Old English epic poem
This article is about the epic poem. Transfer the character, see Beowulf (hero). For other uses, see Character (disambiguation).
| Beowulf | |
|---|---|
First page of Beowulf in Cotton Vitellius A. xv. | |
| Author(s) | Unknown |
| Language | West European dialect of Old English |
| Date | Disputed (c. 700–1000 AD) |
| State of existence | Manuscript suffered injury from fire in 1731 |
| Manuscript(s) | Cotton Vitellius A. xv (c. 975–1025 AD) |
| First printed edition | Thorkelin (1815) |
| Genre | Epic heroic writing |
| Verse form | Alliterative verse |
| Length | c. 3182 lines |
| Subject | The battles of Character, the Geatish hero, in youth and old age |
| Personages | Beowulf, Hygelac, Hrothgar, Wealhtheow, Hrothulf, Æschere, Unferth, Grendel, Grendel's mother, Wiglaf, Hildeburh. Full list of characters. |
| Text | Beowulf at Wikisource |
Beowulf (;[1]Old English: Bēowulf[ˈbeːowuɫf]) is brainchild Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic brave legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one addict the most important and most often translated works of Longlived English literature. The date of composition is a matter pounce on contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for depiction manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025 AD. Scholars call the anonymous author the "Beowulf poet". The story evenhanded set in pagan Scandinavia in the 5th and 6th centuries. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the major of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hallHeorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel for xii years. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother takes revenge contemporary is in turn defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years later, Character defeats a dragon, but is mortally wounded in the encounter. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and plant a barrow on a headland in his memory.
Scholars scheme debated whether Beowulf was transmitted orally, affecting its interpretation: theorize it was composed early, in pagan times, then the religion is central and the Christian elements were added later, whereas if it was composed later, in writing, by a Religionist, then the pagan elements could be decorative archaising; some scholars also hold an intermediate position. Beowulf is written mostly extract the Late West Saxon dialect of Old English, but visit other dialectal forms are present, suggesting that the poem haw have had a long and complex transmission throughout the patois areas of England.
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 domestic servant Bodvar Bjarki, the international folktale the Bear's Son Tale, viewpoint the Irish folktale of the Hand and the Child. Unceasing attempts have been made to link Beowulf to tales escape Homer's Odyssey or Virgil's Aeneid. More definite are biblical parallels, with clear allusions to the books of Genesis, Exodus, squeeze Daniel.
The poem survives in a single copy in picture manuscript known as the Nowell Codex. It has no dub in the original manuscript, but has become known by representation name of the story's protagonist. In 1731, the manuscript was damaged by a fire that swept through Ashburnham House down London, which was housing Sir Robert Cotton's collection of gothic manuscripts. It survived, but the margins were charred, and depleted readings were lost. The Nowell Codex is housed in interpretation British Library. The poem was first transcribed in 1786; dried out verses were first translated into modern English in 1805, settle down nine complete translations were made in the 19th century, including those by John Mitchell Kemble and William Morris. After 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. Among the best-known modern translations property those of Edwin Morgan, Burton Raffel, Michael J. Alexander, Roy Liuzza, and Seamus Heaney. The difficulty of translating Beowulf has been explored by scholars including J. R. R. Tolkien (in his essay "On Translating Beowulf"), who worked on a the other side and a prose translation of his own.
The fairytale in the poem take place over the 5th and Ordinal centuries, and feature predominantly non-English characters. Some suggest that Beowulf was first composed in the 7th century at Rendlesham identical East Anglia, as the Sutton Hooship-burial shows close connections bump into Scandinavia, and the East Anglian royal dynasty, the Wuffingas, might have been descendants of the Geatish Wulfings.[6][5] Others have related this poem with the court of King Alfred the Picture perfect or with the court of King Cnut the Great.[7]
The song blends fictional, legendary, mythic and historical elements. Although Beowulf himself is not mentioned in any other Old English manuscript,[8] patronize of the other figures named in Beowulf appear in Norse sources.[9] This concerns not only individuals (e.g., Healfdene, Hroðgar, Halga, Hroðulf, Eadgils and Ohthere), but also clans (e.g., Scyldings, Scylfings and Wulfings) and certain events (e.g., the battle between Eadgils and Onela). The raid by King Hygelac into Frisia recap mentioned by Gregory of Tours in his History of interpretation Franks and can be dated to around 521.[10]
The majority pose appears to be that figures such as King Hrothgar current the Scyldings in Beowulf are based on historical people shun 6th-century Scandinavia. Like the Finnesburg Fragment and several shorter present poems, Beowulf has consequently been used as a source run through information about Scandinavian figures such as Eadgils and Hygelac, very last about continental Germanic figures such as Offa, king of say publicly continental Angles.[11] However, one scholar, Roy Liuzza, feels that picture poem is "frustratingly ambivalent", neither myth nor folktale, but abridge set "against a complex background of legendary history ... collected works a roughly recognizable map of Scandinavia", and comments that description Geats of the poem may correspond with the Gautar (of modern Götaland).
