperCollins Verseimitates original's poetic form as closely as possible, with alliterative half-lines; seven prose sections interrupt the translation, instead of using footnotes [22]
1991Beowulf: Text and TranslationPorter, John Hockwold-cum-Wilton Anglo-Saxon BooksVerseParallel text; "the most literal" [23]
1999 Beowulf: A Translation in Progress Romano, Tim Swarthmore, PennsylvaniaVerseThe translation seeks to bring over into modern English the carved syntax of the original poetry without things becoming too "wooden". url=https://www.aimsdata.com/tim/beow/beowulf_trans.htm
1999 Beowulf: A New Verse Translation Heaney, Seamus London Faber Verse
2000Beowulf Liuzza, Roy M. Peterborough, Ontario Broadview Press Parallel text. 2nd edition 2013
2012Beowulf: A TranslationMeyer, ThomasSanta Barbara, California Punctum Books
2013Grinnell Beowulf: A Translation with NotesArner, Timothy D.; Eva Dawson; Emily Johnson; Jeanette Miller; Logan Shearer; Aniela Wendt; Kate WhitmanGrinnell, IowaGrinnell College PressVerseIllustrated translation and teaching edition. [24] [25]
2013BeowulfPurvis, MeghanLondonPenned in the MarginsVerseA collection of connected poems, or read as one long poem. "The Collar" won The Times Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation, 2011 [26] and the collection was Poetry Book Society recommended translation, Summer 2013. [27]
2014
[1926]
Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary Tolkien, J. R. R. London HarperCollins ProseTranslated 1920–1926, edited by Christopher Tolkien, published posthumously with "Sellic Spell", a version reconstructed as an Anglo-Saxon folktale, i.e. without the heroic elements
2017Beowulf Mitchell, Stephen New Haven, Connecticut Yale University Press [28]
2020Beowulf: A New Translation Headley, Maria Dahvana London Macmillan VerseIt translates the opening Hwæt as "Bro!" [29] Won the 2021 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award [30] and the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Related Work. [31]
2021 'Beowulf' By All: Community Translation and Workbook Abbott, Jean; Treharne, Elaine, and Fafinski, Mateusz (Eds.)LeedsArc Humanities PressTranslated by over 200 contributors. An earlier version appeared in 2018, as Beowulf by All, Version 1.0 from Stanford TexT (of Stanford University Press).
2022After Beowulf Nicole Markotić Toronto, CanadaCoach House BooksVerse

Other Languages

DateTitleTranslatorLocationPublisherLanguageTypeNotes
1815De Danorum rebus gestis secul. III & IV. Poema danicum dialecto anglo-saxonica. Ex bibliotheca Cottoniana Musaei britannici edidit versione lat. et indicibus auxit Grim. Johnson Thorkelin. Thorkelin, Grímur Jónsson CopenhagenTh. E. RangelLatinProseTranscription (full of errors) and first translation (considered poor) [32]
1820Bjowulf's Drape Grundtvig, Nikolaj Frederik Severin CopenhagenA. SeidelinDanishVerseFirst version in a modern language, "a free paraphrase in a rhyming ballad metre" [33]
1863Beowulf, mit ausführlichem Glossar Heyne, Moritz PaderbornFerdinand SchoninghGerman
1920Byovulpu caritramu: vacana kavyamuKesava Pillai, RayapetaMadrasR. Purushottam & Co. Telugu OCLC   499929509
1932Beowulf and the Fight at FinnsburgKuriyagawa, FumioTokyoIwanamiJapaneseParallel text with Old English. OCLC   556817509.
1951La gesta de Beowulf Borges, Jorge Luis;
Delia Ingenieros
Mexico CityFondo de Cultura EconómicaSpanish
1954Beowulf Collinder, Björn Stockholm Natur och Kultur SwedishVerse, alliterativeIllustrated by Per Engström.
1959Beowulf: poema eroico anglosassoneCecioni, Cesare G.BolognaEdizioni Giuseppe MalipieroItalianProse
1969Beowulf Duțescu, Dan and Levițchi, Leon BucharestEditura pentru literatură universalăRomanianVerseFirst and only translation in Romanian. Using alliteration and triple meters, as they are considered closer to the heroic tradition in the target literature.
1982Beovulf: Staroengleski junački spev i odlomci iz junačkih pesamaKovačević, IvankaBelgradeNarodna knjigaSerbianProseWith translations of "The Fight at Finnsburg", "Widsith", "Exodus", "The Battle of Brunanburh", "The Battle of Maldon"
1986Beowulf: RészletekKépes, Júlia;
Weöres Sándor;
András T. László
BudapestEurópa KönyvkiadóHungarianVerse, alliterativeExcerpts (10 pages).
1990Beowulf: anglosaksi eepos Sepp, ReinTallinnEesti RaamatEstonianVerseimitates original's poetic form as closely as possible, with half-lines
1996Μπέογουλφ: Αγγλο-σαξονικό επικό ποίημα
Béowoulf: Anglo-saxonikó epikó poéima
Karagiórgos, PánosThessalonikiKyriakidesGreekTitle reads "Beowulf: Anglo-Saxon epic poem".
1999BeowulfPekonen, Osmo;
Clive Tolley
Porvoo WSOY FinnishVersewith Finnsburh fragment. OCLC   58326940
2007BeowulfRamalho, ErickBelo Horizonte, BrazilTessitura EditoraPortugueseParallel text with Old English
2013Бэўвульф Брыль, Антон Францішак МінскЗміцер КоласBelarusianVerse
2017BeovulfsLinde, MārisRigaLindeLatvianVerse, in half-linesCompared with Latvian folktales Lāčplēsis and Kurbads.

