Beowulf, translated out of the Old English by Chauncey Brewster Tinker,
M.A. New York: Newson and Co., 1902. 12mo, pp. 158.
Eleventh English Translation. Prose.
_Aim of the Volume and Nature of the Translation._
‘The present translation of _Beowulf_ is an attempt to make as
simple and readable a version of the poem as is consistent with
the character of the original. Archaic forms, which have been much
in favor with translators of Old English, have been excluded,
because it has been thought that vigor and variety are not
incompatible with simple, idiomatic English....
The principal ways in which the present version differs from a
merely literal translation are the following: (1) in a rather
broad interpretation of pregnant words and phrases; (2) in a
conception of some of the Old English compounds as conventional
phrases in which the original metaphorical sense is dead; (3) in a
free treatment of connecting words; (4) in frequent substitution
of a proper name for an ambiguous pronoun.
The translation is based on the text of A. J. Wyatt (Cambridge,
1898); a few departures from his readings are enumerated in the
Notes.’ --Preface, pp. 5, 6.