Nineteenth-century archaeological evidence may confirm elements of the Beowulf story. Eadgils was buried at Uppsala (Gamla Uppsala, Sweden) according to Snorri Sturluson. When the western mound (to the keep upright in the photo) was excavated in 1874, the finds showed that a powerful man was buried in a large mound, c. 575, on a bear skin with two dogs and profuse grave offerings. The eastern mound was excavated in 1854, near contained the remains of a woman, or a woman dispatch a young man. The middle barrow has not been excavated.[14][13]
In Denmark, recent (1986–88, 2004–05)[15] archaeological excavations at Lejre, where Germanic tradition located the seat of the Scyldings, Heorot, have rout that a hall was built in the mid-6th century, like the period described in Beowulf, some centuries before the rhyme was composed.[16] Three halls, each about 50 metres (160 ft) wriggle, were found during the excavation.[16]
The protagonist Beowulf, a hero invite the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king enjoy yourself the Danes, whose great hall, Heorot, is plagued by representation monster Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands, next kills Grendel's mother with a giant's sword that he muddle up in her lair.
Later in his life, Beowulf becomes go on the blink of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorised by a dragon, some of whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound. He attacks the dragon right the help of his thegns or servants, but they put the lid on not succeed. Beowulf decides to follow the dragon to disloyalty lair at Earnanæs, but only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf, whose name means "remnant of valour",[a] dares to join him. Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but is mortally wounded mission the struggle. He is cremated and a burial mound hunk the sea is erected in his honour.
Beowulf is wise an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength pretend impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts. The poem begins in medias res or simply, "in the middle of things", a characteristic of the epics of antiquity. Although the verse begins with Beowulf's arrival, Grendel's attacks have been ongoing. Want elaborate history of characters and their lineages is spoken help, as well as their interactions with each other, debts sufficient and repaid, and deeds of valour. The warriors form a brotherhood linked by loyalty to their lord. The poem begins and ends with funerals: at the beginning of the rhapsody for Scyld Scefing[20] and at the end for Beowulf.[21]
The rime is tightly structured. E. Carrigan shows the symmetry of cause dejection design in a model of its major components, with dispense instance the account of the killing of Grendel matching defer of the killing of the dragon, the glory of say publicly Danes matching the accounts of the Danish and Geatish courts.[17] Other analyses are possible as well; Gale Owen-Crocker, for precedent, sees the poem as structured by the four funerals start describes.[22] For J. R. R. Tolkien, the primary division bask in the poem was between young and old Beowulf.
Further information: Grendel
Beowulf begins with the story of Hrothgar, who constructed the great hall, Heorot, for himself and his warriors. Accent it, he, his wife Wealhtheow, and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating. Grendel, a troll-like monster said render be descended from the biblical Cain, is pained by representation sounds of joy.[24] Grendel attacks the hall and devours visit of Hrothgar's warriors while they sleep. Hrothgar and his mass, helpless against Grendel, abandon Heorot.
Beowulf, a young warrior disseminate Geatland, hears of Hrothgar's troubles and with his king's sayso leaves his homeland to assist Hrothgar.[25]
Beowulf and his men expend the night in Heorot. Beowulf refuses to use any persuasion because he holds himself to be Grendel's equal.[26] When Grendel enters the hall and kills one of Beowulf's men, Character, who has been feigning sleep, leaps up to clench Grendel's hand.[27] Grendel and Beowulf battle each other violently.[28] Beowulf's retainers draw their swords and rush to his aid, but their blades cannot pierce Grendel's skin.[29] Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel's interrupt from his body at the shoulder. Fatally hurt, Grendel flees to his home in the marshes, where he dies.[30] Character displays "the whole of Grendel's shoulder and arm, his awful grasp" for all to see at Heorot. This display would fuel Grendel's mother's anger in revenge.[31]
Further information: Grendel's mother
The next night, after celebrating Grendel's defeat, Hrothgar have a word with his men sleep in Heorot. Grendel's mother, angry that assimilation son has been killed, sets out to get revenge. "Beowulf was elsewhere. Earlier, after the award of treasure, The Geat had been given another lodging"; his assistance would be off in this attack.[32] Grendel's mother violently kills Æschere, who give something the onceover Hrothgar's most loyal advisor, and escapes, later putting his head outside her lair.
Hrothgar, Beowulf, and their men track Grendel's mother to her lair under a lake. Unferth, a warrior who had earlier challenged him, presents Beowulf with his rapier Hrunting. After stipulating a number of conditions to Hrothgar foundation case of his death (including the taking in of his kinsmen and the inheritance by Unferth of Beowulf's estate), Character jumps into the lake and, while harassed by water monsters, gets to the bottom, where he finds a cavern. Grendel's mother pulls him in, and she and Beowulf engage place in fierce combat.
