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BEOWULF AN ANGLO-SAXON EPIC POEM

_TRANSLATED FROM THE HEYNE-SOCIN TEXT_

BY

JNO: LESSLIE HALL, Ph. D. (J.H.U.)

Professor of English and History in The College of William and Mary

D.C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892, by

JNO: LESSLIE HALL,

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

TO

My Wife

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CONTENTS.

PAGE

Preface vii

Bibliography of Translations xi

Glossary of Proper Names xiii

List of Words and Phrases not in General Use xviii

The Life and Death of Scyld (I.) 1

Scyld's Successors } (II.) 3 Hrothgar's Great Mead-Hall

Grendel, the Murderer (III.) 5

Beowulf Goes to Hrothgar's Assistance (IV.) 8

The Geats Reach Heorot (V.) 10

Beowulf Introduces Himself at the Palace (VI.) 12

Hrothgar and Beowulf (VII.) 14

Hrothgar and Beowulf (continued) (VIII.) 17

Unferth Taunts Beowulf (IX.) 19

Beowulf Silences Unferth } (X.) 21 Glee is High

All Sleep save One (XI.) 24

Grendel and Beowulf (XII.) 26

Grendel is Vanquished (XIII.) 28

Rejoicing of the Danes (XIV.) 30

Hrothgar's Gratitude (XV.) 33

Hrothgar Lavishes Gifts upon his Deliverer (XVI.) 35

Banquet (continued) } (XVII.) 37 The Scop's Song of Finn and Hnæf

The Finn Episode (continued) } (XVIII.) 39 The Banquet Continues

Beowulf Receives Further Honor (XIX.) 41

The Mother of Grendel (XX.) 44

Hrothgar's Account of the Monsters (XXI.) 46

Beowulf Seeks Grendel's Mother (XXII.) 48

Beowulf's Fight with Grendel's Mother (XXIII.) 51

Beowulf is Double-Conqueror (XXIV.) 53

[vi] Beowulf Brings his Trophies } (XXV.) 57 Hrothgar's Gratitude

Hrothgar Moralizes } (XXVI.) 60 Rest after Labor

Sorrow at Parting (XXVII.) 62

The Homeward Journey } (XXVIII.) 64 The Two Queens

Beowulf and Higelac (XXIX.) 67

Beowulf Narrates his Adventures to Higelac (XXX.) 69

Gift-Giving is Mutual (XXXI.) 73

The Hoard and the Dragon (XXXII.) 75

Brave Though Aged } (XXXIII.) 78 Reminiscences

Beowulf Seeks the Dragon } (XXXIV.) 81 Beowulf's Reminiscences

Reminiscences (continued) } (XXXV.) 83 Beowulf's Last Battle

Wiglaf the Trusty } (XXXVI.) 88 Beowulf is Deserted by Friends and by Sword

The Fatal Struggle } (XXXVII.) 91 Beowulf's Last Moments

Wiglaf Plunders the Dragon's Den } (XXXVIII.) 93 Beowulf's Death

The Dead Foes } (XXXIX.) 95 Wiglaf's Bitter Taunts

The Messenger of Death (XL.) 97

The Messenger's Retrospect (XLI.) 99

Wiglaf's Sad Story } (XLII.) 103 The Hoard Carried Off

The Burning of Beowulf (XLIII.) 106

Addenda 109

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PREFACE.

The present work is a modest effort to reproduce approximately, in modern measures, the venerable epic, Beowulf. _Approximately_, I repeat; for a very close reproduction of Anglo-Saxon verse would, to a large extent, be prose to a modern ear.

The Heyne-Socin text and glossary have been closely followed. Occasionally a deviation has been made, but always for what seemed good and sufficient reason. The translator does not aim to be an editor. Once in a while, however, he has added a conjecture of his own to the emendations quoted from the criticisms of other students of the poem.

This work is addressed to two classes of readers. From both of these alike the translator begs sympathy and co-operation. The Anglo-Saxon scholar he hopes to please by adhering faithfully to the original. The student of English literature he aims to interest by giving him, in modern garb, the most ancient epic of our race. This is a bold and venturesome undertaking; and yet there must be some students of the Teutonic past willing to follow even a daring guide, if they may read in modern phrases of the sorrows of Hrothgar, of the prowess of Beowulf, and of the feelings that stirred the hearts of our forefathers in their primeval homes.

In order to please the larger class of readers, a regular cadence has been used, a measure which, while retaining the essential characteristics of the original, permits the reader to see ahead of him in reading.

Perhaps every Anglo-Saxon scholar has his own theory as to how Beowulf should be translated. Some have given us prose versions of what we believe to be a great poem. Is it any reflection on our honored Kemble and Arnold to say that their translations fail to show a layman that Beowulf is justly called our first _epic_? Of those translators who have used verse, several have written from what would seem a mistaken point of view. Is it proper, for instance, that the grave and solemn speeches of Beowulf and Hrothgar be put in ballad measures, tripping lightly and airily along? Or, again, is it fitting that the rough martial music of Anglo-Saxon verse be interpreted to us in the smooth measures of modern blank verse? Do we hear what has been beautifully called "the clanging tread of a warrior in mail"?

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Of all English translations of Beowulf, that of Professor Garnett alone gi