(Lines 499-558.)
(499-505). _Now comes a jarring note. Unferth, a Danish courtier,
is devoured by jealousy, and taunts Beowulf._
Then Unferth, the son of Ecglaf, who sat at the feet of the lord
of the Scyldings, spoke, and gave vent to secret thoughts of
strife,--the journey of Beowulf, the brave sea-farer, was a great
chagrin to him, for he grudged that any other man under heaven
should ever obtain more glory on this middle-earth than he
himself.
(506-528). _‘Art thou the same Beowulf,’ says he, ‘who ventured on
a foolhardy swimming match with Breca on the open sea in winter,
for seven days, and got beaten? A worse fate is in store for thee
when thou meetest Grendel!’_
‘Art thou that Beowulf who strove with Breca, contested with him
on the open sea, in a swimming contest, when ye two for vainglory
tried the floods, and ventured your lives in deep water for idle
boasting? Nor could any man, friend or foe, dissuade you from your
sorry enterprise when ye swam on the sea; when ye compassed the
flowing stream with your arms, meted out the sea-paths, battled
with your hands, and glided over the ocean; when the sea, the
winter’s flood, surged with waves. Ye two toiled in the water’s
realm seven nights; he overcame you at swimming, he had the
greater strength. Then, at morning time, the ocean cast him up on
the Heathoræmas’ land. Thence, dear to his people, he sought his
beloved fatherland, the land of the Brondings, his fair
stronghold-city, where he had subjects and treasures and a
borough. The son of Beanstan performed faithfully all that he had
pledged himself to. So I expect for thee a worse fatality,--though
thou hast everywhere prevailed in rush of battle,--gruesome
war,--if thou darest await Grendel at close quarters for the space
of a night.’
_Criticism of the Translation._
The extract is typical of all that is best in the translation. It is a
thoroughly accurate piece of work, failing only where Wyatt’s edition of
the text is unsatisfactory. Translations like ‘gave vent to secret
thoughts of strife’ and ‘thou hast prevailed in the rush of battle’ show
that the work is the outcome of long thought and deep appreciation. At
times the translation, as here, verges on a literary rendering. But in
this respect the first part of the poem is vastly superior to the later
parts, though all three are marred by extreme literalness. Dr. Hall did
not always escape the strange diction that has so often before
disfigured the translations of _Beowulf_:--
Line 2507, ‘my unfriendly hug finished his bony frame.’
„ 2583, ‘The Geat’s free-handed friend crowed not in pride
of victory.’
„ 2655, ‘Fell the foe and shield the Weder-Geat Lord’s life.’
„ 2688, ‘the public scourge, the dreadful salamander.’
„ 2834, ‘show his form’ (said of the Dragon).
„ 2885, ‘hopelessly escheated from your breed.’
It is also rather surprising to learn from Dr. Hall that Beowulf was one
of those that ‘advanced home government’ (l. 3005).
It should be added that the explanatory comment which constantly
interrupts the translation, often six or eight times in a section, is
annoying, both because it distracts the attention and because it is
often presented in a style wholly inappropriate to the context.
But this absence of ease and dignity does not hinder Dr. Hall’s
translation from being an excellent rendering of the matter of the poem,
at once less fanciful than Earle’s[5] and more modern than Garnett’s[6],
its only rivals as a literal translation. That it conveys an adequate
notion of the style of _Beowulf_, however, it is impossible to affirm.
[Footnote 1: Chiefly of Anglo-Saxon antiquities.]
[Footnote 2: See supra, p. 91.] [[Earle]]
[Footnote 3: See my forthcoming review of the book in the
_Journal of Germanic Philology_.]
[Footnote 4: See supra, p. 91.] [[Earle]]
[Footnote 5: See supra, p. 91.] [[Earle]]
[Footnote 6: See supra, p. 83.] [[Garnett]]