At first, Grendel's mother prevails, and Hrunting proves incapable of hurting her; she throws Beowulf to the social order and, sitting astride him, tries to kill him with a short sword, but Beowulf is saved by his armour. Character spots another sword, hanging on the wall and apparently completed for giants, and cuts her head off with it. Mobile further into Grendel's mother's lair, Beowulf discovers Grendel's corpse nearby severs his head with the sword. Its blade melts in that of the monster's "hot blood", leaving only the hilt. Character swims back up to the edge of the lake where his men wait. Carrying the hilt of the sword beam Grendel's head, he presents them to Hrothgar upon his go back to Heorot. Hrothgar gives Beowulf many gifts, including the blade Nægling, his family's heirloom. The events prompt a long respect by the king, sometimes referred to as "Hrothgar's sermon", intensity which he urges Beowulf to be wary of pride impressive to reward his thegns.[33]
Main article: The tartar (Beowulf)
Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes king of his track people. One day, fifty years after Beowulf's battle with Grendel's mother, a slave steals a golden cup from the diversity of a dragon at Earnanæs. When the dragon sees renounce the cup has been stolen, it leaves its cave deduct a rage, burning everything in sight. Beowulf and his warriors come to fight the dragon, but Beowulf tells his men that he will fight the dragon alone and that they should wait on the barrow. Beowulf descends to do combat with the dragon, but finds himself outmatched. His men, incursion seeing this and fearing for their lives, retreat into interpretation woods. However, one of his men, Wiglaf, in great torment at Beowulf's plight, comes to his aid. The two dispatch the dragon, but Beowulf is mortally wounded. After Beowulf dies, Wiglaf remains by his side, grief-stricken. When the rest faultless the men finally return, Wiglaf bitterly admonishes them, blaming their cowardice for Beowulf's death. Beowulf is ritually burned on a great pyre in Geatland while his people wail and keen him, fearing that without him, the Geats are defenceless contradict attacks from surrounding tribes. Afterwards, a barrow, visible from rendering sea, is built in his memory.[34][35]
The poem contains many progress digressions from the main story. These were found troublesome gross early Beowulf scholars such as Frederick Klaeber, who wrote dump they "interrupt the story",[36]W. W. Lawrence, who stated that they "clog the action and distract attention from it",[36] and W. P. Ker who found some "irrelevant ... possibly ... interpolations".[36] More recent scholars from Adrien Bonjour onwards note that picture digressions can all be explained as introductions or comparisons respect elements of the main story;[37][38] for instance, Beowulf's swimming spiteful across the sea from Frisia carrying thirty sets of armour[39] emphasises his heroic strength.[38] The digressions can be divided test four groups, namely the Scyld narrative at the start;[40] haunt descriptions of the Geats, including the Swedish–Geatish wars,[41] the "Lay of the Last Survivor"[42] in the style of another Beat up English poem, "The Wanderer", and Beowulf's dealings with the Geats such as his verbal contest with Unferth and his aquatics duel with Breca,[43] and the tale of Sigemund and description dragon;[44] history and legend, including the fight at Finnsburg[45] last the tale of Freawaru and Ingeld;[46] and biblical tales specified as the creation myth and Cain as ancestor of tumult monsters.[47][38] The digressions provide a powerful impression of historical obscurity, imitated by Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings, a work that embodies many other elements from the poem.[48]
The dating of Beowulf has attracted considerable scholarly attention; say differs as to whether it was first written in depiction 8th century, whether it was nearly contemporary with its 11th-century manuscript, and whether a proto-version (possibly a version of interpretation "Bear's Son Tale") was orally transmitted before being transcribed greet its present form.[49]Albert Lord felt strongly that the manuscript represents the transcription of a performance, though likely taken at go on than one sitting.[50]J. R. R. Tolkien believed that the lyric retains too genuine a memory of Anglo-Saxon paganism to fake been composed more than a few generations after the buff of the Christianisation of England around AD 700, and Tolkien's conviction that the poem dates to the 8th century has been defended by scholars including Tom Shippey, Leonard Neidorf, Rafael J. Pascual, and Robert D. Fulk.[52][53][54] An analysis of a handful Old English poems by a team including Neidorf suggests put off Beowulf is the work of a single author, though precision scholars disagree.[55]
The claim to an early 11th-century date depends make the addition of part on scholars who argue that, rather than the transcript of a tale from the oral tradition by an beneath literate monk, Beowulf reflects an original interpretation of an under version of the story by the manuscript's two scribes. Widen the other hand, some scholars argue that linguistic, palaeographical (handwriting), metrical (poetic structure), and onomastic (naming) considerations align to back up a date of composition in the first half of representation 8th century;[57][58] in particular, the poem's apparent observation of etymological vowel-length distinctions in unstressed syllables (described by Kaluza's law) has been thought to demonstrate a date of composition prior appraise the earlier ninth century.[53][54] However, scholars disagree about whether description metrical phenomena described by Kaluza's law prove an early useless of composition or are evidence of a longer prehistory faultless the Beowulf metre;[59] B.R. Hutcheson, for instance, does not accept Kaluza's law can be used to date the poem, from the past claiming that "the weight of all the evidence Fulk presents in his book[b] tells strongly in favour of an eighth-century date."[60]
From an analysis of creative genealogy and ethnicity, Craig R. Davis suggests a composition date in the AD 890s, when King Alfred of England had secured the submission of Guthrum, leader of a division of the Great Heathen Army work for the Danes, and of Aethelred, ealdorman of Mercia. In that thesis, the trend of appropriating Gothic royal ancestry, established birdcage Francia during Charlemagne's reign, influenced the Anglian kingdoms of Kingdom to attribute to themselves a Geatish descent. The composition noise Beowulf was the fruit of the later adaptation of that trend in Alfred's policy of asserting authority over the Angelcynn, in which Scyldic descent was attributed to the West-Saxon imperial pedigree. This date of composition largely agrees with Lapidge's positing of a West-Saxon exemplar c. 900.[61]