Related Research Articles

<i>Beowulf</i> Old English epic poem

Beowulf is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025 AD. Scholars call the anonymous author the "Beowulf poet". The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 5th and 6th centuries. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel for twelve years. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother takes revenge and is in turn defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years later, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is mortally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a barrow on a headland in his memory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horace</span> Roman lyric poet (65–8 BC)

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his Odes as the only Latin lyrics worth reading: "He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words."

Old English literature refers to poetry and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. The 7th-century work Cædmon's Hymn is often considered as the oldest surviving poem in English, as it appears in an 8th-century copy of Bede's text, the Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Poetry written in the mid 12th century represents some of the latest post-Norman examples of Old English. Adherence to the grammatical rules of Old English is largely inconsistent in 12th-century work, and by the 13th century the grammar and syntax of Old English had almost completely deteriorated, giving way to the much larger Middle English corpus of literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Dryden</span> English poet and playwright (1631–1700)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aratus</span> Ancient didactic Greek poet

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burton Raffel</span> American writer

Burton Nathan Raffel was an American writer, translator, poet and professor. He is best known for his vigorous translation of Beowulf, still widely used in universities, colleges and high schools. Other important translations include Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, Poems and Prose from the Old English, The Voice of the Night: Complete Poetry and Prose of Chairil Anwar, The Essential Horace, Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel and Dante's The Divine Comedy.

<i>Eloisa to Abelard</i> Poem by Alexander Pope

Eloisa to Abelard is a verse epistle by Alexander Pope that was published in 1717 and based on a well-known medieval story. Itself an imitation of a Latin poetic genre, its immediate fame resulted in a large number of English imitations throughout the rest of the century and other poems more loosely based on its themes thereafter. Translations of varying levels of faithfulness appeared across Europe, starting in the 1750s and reaching a peak towards the end of the 18th century and the start of the 19th. These were in the vanguard of the shift away from Classicism and towards the primacy given emotion over reason that heralded Romanticism. Artistic depictions of the poem's themes were often reproduced as prints illustrating the poem; there were also paintings in France of the women readers of the amorous correspondence between the lovers.

<i>Heroides</i> Epistolary poem collection by Ovid

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References

  1. "Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database". Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  2. 1 2 University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle (1680). "John Dryden, 'The Preface to Ovid's Epistles'". Theoretical Texts on Translation | Textes théoriques en traduction. doi:10.58079/uy1c . Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  3. Magennis 2011, pp. 13, 15, 24.
  4. Magennis 2011, pp. 7–13.
  5. 1 2 Magennis 2011, p. 15.
  6. Magennis 2011, pp. 23–24.
  7. Arnold, Thomas, the Younger (1876). "Beowulf: a Heroic Poem of the Eighth Century, with a translation" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. Garnett, James Mercer, the younger (1882). "Beowulf". Hathi Trust. Retrieved 30 November 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. Magennis 2011, p. 23.
  10. Hall, John Lesslie. Beowulf . Retrieved 2 December 2020.{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  11. Magennis 2011, p. 16.
  12. Hall, J. R. Clark (1901). Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. London: Swan Sonnenschein. pp. 3ff.
  13. Magennis 2011, p. 10.
  14. 1 2 France, Peter (2012). "Scott Moncrieff's First Translation". Translation and Literature. 21 (3): 364–382. doi:10.3366/tal.2012.0088. ISSN   0968-1361. JSTOR   41714388.
  15. Magennis 2011, pp. 1, 81–108.
  16. Magennis 2011, pp. 109–134.
  17. Magennis 2011, pp. 22–23.
  18. Magennis 2011, pp. 19–21.
  19. Magennis 2011, pp. 135–160.
  20. "Beowulf: A Verse Translation with Treasures of the Ancient North (Part 1)". University of Oxford. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  21. Magennis 2011, p. 2.
  22. Dockray-Miller, Mary (July 1994). "Rebsamen, Frederick. Beowulf: A Verse Translation. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. $4.50 (pb). ISBN: 0064302121". The Medieval Review.
  23. Nelson, Marie (2009). "Prefacing and Praising: Two Functions of "Hearing" Formulas in the "Beowulf" Story". Neuphilologische Mitteilungen. 110 (4): 487–495. JSTOR   43344436.
  24. "The Grinnell Beowulf editions". The Grinnell Beowulf. 11 July 2014.
  25. "The Grinnell Beowulf : A Translation with Notes". Digital Grinnell. 2013.
  26. "The Times Stephen Spender Prize 2011". Stephen Spender Trust. 2011.
  27. "Summer Selections". PBS Bulletin Summer 2013.
  28. Beowulf. Mitchell, Stephen, 1943-. New Haven. January 2017. ISBN   978-0-300-22888-5. OCLC   982566515.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  29. Grady, Constance (27 August 2020). "This new translation of Beowulf brings the poem to profane, funny, hot-blooded life". Vox. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  30. "Harold Morton Landon Translation Award". poets.org. September 15, 2021.
  31. "2021 Hugo Awards". Hugo Awards. December 18, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
  32. Magennis 2011, pp. 42–48, 66–67.
  33. Magennis 2011, p. 47.

Sources