_Unferth the king’s orator is jealous. He baits the young
adventurer, and in a scoffing speech dares him to a night-watch
for Grendel. Beowulf is angered, and thus he is drawn out to boast
of his youthful feats._
Unferth made a speech, Ecglaf’s son; he who sate at the feet of
the Scyldings’ lord, broached a quarrelsome theme--the adventure
of Beowulf the high-souled voyager was great despite to him,
because he grudged that any other man should ever in the world
achieve more exploits under heaven than he himself:-- ‘Art thou
_that_ Beowulf, he who strove with Breca on open sea in
swimming-match, where ye twain out of bravado explored the floods,
and foolhardily in deep water jeoparded your lives? nor could any
man, friend or foe, turn the pair of you from the dismal
adventure! What time ye twain plied in swimming, where ye twain
covered with your arms the awful stream, meted the sea-streets,
buffeted with hands, shot over ocean; the deep boiled with waves,
a wintry surge. Ye twain in the realm of waters toiled a
se’nnight; he at swimming outvied thee, had greater force. Then in
morning hour the swell cast him ashore on the Heathoram people,
whence he made for his own patrimony, dear to his Leeds he made
for the land of the Brondings, a fair stronghold, where he was
lord of folk, of city, and of rings. All his boast to thee-ward,
Beanstan’s son soothly fulfilled. Wherefore I anticipate for thee
worse luck--though thou wert everywhere doughty in battle-shocks,
in grim war-tug--if thou darest bide in Grendel’s way a night-long
space.’
_Criticism of the Translation._
As a whole, the translation may fairly be called faithful. The
emendations from which Professor Earle sometimes renders are always
carefully chosen, and the discussions of obscure lines in the poem are
of real scholarly interest. But this is not always true of the simpler
passages of the poem. These are often strained to make them square with
the translator’s personal notions. Thus, at line 1723, Earle reads for
_Ic þis gid be þē āwraec_
It is about thee ... that I have told this tale,
adding in a note, ‘(In this passage) the living poet steps forward out
of his Hrothgar, and turns his eyes to the prince for whom he made it
up’ (p. 168). Now this is nothing more than an attempt on the part of
the translator to wring from the Old English lines some scrap of proof
for the peculiar theory that he holds of the origin of the poem.
Similarly, he often reads into a single word more than it can possibly
bear. At line 371 he translates--
_Hrothgar, helm Scyldinga,_
Hrothgar, crown of Scyldings.
But ‘crown’ is an impossible rendering of ‘helm,’ which is here used
figuratively to denote the idea of protection[8], rather than the idea
of the crowning glory of kingship. Further, in the same passage, 375-6,
_heard eafora_ (bold son), is wrenched into meaning ‘grown-up son.’
These are but two examples of what is common throughout the translation.
_Diction._
The archaic style used by Professor Earle cannot be regarded as highly
felicitous, since it mixes the diction of various ages. Here are Old
English archaisms like ‘Leeds’ and ‘burnie’; here are expressions like
‘escheat,’ ‘page’ (attendant), ‘emprize,’ ‘bombard’ (drinking-vessel),
‘chivalry.’ Here are such specialized words as ‘harpoon,’ ‘belligerent,’
‘pocket-money,’ and combinations like ‘battailous grip’; while
throughout the entire translation are scattered modern colloquialisms
like ‘boss’ (master), ‘tussle,’ ‘war-tug.’
The reason for these anomalies is evident--the translator wishes to
imitate the remoteness of the original style. The style is certainly
remote--at times almost as remote from the language of to-day as is the
style of _Beowulf_ itself.
[Footnote 1: See supra, p. 79.] [[Lumsden]]
[Footnote 2: See supra, p. 64.] [[Heyne: Relation of...]]
[Footnote 3: Paul und Braune’s _Beiträge_, XI, 328; Ang. XIV, 133.]
[Footnote 4: _Beiträge_, VIII, 568; _Aanteekeningen_, Leiden 1891.]
[Footnote 5: _Beiträge_, IX, 187; VIII, 532.]
[Footnote 6: _Beiträge_, XI, 1; _Studien über das Beowulfsepos_.]
[Footnote 7: _Beiträge_, XI, 1 ff.]
[Footnote 8: See the glossaries of Grein and Wyatt.]