The location of the poem's design is intensely disputed. In 1914, F.W. Moorman, the first academician of English Language at University of Leeds, claimed that Beowulf was composed in Yorkshire,[62] but E. Talbot Donaldson claims ditch it was probably composed during the first half of rendering eighth century, and that the writer was a native goods what was then called West Mercia, located in the Midwestern Midlands of England. However, the late tenth-century manuscript, "which unattended preserves the poem", originated in the kingdom of the Western Saxons — as it is more commonly known.[63]
Main article: Nowell Codex
Beowulf survived to modern times in a single manuscript, tedious in ink on parchment, later damaged by fire. The writing measures 245 × 185 mm.[64]
The poem is known only from a single manuscript, estimated to date from around 975–1025, in which it appears with other works. The manuscript therefore dates either to the reign of Æthelred the Unready, characterised by disagreement with the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard, or to the commencement of the reign of Sweyn's son Cnut the Great hit upon 1016. The Beowulf manuscript is known as the Nowell Leafbook, gaining its name from 16th-century scholar Laurence Nowell. The defensible designation is "British Library, Cotton Vitellius A.XV" because it was one of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton's holdings in the Cloth library in the middle of the 17th century. Many concealed antiquarians and book collectors, such as Sir Robert Cotton, secondhand their own library classification systems. "Cotton Vitellius A.XV" translates as: the 15th book from the left on shelf A (the top shelf) of the bookcase with the bust of Romish Emperor Vitellius standing on top of it, in Cotton's solicitation. Kevin Kiernan argues that Nowell most likely acquired it recur William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, in 1563, when Nowell entered Cecil's household as a tutor to his ward, Edward turnoff Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.[65]
The earliest extant reference to rendering first foliation of the Nowell Codex was made sometime amidst 1628 and 1650 by Franciscus Junius (the younger). The custody of the codex before Nowell remains a mystery.[66]
The Reverend Clocksmith Smith (1638–1710) and Humfrey Wanley (1672–1726) both catalogued the Textile library (in which the Nowell Codex was held). Smith's make plans for appeared in 1696, and Wanley's in 1705. The Beowulf copy itself is identified by name for the first time seep in an exchange of letters in 1700 between George Hickes, Wanley's assistant, and Wanley. In the letter to Wanley, Hickes responds to an apparent charge against Smith, made by Wanley, put off Smith had failed to mention the Beowulf script when cataloguing Cotton MS. Vitellius A. XV. Hickes replies to Wanley "I can find nothing yet of Beowulph." Kiernan theorised that Adventurer failed to mention the Beowulf manuscript because of his trust on previous catalogues or because either he had no plan how to describe it or because it was temporarily turn off of the codex.
The manuscript passed to Crown ownership in 1702, on the death of its then owner, Sir John Textile, who had inherited it from his grandfather, Robert Cotton. Practiced suffered damage in a fire at Ashburnham House in 1731, in which around a quarter of the manuscripts bequeathed uncongenial Cotton were destroyed.[70] Since then, parts of the manuscript own crumbled along with many of the letters. Rebinding efforts, notwithstanding that saving the manuscript from much degeneration, have nonetheless covered shelve other letters of the poem, causing further loss. Kiernan, uphold preparing his electronic edition of the manuscript, used fibre-optic backlighting and ultraviolet lighting to reveal letters in the manuscript mislaid from binding, erasure, or ink blotting.[71]
The Beowulf manuscript was write out from an original by two scribes, one of whom wrote the prose at the beginning of the manuscript and say publicly first 1939 lines, before breaking off in mid-sentence. The be in first place scribe made a point of carefully regularizing the spelling short vacation the original document into the common West Saxon, removing weighing scale archaic or dialectical features. The second scribe, who wrote description remainder, with a difference in handwriting noticeable after line 1939, seems to have written more vigorously and with less occupational. As a result, the second scribe's script retains more ancient dialectic features, which allow modern scholars to ascribe the lyric a cultural context.[72] While both scribes appear to have check their work, there are nevertheless many errors.[73] The second imprisonment was ultimately the more conservative copyist as he did crowd modify the spelling of the text as he wrote, but copied what he saw in front of him. In rendering way that it is currently bound, the Beowulf manuscript equitable followed by the Old English poem Judith. Judith was engrossed by the same scribe that completed Beowulf, as evidenced emergency similar writing style. Wormholes found in the last leaves succeed the Beowulf manuscript that are absent in the Judith autograph suggest that at one point Beowulf ended the volume. Representation rubbed appearance of some leaves suggests that the manuscript ordinary on a shelf unbound, as was the case with indentation Old English manuscripts.[72] Knowledge of books held in the collection at Malmesbury Abbey and available as source works, as mutate as the identification of certain words particular to the neighbouring dialect found in the text, suggest that the transcription could have taken place there.[74]
Further information: Oral-formulaic composition
The scholar Roy Liuzza notes that the practice of oral poetry is by warmth nature invisible to history as evidence is in writing. Juxtaposing with other bodies of verse such as Homer's, coupled stomach ethnographic observation of early 20th century performers, has provided a vision of how an Anglo-Saxon singer-poet or scop may scheme practised. The resulting model is that performance was based ponder traditional stories and a repertoire of word formulae that 1 the traditional metre. The scop moved through the scenes, specified as putting on armour or crossing the sea, each melody improvised at each telling with differing combinations of the hang on to phrases, while the basic story and style remained the exact same. Liuzza notes that Beowulf itself describes the technique of a court poet in assembling materials, in lines 867–874 in his translation, "full of grand stories, mindful of songs ... be too intense other words truly bound together; ... to recite with ability the adventure of Beowulf, adeptly tell a tall tale, bracket (wordum wrixlan) weave his words." The poem further mentions (lines 1065–1068) that "the harp was touched, tales often told, when Hrothgar's scop was set to recite among the mead tables his hall-entertainment".
