Aliquid nos _de_ Bellicorum Danorum Quomodo Danorum
In diebus antiquis In principio
Popularium regum Populus Regum
Gloriâ accepimus, Gloriam auxerit,
Quomodo tunc principes Quomodo principes
Virtute valuerint. Virtute promoverit.
It will be seen that in these lines Conybeare has at almost every point
the advantage over Thorkelin, and is indeed very nearly in accord with
modern texts and translations. But the poem yet awaited a complete
understanding, for Conybeare could say: ‘The Introduction is occupied by
the praises of Scefing ... and of his son and successor Beowulf. The
embarkation of the former on a piratical expedition is then detailed at
some length. In this expedition (if I rightly understand the text)
himself and his companions were taken or lost at sea’ (p. 35). And, in
general, he misses the same points of the story as Thorkelin, although
he craftily refrains from translating the obscurer passages.
Conybeare apparently knew nothing of the critical work of Grundtvig.
This is not surprising when we remember that _Kjøbenhavns Skilderie_ was
probably not known outside of Denmark[4]. Moreover, it is to be
remembered that Conybeare’s extracts from the _Beowulf_ are not really
later than Grundtvig’s translation, since they were made in the same
year, 1820[5].
_Aim of the Volume, and Nature of the Translations._
From the words quoted above with respect to the collation, it will be
seen that Conybeare in no way regarded his book as a contribution to
Beowulf scholarship. As professor at Oxford, he attempted a literary
presentation of the most beautiful parts of the old poetry. His extracts
are, in general, nothing more than free paraphrases. Wishing to
popularize the _Beowulf_, he used as a medium of translation a
peculiarly stilted kind of blank verse. He dressed the poem out in
elegant phrases in order to hide the barrenness of the original.
Manifestly he feared the roughness, the remoteness of the poem in its
natural state. He feared to offend a nation of readers reveling in the
medievalism of Scott and Byron. A literal Latin translation was inserted
to appease the scholar.