P. 1, line 1, Wie grosse Ruhmesthaten.
2, line 1, So soll mit Gaben werben im Vaterhause schon.
21, line 15 (see Extract), Vom Wintersturm getrieben Hoch
auf die Wellen schäumten.
84, line 3, Mothrytho.
Petty inaccuracies due to the nature of the translation also appear. An
example of this is seen on page 3, at the opening of the first canto--
Ueber Burg und Mannen nun herrschte manches Jahr
Beówulf der Schilding. Wie hold dem König war
Sein Volk! in allen Landen seinen Ruhm man pries
Als lange schon sein Vater von dieser Erde Leben liess.
_Literary Criticism._
The translation resembles the work of Lumsden[5] and Wackerbarth[6] in
affording a version of the tale easily readable. And the same criticism
may be passed on the work of Hoffmann that was passed on the two
Englishmen. The style and medium chosen are not well fitted to render
the spirit of the poem. The _Nibelungenlied_ is a poem of the late
twelfth century. The _Beowulf_ at latest belongs to the eighth. To
choose for the translation of _Beowulf_, therefore, a medium surcharged
with reminiscence of a time, place, and style quite different from those
of the original is certainly an error. It may find an audience where
another and more faithful rendering would fail; but it will never win
the esteem of scholars. In his introduction Hoffmann calls attention to
the lack of variety in blank verse, but surely it does not have the
monotony inherent in a recurring rime and strophe.
Again, rime and strophe force upon the author the use of words and
phrases needed to pad out the verse or stanza. Attention must also be
called to the fact that the original seldom affords a natural pause at
the exact point demanded by the use of a strophic form. See the close of
the following stanzas in the Extract: I, III, IV, V. One effect of the
forced pause is that there is confusion in the use of kennings, which
often have to do duty as subject in one stanza and as object in another
stanza.
Commonplace expressions, incident perhaps upon the use of the measure,
are not unfrequent. Thus
Gesagt! gethan!
translates
ond þæt geæfndon swā (line 538).
Traces of this are also found in the extract; see beginning of last
stanza.
In conclusion, it may be said that Hoffmann’s version marks an advance
in one way only, readableness; and in this it is hardly superior to
Heyne’s rendering, which has the advantage of scholarship.
[Footnote 1: See supra, p. 59.] [[Simrock]]
[Footnote 2: See supra, p. 68.] [[von Wolzogen]]
[Footnote 3: See supra, p. 63.] [[Heyne]]
[Footnote 4: See supra, p. 56.] [[Grein’s Texts]]
[Footnote 5: See p. 79.] [[Lumsden]]
[Footnote 6: See p. 45.] [[Wackerbarth]]