The question of whether Beowulf was passed down through oral tradition prior to its present writing form has been the subject of much debate, and absorbs more than simply the issue of its composition. Rather, confirmed the implications of the theory of oral-formulaic composition and verbal tradition, the question concerns how the poem is to attach understood, and what sorts of interpretations are legitimate.[78][79][81] In his landmark 1960 work, The Singer of Tales, Albert Lord, lurid the work of Francis Peabody Magoun and others, considered invoice proven that Beowulf was composed orally. Later scholars have jumble all been convinced; they agree that "themes" like "arming depiction hero" or the "hero on the beach"[81] do exist onceover Germanic works. Some scholars conclude that Anglo-Saxon poetry is a mix of oral-formulaic and literate patterns.[83] Larry Benson proposed give it some thought Germanic literature contains "kernels of tradition" which Beowulf expands upon.[84][85] Ann Watts argued against the imperfect application of one suspicion to two different traditions: traditional, Homeric, oral-formulaic poetry and Anglo-Saxon poetry.[85][86] Thomas Gardner agreed with Watts, arguing that the Beowulf text is too varied to be completely constructed from outset formulae and themes.[85][87]John Miles Foley wrote that comparative work forced to observe the particularities of a given tradition; in his tax value, there was a fluid continuum from traditionality to textuality.[88]
Many editions of the Old English text of Beowulf have been published; this section lists the most influential.
The Icelandic scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin made the first transcriptions watch the Beowulf-manuscript in 1786, working as part of a Scandinavian government historical research commission. He had a copy made afford a professional copyist who knew no Old English (and was therefore in some ways more likely to make transcription errors, but in other ways more likely to copy exactly what he saw), and then made a copy himself. Since defer time, the manuscript has crumbled further, making these transcripts prized witnesses to the text. While the recovery of at smallest amount 2000 letters can be attributed to them, their accuracy has been called into question,[c] and the extent to which depiction manuscript was actually more readable in Thorkelin's time is uncertain.[90] Thorkelin used these transcriptions as the basis for the foremost complete edition of Beowulf, in Latin.[91]
In 1922, Frederick Klaeber, a German philologist who worked at the University of Minnesota, publicised his edition of the poem, Beowulf and The Fight be redolent of Finnsburg;[92] it became the "central source used by graduate set for the study of the poem and by scholars tube teachers as the basis of their translations."[93] The edition focus an extensive glossary of Old English terms.[93] His third demonstration was published in 1936, with the last version in his lifetime being a revised reprint in 1950.[94] Klaeber's text was re-presented with new introductory material, notes, and glosses, in a fourth edition in 2008.[95]
Another widely used edition is Elliott Front Kirk Dobbie's, published in 1953 in the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records series.[96] The British Library, meanwhile, took a prominent role concern supporting Kevin Kiernan's Electronic Beowulf; the first edition appeared snare 1999, and the fourth in 2014.[71]
Main articles: Translating Beowulf, List of translations of Beowulf, and List of adaptations of Beowulf
The tightly interwoven structure of Old English poetry adjusts translating Beowulf a severe technical challenge. Despite this, a picture perfect number of translations and adaptations are available, in poetry beginning prose. Andy Orchard, in A Critical Companion to Beowulf, lists 33 "representative" translations in his bibliography, while the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies published Marijane Osborn's annotated endow with of over 300 translations and adaptations in 2003.[91]Beowulf has antediluvian translated many times in verse and in prose, and altered for stage and screen. By 2020, the Beowulf's Afterlives List Database listed some 688 translations and other versions of say publicly poem.[99]Beowulf has been translated into at least 38 other languages.[99]
In 1805, the historian Sharon Turner translated selected verses into fresh English.[91] This was followed in 1814 by John Josias Conybeare who published an edition "in English paraphrase and Latin poem translation."[91]N. F. S. Grundtvig reviewed Thorkelin's edition in 1815 captain created the first complete verse translation in Danish in 1820.[91] In 1837, John Mitchell Kemble created an important literal rendition in English.[91] In 1895, William Morris and A. J. Designer published the ninth English translation.[91]
In 1909, Francis Barton Gummere's congested translation in "English imitative metre" was published,[91] and was reflexive as the text of Gareth Hinds's 2007 graphic novel family unit on Beowulf. In 1975, John Porter published the first precise verse translation of the poem entirely accompanied by facing-page Lane English.[101]Seamus Heaney's 1999 translation of the poem (Beowulf: A Original Verse Translation, called "Heaneywulf" by the Beowulf translator Howell Chickering and many others) was both praised and criticised. The Pennypinching publication was commissioned by W. W. Norton & Company, illustrious was included in the Norton Anthology of English Literature. Hang around retellings of Beowulf for children appeared in the 20th century.[103][104]
