The editors now have the pleasure of presenting to the public a complete
text and a tolerably complete glossary of "Beówulf." The edition is the
first published in America, and the first of its special kind presented to
the English public, and it is the initial volume of a "Library of
Anglo-Saxon Poetry," to be edited under the same auspices and with the
coöperation of distinguished scholars in this country. Among these scholars
may be mentioned Professors F.A. March of Lafayette College, T.K. Price of
Columbia College, and W.M. Baskervill of Vanderbilt University.
In the preparation of the Glossary the editors found it necessary to
abandon a literal and exact translation of Heyne for several reasons, and
among others from the fact that Heyne seems to be wrong in the translation
of some of his illustrative quotations, and even translates the same
passage in two or three different ways under different headings. The
orthography of his glossary differs considerably from the orthography of
his text. He fails to discriminate with due nicety the meanings of many of
the words in his vocabulary, while criticism more recent than his latest
edition (1879) has illustrated or overthrown several of his renderings. The
references were found to be incorrect in innumerable instances, and had to
be verified in every individual case so far as this was possible, a few
only, which resisted all efforts at verification, having to be indicated by
an interrogation point (?). The references are exceedingly numerous, and
the labor of verifying them was naturally great. To many passages in the
Glossary, where Heyne's translation could not be trusted with entire
certainty, the editors have added other translations of phrases and
sentences or of special words; and in this they have been aided by a
careful study of the text and a comparison and utilization of the views of
Kemble and Professor J.M. Garnett (who takes Grein for his foundation).
Many new references have been added; and the various passages in which
Heyne fails to indicate whether a given verb is weak or strong, or fails to
point out the number, etc., of the illustrative form, have been corrected
and made to harmonize with the general plan of the work. Numerous misprints
in the glossary have also been corrected, and a brief glossary to the
Finnsburh-fragment, prepared by Dr. Wm. Hand Browne, and supplemented and
adapted by the editor-in-chief, has been added.
The editors think that they may without immodesty put forth for themselves
something more than the claim of being re-translators of a translation: the
present edition is, so far as they were able to make it so, an adaptation,
correction, and extension of the work of the great German scholar to whose
loving appreciation of the Anglo-Saxon epic all students of Old English owe
a debt of gratitude. While following his usually sure and cautious
guidance, and in the main appropriating his results, they have thought it
best to deviate from him in the manner above indicated, whenever it seemed
that he was wrong. The careful reader will notice at once the marks of
interrogation which point out these deviations, or which introduce a point
of view illustrative of, or supplementary to, the one given by the German
editor. No doubt the editors are wrong themselves in many
places,--"Beówulf" is a most difficult poem,--but their view may at least
be defended by a reference to the original text, which they have faithfully
and constantly consulted.
A good many cognate Modern English words have been introduced here and
there in the Glossary with a view to illustration, and other addenda will
be found between brackets and parenthetical marks.
It is hoped that the present edition of the most famous of Old English
poems will do something to promote a valuable and interesting study.
JAMES A. HARRISON,
_Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va._
ROBERT SHARP,
_University of Louisiana, New Orleans_.
April, 1883.
The responsibility of the editors is as follows: H. is responsible for the
Text, and for the Glossary from hrînan on; S. for the List of Names, and
for the Glossary as far as hrînan.