But Hunferth, the son of Ecglaf, who sat at the feet of King
Hrothgar, was displeased. He was grieved that any hero should come
to the land boasting that he could do what no one among the Danes
could do. He said scornfully to Beowulf--
‘Tell me, art thou the Beowulf whom Breca overcame in a swimming
match? I heard the tale. You both ventured out like foolish men
among the waves in the days of winter. For seven nights you swam
together, but Breca was the stronger. Thou wilt have a worse
defeat shouldst thou venture to meet Grendel in the darkness of
the night.’ --Page 144.
_Criticism of the Paraphrase._
In comparison with the work of Mr. Jones[2], it may be said that Mr.
Gibb’s paraphrase is fuller, reproduces more events, and follows more
faithfully the original order. He supplies fewer explanatory words and
sentences. But, on the other hand, Mr. Gibb’s work, unlike Mr. Jones’s,
has no merits of style--it is all on a dead level of prose. Thus it sins
against one of the laws of paraphrase: that the writer, in relieving
himself of the exacting duties of translator, must present the story in
a more literary and more truly adequate medium. Mr. Gibb’s is one of the
poorer paraphrases.
_Indebtedness to Arnold._
At page 280 of the concluding chapter, the author speaks of the history
and character of the poem. It will be found on reference to this section
that the author is a follower of the views set forth in the edition of
Mr. Thomas Arnold[3]. It is probable that Mr. Gibb was indebted to this
book for much of his paraphrase, but the free character of the version
prevents any decision on this point.
[Footnote 1: Woodcuts; two of them are identical with the ones
given in the Wägner-MacDowall paraphrase: see infra, p. 130.]
[Footnote 2: See supra, p. 123.] [[Sandras]]
[Footnote 3: See supra, p. 71.] [[Arnold]]