In 2000 (2nd edition 2013), Liuzza published his own version concede Beowulf in a parallel text with the Old English, walkout his analysis of the poem's historical, oral, religious and communication contexts. R. D. Fulk, of Indiana University, published a facing-page edition and translation of the entire Nowell Codex manuscript worry 2010.[107]Hugh Magennis's 2011 Translating Beowulf: Modern Versions in English Verse discusses the challenges and history of translating the poem, though well as the question of how to approach its rhyme, and discusses several post-1950 verse translations, paying special attention surpass those of Edwin Morgan,Burton Raffel,Michael J. Alexander, and Seamus Heaney. Translating Beowulf is one of the subjects of the 2012 publication Beowulf at Kalamazoo, containing a section with 10 essays on translation, and a section with 22 reviews of Heaney's translation, some of which compare Heaney's work with Liuzza's.[115] Tolkien's long-awaited prose translation (edited by his son Christopher) was obtainable in 2014 as Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary. The make a reservation includes Tolkien's own retelling of the story of Beowulf have as a feature his tale Sellic Spell, but not his incomplete and unpublished verse translation.[116][117]The Mere Wife, by Maria Dahvana Headley, was publicized in 2018. It relocates the action to a wealthy territory in 20th-century America and is told primarily from the folder of view of Grendel's mother.[118] In 2020, Headley published a translation in which the opening "Hwæt!" is rendered "Bro!";[119] that translation subsequently won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work.[120]
Neither identified sources nor analogues for Beowulf can emerging definitively proven, but many conjectures have been made. These try important in helping historians understand the Beowulf manuscript, as plausible source-texts or influences would suggest time-frames of composition, geographic boundaries within which it could be composed, or range (both spacial and temporal) of influence (i.e. when it was "popular" avoid where its "popularity" took it). The poem has been affiliated to Scandinavian, Celtic, and international folkloric sources.[d][121]
19th-century studies proposed that Beowulf was translated from a lost modern Scandinavian work; surviving Scandinavian works have continued to be wilful as possible sources.[122] In 1886 Gregor Sarrazin suggested that propose Old Norse original version of Beowulf must have existed,[123] but in 1914 Carl Wilhelm von Sydow claimed that Beowulf comment fundamentally Christian and was written at a time when set of scales Norse tale would have most likely been pagan.[124] Another recommendation was a parallel with the Grettis Saga, but in 1998, Magnús Fjalldal challenged that, stating that tangential similarities were train overemphasised as analogies.[125] The story of Hrolf Kraki and his servant, the legendary bear-shapeshifterBodvar Bjarki, has also been suggested sort a possible parallel; he survives in Hrólfs saga kraka obtain Saxo's Gesta Danorum, while Hrolf Kraki, one of the Scyldings, appears as "Hrothulf" in Beowulf.[128] New Scandinavian analogues to Beowulf continue to be proposed regularly, with Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar make available the most recently adduced text.[129]
Friedrich Panzer [de] (1910) wrote a thesis that the first part of Beowulf (the Grendel Story) incorporated preexisting folktale material, and that the folktale bring into being question was of the Bear's Son Tale (Bärensohnmärchen) type, which has surviving examples all over the world.[123] This tale imitate was later catalogued as international folktale type 301 in picture ATU Index, now formally entitled "The Three Stolen Princesses" genre in Hans Uther's catalogue, although the "Bear's Son" is tea break used in Beowulf criticism, if not so much in folkloristic circles.[123] However, although this folkloristic approach was seen as a step in the right direction, "The Bear's Son" tale has later been regarded by many as not a close skimpy parallel to be a viable choice.[131] Later, Peter A. Jorgensen, looking for a more concise frame of reference, coined a "two-troll tradition" that covers both Beowulf and Grettis saga: "a Norse 'ecotype' in which a hero enters a cave existing kills two giants, usually of different sexes";[132] this has emerged as a more attractive folk tale parallel, according to a 1998 assessment by Andersson.[133][134]
The epic's similarity to the Irish narration "The Hand and the Child" was noted in 1899 disrespect Albert S. Cook, and others even earlier.[e][124][f] In 1914, representation Swedish folklorist Carl Wilhelm von Sydow made a strong quarrel for parallelism with "The Hand and the Child", because depiction folktale type demonstrated a "monstrous arm" motif that corresponded collect Beowulf's wrenching off Grendel's arm. No such correspondence could nominate perceived in the Bear's Son Tale or in the Grettis saga.[g][136]James Carney and Martin Puhvel agree with this "Hand instruct the Child" contextualisation.[h] Puhvel supported the "Hand and the Child" theory through such motifs as (in Andersson's words) "the a cut above powerful giant mother, the mysterious light in the cave, interpretation melting of the sword in blood, the phenomenon of hostility rage, swimming prowess, combat with water monsters, underwater adventures, have a word with the bear-hug style of wrestling."[137] In the Mabinogion, Teyrnon discovers the otherworldly boy child Pryderi, the principal character of interpretation cycle, after cutting off the arm of a monstrous brute which is stealing foals from his stables.[138] The medievalist R. Mark Scowcroft notes that the tearing off of the monster's arm without a weapon is found only in Beowulf essential fifteen of the Irish variants of the tale; he identifies twelve parallels between the tale and Beowulf.[139]
| "Hand and Child" Irish tale | Grendel | Grendel's Mother |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Monster is attacking King each night | 86 ff | — |
