The present work, carefully edited from Heyne's fourth edition, (Paderborn,
1879), is designed primarily for college classes in Anglo-Saxon, rather
than for independent investigators or for seekers after a restored or ideal
text. The need of an American edition of "Beówulf" has long been felt, as,
hitherto, students have had either to send to Germany for a text, or
secure, with great trouble, one of the scarce and expensive English
editions. Heyne's first edition came out in 1863, and was followed in 1867
and 1873 by a second and a third edition, all three having essentially the
same text.
So many important contributions to the "Beówulf" literature were, however,
made between 1873 and 1879 that Heyne found it necessary to put forth a new
edition (1879). In this new, last edition, the text was subjected to a
careful revision, and was fortified by the views, contributions, and
criticisms of other zealous scholars. In it the collation of the unique
"Beówulf" Ms. (Vitellius A. 15: Cottonian Mss. of the British Museum), as
made by E. Kölbing in Herrig's _Archiv_ (Bd. 56; 1876), was followed
wherever the present condition of the Ms. had to be discussed; and the
researches of Bugge, Bieger, and others, on single passages, were made use
of. The discussion of the metrical structure of the poem, as occurring in
the second and third editions, was omitted in the fourth, owing to the many
controversies in which the subject is still involved. The present editor
has thought it best to do the same, though, happily, the subject of Old
English _Metrik_ is undergoing a steady illumination through the labors of
Schipper and others.
Some errors and misplaced accents in Heyne's text have been corrected in
the present edition, in which, as in the general revision of the text, the
editor has been most kindly aided by Prof. J.M. Garnett, late Principal of
St. John's College, Maryland.
In the preparation of the present school edition it has been thought best
to omit Heyne's notes, as they concern themselves principally with
conjectural emendations, substitutions of one reading for another, and
discussions of the condition of the Ms. Until Wülker's text and the
photographic fac-simile of the original Ms. are in the hands of all
scholars, it will be better not to introduce such matters in the school
room, where they would puzzle without instructing.
For convenience of reference, the editor has added a head-line to each
"fit" of the poem, with a view to facilitate a knowledge of its episodes.
WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY,
LEXINGTON, VA., June, 1882.