And it's presented in modern English on one side opposite the original Old English West Saxon , which is a delight to the eye, even if you can't read it what? You can't read West Saxon?!?
It's a book you should have. And Tolkien's translation was finally published not too long ago: Beowulf by J. Tolkien - Hardcover HarperCollins. As Jonathon said, the Old English is on the opposite page. The fact that Tolkien has also translated it is interesting because Beowulf almost reads like a Tolkien novel. Join Date Apr Posts I have very mixed feelings about the Heaneywolf. You already speak English, and the grammar is a bear for sure, but the original beats all translations for both poetry and meaning, in my opinion.
Go nuts. This stuff is fun. Translating originary texts from one culture to another allows and often requires the new creator to make decisions regarding form, meaning, and emphasis. Here are the three translations that I own, with very brief bullet points explaining their main features:. Beowulf: Facing page translation 2 nd Edition — R. Liuzza 2 nd Edition He got great reviews for Beowulf. Tolkien was actually one of the first to argue that Beowulf should be read as a poem and not just as an opportunity to examine language-use.
This gives the reader a very real sense of how hearing the poem out loud must have felt. With that being said, he made some interpretations that might have raised some eyebrows and went directly against the standard. That seems to be the version that Heaney and Liuzza favoured. I like that idea. The verdict: read it for a good poem with LOTR vibes, but maybe treat it more like a fanfic than a true translation.
This is an excellent book if you want to get into the nitty-gritty of Old English language, too. Heaney explains the choices he made, some of the context of the poem to help the reader, and explains why it took him so long to get through the translation. But after puttering around for a while, he realised that the Old English metrics were very similar to his own poetic style: two balancing halves in each line, each containing two stressed syllables.
That helped smooth the way for his translation. He also needed to reconcile the Old English language with the modern language that he ought to be translating it into. Because he found that there are actually a lot of connections between the Old English and Irish-English:.
Makes it feel like Grandpa is sitting you down on a cold night to tell you a bedtime story. That seems to be the common interpretation of his work. There is naturally a bit of artistic liberty taken — which is to be expected from an author who was clearly very focused on making a good poem as opposed to a perfect translation.
The verdict: gorgeous poem, mainly loyal to the source, though the nuance will be a bit skewed so it might be worth double-checking some of his translations with an Old English dictionary if you want to thoroughly understand what is being said.
He offers footnotes, a thorough introduction, and five different appendixes of tiny font not including the glossary of names and the brief history of the Geatish-Swedish wars. This seems to be the most thorough translation and the one reviewers agree is probably the most accurate. His translation is in verse, so it has the same limitations of structure that Heaney also felt, and thus the same minor conundrums in choosing aesthetics over close interpretations.
His alliteration does have a slight tendency to come off a bit crooked, probably due to the limitations of Modern English in conveying the same ideas with similar-sounding words. Any lack of subjective poetic beauty is made up with the clear and ever-present guiding hand of the translator.
He highlights moments in the translation that may be difficult to understand from reading the poem alone, or indicates where in the appendix you can go to find additional information. Here's a link to it. Alternatively, if you're feeling really brave there is George Jack's student edition of Beowulf.
This contains only the Old English text, but does have a very supportive gloss -it was how I learned OE myself. It can be found here. Hope that helps! If you haven't read Beowulf before, then you are in for a treat! And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity- through him all things fall.
Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity! Okay, so nay on the Heaney. I have read it before, but it was quite a while ago. Thanks for the tips, Lok. I haven't read any other translations and don't know a lick of Old English, so I have no idea if this is considered a decent translation. There is of course a note at the beginning that may or may not just be hyperbole. In the note it states that "The present translation by R. Gordon, is sensitive to the syntactic complexity of the original and preserves the many kennings or compounds so intrinsic to Anglo-Saxon poetry.
Any way, I enjoy this edition and at some point intend to find another translation to compare the two.
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