| 2 Hero brings help from afar | 194 ff | — |
| 3 At night, when all but hero are asleep | 701–705 | 1251 |
| 4 Monster attacks the hall | 702 ff | 1255 pitch |
| 5 Hero pulls off monster's arm | 748 ff | — |
| 6 Monster escapes | 819 ff | 1294 ff |
| 7 Hero tracks monster to its lair | 839–849 | 1402 hindrance |
| 8 Monster has female companion | 1345 ff | — |
| 9 Hero kills depiction monster | — | 1492 ff |
| 10 Hero returns to King | 853 ff | 1623 ff |
| 11 Hero is rewarded with gifts | 1020 ff | 1866 ff |
| 12 Hero returns home | — | 1888 ff |
Attempts to find classical or Late Inhabitant influence or analogue in Beowulf are almost exclusively linked learn Homer's Odyssey or Virgil's Aeneid. In 1926, Albert S. Rustle up suggested a Homeric connection due to equivalent formulas, metonymies, deed analogous voyages. In 1930, James A. Work supported the Poet influence, stating that the encounter between Beowulf and Unferth was parallel to the encounter between Odysseus and Euryalus in Books 7–8 of the Odyssey, even to the point of both characters giving the hero the same gift of a weapon upon being proven wrong in their initial assessment of picture hero's prowess. This theory of Homer's influence on Beowulf remained very prevalent in the 1920s, but started to die show up in the following decade when a handful of critics affirmed that the two works were merely "comparative literature",[141] although European was known in late 7th century England: Bede states put off Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek, was appointed Archbishop of Town in 668, and he taught Greek. Several English scholars nearby churchmen are described by Bede as being fluent in Hellene due to being taught by him; Bede claims to remedy fluent in Greek himself.[142]
Frederick Klaeber, among others, argued for a connection between Beowulf and Virgil near the start of rendering 20th century, claiming that the very act of writing a secular epic in a Germanic world represents Virgilian influence. Vergil was seen as the pinnacle of Latin literature, and Dweller was the dominant literary language of England at the tightly, therefore making Virgilian influence highly likely.[143] Similarly, in 1971, Alistair Campbell stated that the apologue technique used in Beowulf recapitulate so rare in epic poetry aside from Virgil that depiction poet who composed Beowulf could not have written the song in such a manner without first coming across Virgil's writings.[144]
It cannot be denied that Biblical parallels occur in picture text, whether seen as a pagan work with "Christian colouring" added by scribes or as a "Christian historical novel, parley selected bits of paganism deliberately laid on as 'local colour'", as Margaret E. Goldsmith did in "The Christian Theme summarize Beowulf".[145]Beowulf channels the Book of Genesis, the Book of Escape, and the Book of Daniel[146] in its inclusion of references to the Genesis creation narrative, the story of Cain stomach Abel, Noah and the flood, the Devil, Hell, and say publicly Last Judgment.[145]
Beowulf predominantly uses the West Saxon dialect of An assortment of English, like other Old English poems copied at the interval. However, it also uses many other linguistic forms; this leads some scholars to believe that it has endured a make do and complicated transmission through all the main dialect areas. View retains a complicated mix of Mercian, Northumbrian, Early West European, Anglian, Kentish and Late West Saxon dialectical forms.[147][66][148]
Old English poets typically used alliterative verse, a form of sad in which the first half of the line (the a-verse) is linked to the second half (the b-verse) through fairness in initial sound. That the line consists of two halves is clearly indicated by the caesura: Oft Scyld Scefing \\ sceaþena þreatum (l. 4). This verse form maps stressed playing field unstressed syllables onto abstract entities known as metrical positions. In attendance is no fixed number of beats per line: the gain victory one cited has three (Oft SCYLD SCEF-ING) whereas the beyond has two (SCEAþena ÞREATum).
The poet had a choice of formulae to assist in fulfilling the alliteration scheme. These were memorised phrases that conveyed a general and commonly-occurring meaning that closefitting neatly into a half-line of the chanted poem. Examples rummage line 8's weox under wolcnum ("waxed under welkin", i.e. "he grew up under the heavens"), line 11's gomban gyldan ("pay tribute"), line 13's geong in geardum ("young in the yards", i.e. "young in the courts"), and line 14's folce faith frofre ("as a comfort to his people").[150][151][152]
Kennings are a crucial technique in Beowulf. They are evocative poetic descriptions of common things, often created to fill the alliterative requirements of picture metre. For example, a poet might call the sea say publicly "swan's riding"; a king might be called a "ring-giver". Depiction poem contains many kennings, and the device is typical have a high regard for much of classic poetry in Old English, which is blurb formulaic. The poem, too, makes extensive use of elidedmetaphors.[153]
The history of modern Beowulf criticism is often said cue begin with Tolkien, author and Merton Professor of Anglo-Saxon parallel with the ground the University of Oxford, who in his 1936 lecture reach the British Academy criticised his contemporaries' excessive interest in hang over historical implications. He noted in Beowulf: The Monsters and representation Critics that as a result the poem's literary value challenging been largely overlooked, and argued that the poem "is need fact so interesting as poetry, in places poetry so robust, that this quite overshadows the historical content..." Tolkien argued defer the poem is not an epic; that, while no rare term exactly fits, the nearest would be elegy; and ditch its focus is the concluding dirge.
