_Mr. S. H. Church’s ‘Beowulf.’_
Beowulf, a Poem by Samuel Harden Church. New York: Stokes and Co., 1901.
An original poem, using some of the Beowulf material.
After speaking of his original intention of translating the _Beowulf_,
which he later discarded, the author says:--
‘I have ... composed an original narrative in which the leading
characters and some of the incidents of the early work[1] have
been freely used, but as materials only. I have transferred to my
hero, Beowulf, the picturesque history of Sceaf[2]; have changed
the relationship of characters and incidents; have inserted the
illumination of Beowulf’s soul, and his banishment; and have
introduced the love motive between Beowulf and Freaware that runs
through the poem to the end. Indeed the structure, language,
style, description, elaboration, interpretation, and development
of the story are new. I have arbitrarily laid the scene in
England, under purely idealized conditions; and have initiated
nearly all that the poem contains of womanhood, of love, of
religion, of state-policy, and of domestic life and manners. It
is clear, therefore, that my work must not be judged either as a
translation, version, or paraphrase of the old Beowulf.’
[Footnote 1: i.e., the translation.]
[Footnote 2: Scyld]