[1] Bp. Nicholson's Eng. Lib.
[2] It is pleasing to record a noble instance of the enthusiasm of
learned research. "The leisure hours of sixteen years" furnished a
comprehensive history of which "two-thirds had not yet
appeared."--_Mr. Turner's Preface._
[3] A sufferer, moreover, fully assures us that some remain, which
"must baffle all conjecture;" and another critic has judicially
decreed that, in every translation from the Anglo-Saxon that has
fallen under his notice, "there are blunders enough to satisfy the
most unfriendly critic." "The Song of the Traveller," in "The Exeter
Book," was translated by CONYBEARE; a more accurate transcript was
given by Mr. KEMBLE in his edition of Beowulf; and now Mr. GUEST has
furnished a third, varying from both. We cannot be certain that a
fourth may not correct the three.
[4] "Without exception!" is the energetic cry of the translator of
Beowulf.
[5] The first line contains two words commencing with the same
letter, and the second line has its first word also beginning with
that letter. This difficulty seems insurmountable to a modern reader,
for our authority confesses that, "In the Saxon poetry; as it is
preserved in manuscripts, the first line often contains but one
alliterating word, and, from the negligence of the scribes, the
alliteration is in many instances entirely lost."--_Dissertation on
Anglo-Saxon Poetry, Fraser's Magazine_, xii. 81.
[6] A striking instance how long a universal error can last, arising
from one of these obscure conceits, is noticed by Mr. GRENVILLE
PIGOTT in his "Manual of Scandinavian Mythology."
These warlike barbarians were long reproached that even their
religion fomented an implacable hatred of their enemies; for in the
future state of their paradisiacal Valhalla, their deceased heroes
rejoiced at their celestial compotations, _to drink out of the skulls
of their enemies_.
A passage in the death-song of Regner Lodbrog, literally translated,
is, "Soon shall we _drink_ out of the _curved trees of the head_;"
which Bishop Percy translates, "Soon, in the splendid hall of Odin,
we shall drink beer out of the skulls of our enemies." And thus also
have the Danes themselves, the Germans, and the French.
The original and extraordinary blunder lies with Olaus Wormius, the
great Danish antiquary, to whose authority poets and historians bowed
without looking further. Our grave Olaus was bewildered by this
monstrous style of the Scalds, and translated this drinking bout at
Valhalla according to his own fancy,--"Ex concavis crateribus
craniorum;"--thus turning the "trees of the head" into a "skull," and
the skull into a hollow cup. The Scald, however, was innocent of this
barbarous invention; and, in his violent figures and disordered
fancy, merely alluded to the branching horns, growing as trees, from
the heads of animals--that is, the curved horns which formed their
drinking cups. If Olaus here, like Homer, nodded, something might be
urged for his defence; for who is bound to understand such remote, if
not absurd conceits? but I do not know that we could plead as fairly
for his own interpolating fancy of "drinking out of the skulls of
their enemies."
This grave blunder became universal, and a century passed away
without its being detected. It was so familiar, that Peter Pindar
once said that the booksellers, like the heroes of Valhalla, drank
their wine out of the skulls of authors.
[7] HICKES and WANLEY mistook the "Ormulum," a paraphrase of Gospel
history, as mere prose; when in fact it is composed in long lines of
fifteen syllables without rhyme.
[8] See "A Manual of Scandinavian Mythology," by Mr. Grenville
Pigott. 1839. "The Northern Mythology" will be found here not only
skilfully arranged, but its wondrous myths and fables elucidated by
modern antiquaries. It is further illustrated by the translation of
the poem of Oehlenschlaeger, on "The Gods of the North;" whose genius
has been transfused in the nervous simplicity of the present version.
[9] Such is the critical decision of CONYBEARE, a glorious
enthusiast. "Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry," by John Josiah
Conybeare. 1826.
The late Mr. Price, the editor of Warton's History, announced an
elaborate work on the Anglo-Saxon poetry. The verse of CONYBEARE and
the disquisitions of PRICE would have completed this cycle of our
ancient poetry. But a fatal coincidence marked the destiny of these
eminent votaries of our poetic antiquity--both prematurely ceasing to
exist while occupied on their works. CONYBEARE has survived in his
brother, whose congenial tastes collected his remains; PRICE, who had
long resided abroad, and there had silently stored up the whole
wealth of Northern literature, on his return home remained little
known till his valued edition of Warton announced to the literary
world the acquisitions they were about to receive. He has left a name
behind him, but not a work, for Price had no fraternal friend.
Since this chapter was written, Mr. Thos. Wright has published "An
Essay on the State of Literature and Learning under the
Anglo-Saxons." It displays a comprehensive view taken by one to whose
zealous labours the lovers of our ancient literature are so deeply
indebted.