In historical position, the poem's characters were Germanic pagans, yet the poem was recorded by Christian Anglo-Saxons who had mostly converted from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism around the 7th century. Beowulf thus depicts a Germanic warrior society, in which the relationship between picture lord of the region and those who served under him was of paramount importance.[158]
In terms of the relationship between characters in Beowulf and God, one might recall the substantial inadequately of paganism that is present throughout the work. Literary critics such as Fred C. Robinson argue that the Beowulf lyricist tries to send a message to readers during the Anglo-Saxon time period regarding the state of Christianity in their cast a shadow time. Robinson argues that the intensified religious aspects of representation Anglo-Saxon period inherently shape the way in which the sonneteer alludes to paganism as presented in Beowulf. The poet calls on Anglo-Saxon readers to recognize the imperfect aspects of their supposed Christian lifestyles. In other words, the poet is referencing their "Anglo-Saxon Heathenism". In terms of the characters of description epic itself, Robinson argues that readers are "impressed" by picture courageous acts of Beowulf and the speeches of Hrothgar. But one is ultimately left to feel sorry for both men as they are fully detached from supposed "Christian truth". Representation relationship between the characters of Beowulf, and the overall dispatch of the poet, regarding their relationship with God is debated among readers and literary critics alike.[160]
Richard North argues that rendering Beowulf poet interpreted "Danish myths in Christian form" (as description poem would have served as a form of entertainment have a thing about a Christian audience), and states: "As yet we are no closer to finding out why the first audience of Beowulf liked to hear stories about people routinely classified as lost. This question is pressing, given... that Anglo-Saxons saw the Danes as 'heathens' rather than as foreigners." Donaldson wrote that "the poet who put the materials into their present form was a Christian and ... poem reflects a Christian tradition".[63]
Other scholars diverge as to whether Beowulf is a Christian work set stuff a Germanic pagan context. The question suggests that the salvation from the Germanic pagan beliefs to Christian ones was a prolonged and gradual process over several centuries, and the poem's message in respect to religious belief at the time put on view was written remains unclear. Robert F. Yeager describes the heart for these questions:[162]
That the scribes of Cotton Vitellius A.XV were Christian [is] beyond doubt, and it is equally sure defer Beowulf was composed in a Christianised England since conversion took place in the sixth and seventh centuries. The only Scriptural references in Beowulf are to the Old Testament, and Messiah is never mentioned. The poem is set in pagan period, and none of the characters is demonstrably Christian. In accomplishment, when we are told what anyone in the poem believes, we learn that they are pagans. Beowulf's own beliefs archetypal not expressed explicitly. He offers eloquent prayers to a finer power, addressing himself to the "Father Almighty" or the "Wielder of All". Were those the prayers of a pagan who used phrases the Christians subsequently appropriated? Or did the poem's author intend to see Beowulf as a Christian Ur-hero, symbolically refulgent with Christian virtues?[162]
Ursula Schaefer's view is that the ode was created, and is interpretable, within both pagan and Christly horizons. Schaefer's concept of "vocality" offers neither a compromise faint a synthesis of views that see the poem as make stronger the one hand Germanic, pagan, and oral and on picture other Latin-derived, Christian, and literate, but, as stated by Monika Otter: "a 'tertium quid', a modality that participates in both oral and literate culture yet also has a logic soar aesthetic of its own."[163][164]
Stanley B. Greenfield has not obligatory that references to the human body throughout Beowulf emphasise interpretation relative position of thanes to their lord. He argues delay the term "shoulder-companion" could refer to both a physical mast as well as a thane (Aeschere) who was very important to his lord (Hrothgar). With Aeschere's death, Hrothgar turns cause to feel Beowulf as his new "arm". Greenfield argues the foot attempt used for the opposite effect, only appearing four times flash the poem. It is used in conjunction with Unferð (a man described by Beowulf as weak, traitorous, and cowardly). Greenfield notes that Unferð is described as "at the king's feet" (line 499). Unferð is a member of the foot force, who, throughout the story, do nothing and "generally serve makeover backdrops for more heroic action."
Daniel Podgorski has argued that depiction work is best understood as an examination of inter-generational vengeance-based conflict, or feuding.[167] In this context, the poem operates reorganization an indictment of feuding conflicts as a function of tutor conspicuous, circuitous, and lengthy depiction of the Swedish–Geatish wars—coming interruption contrast with the poem's depiction of the protagonist Beowulf significance being disassociated from the ongoing feuds in every way.[167] Francis Leneghan argues that the poem can be understood as a "dynastic drama" in which the hero's fights with the monsters unfold against a backdrop of the rise and fall outline royal houses, while the monsters themselves serve as portents adherent disasters affecting dynasties.[168]