‘Away to the westward among the people of the Geáts lived a man,
strongest of his race, tall, mighty-handed, and clean made. He was
a thane, kinsman to Hygelác the Geátish chief, and nobly born,
being son of Ecgtheow the Wægmunding, a war-prince who wedded with
the daughter of Hrethel the Geát. This man heard of Grendel’s
deeds, of Hrothgár’s sorrow, and the sore distress of the Danes,
and having sought out fifteen warriors, he entered into a
new-pitched ship to seek the war-king across the sea. Bird-like
the vessel’s swan-necked prow breasted the white sea-foam till the
warriors reached the windy walls of cliff and the steep mountains
of the Danish shores. They thanked God because the wave-ways had
been easy to them; then, sea-wearied, lashed their wide-bosomed
ship to an anchorage, donned their war-weeds, and came to Heorot,
the gold and jewelled house. Brightly gleamed their armour and
merrily sang the ring-iron of their trappings as they marched into
the palace.’ --Pages 384-5.
_Criticism of the Paraphrase._
The object of a paraphrase is to present all the essential matter of the
original, in a style materially simpler than, though not unrelated to,
the original.
The matter of Mr. Jones’s paraphrase is not above criticism. It is full
of minor errors. In the extract, for example, the original does not say
that the heroes ‘donned their war-weeds,’ nor that there were mountains
on the shores of Denmark.
The style of the work is much better. It is throughout strong and clear,
not over-sentimental. It is, perhaps, too intimate; it savors slightly
of the _Märchen_. This absence of vigor and remoteness may be due to the
nature of the volume of which this paraphrase is only a part.
[Footnote 1: Swimming-match omitted.]