John Earle, M.A
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BEOWULF IN PROSE EARLE %ont>on HENRY FROWDE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUS:: AMEN CORNER, E.G. of AN ENGLISH EPIC OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY DONE INTO MODERN PROSE WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES JOHN EARLE, M.A. RECTOR OF SWANSWICK RAWLINSONIAN PROFESSOR OF ANGLO-SAXON IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD >xfov& AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1892 [ All rights reserved} Ojforb PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE vii INTRODUCTION ix-c I. DISCOVERY OF TEXT AND PROGRESS OF INTER PRETATION .....'.. ix II. THE CONTENTS OF THE POEM .... liii III. MY THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE BEOWULF Ixxv THE DEEDS OF BEOWULF 1-104 NOTES 105-196 GLOSSARY OF PROPER NAMES 197-203 PREFACE THIS translation was originally made from the Fourth Edition of Moritz Heyne's text. His Fifth Edition came out in 1888, and I think I have used it enough to become acquainted with all the changes that Dr. Adolf Socin, the new editor, has introduced. Where they have appeared to me to be improvements, I have modi fied my translation accordingly. My theory of the origin of the poem, which is given in the Third Part of the Introduction, though not absolutely new, because not now published for the first time, is so considerably expanded as to present a new aspect. It was quite new seven years ago when l it appeared in THE TIMES . The expansion of my theory has been so spontaneous in its growth as to be in to additional itself, my mind, evidence confirmatory ; because as the new proofs have fallen in my way almost unsought by me, so they have seemed to come in simply through the natural affinity of all things for harmonizing with the truth. I cannot put this book out of hand without once more acknowledging my debt to Mr. H. N. Harvey, who, in the generous office of a friend, has transcribed my purblind pencil work. 1 My letters on the Beowulf appeared in THE TIMES at the following- dates : August 25, 1884, September 30 and October 29, 1885. INTRODUCTION. I. DISCOVERY OF TEXT AND PROGRESS OF INTERPRETATION. THE Volume of the Cottonian Library in the British Museum which is marked Vitellius, A. XV. is a short but rather bulky folio containing ten distinct manu scripts, wholly unconnected with one another both as regards date and contents. Ninth in order comes our poem, which occupies about a third part of the volume; and it is written in a hand-writing which seems to belong to the close of the tenth or the early part of the eleventh century. This book suffered considerably in the unfortunate fire which happened to the Cotton Library in 1731, and many of the scorched leaves have since chipped away, so that the text is often mutilated at the ends of the lines. A committee was appointed by the House of Com mons to view the Cotton Library after this disaster, and we learn from their Report (1732, folio) that '114 volumes are either lost, burnt, or entirely spoiled, and others so as to be defective so that the 98 damaged ; said library at present consists of 746 entire volumes and 98 defective ones.' The collection when purchased had contained 958 volumes. Of late years great pains have been taken for the preservation of the fragments by careful mounting. The existence of this poem was unknown to the learned world until the year ^yo^ when it was for the first time noticed in Wanley's Catalogue of Anglo- Saxon Manuscripts. It is a good illustration of the wide difference between the poetry and the prose of our early period, that Wanley, who was able to give a very good account of a prose manuscript, was quite at a loss in examining the Beowulf. He was right, in ' calling it Poeseos Anglo-Saxonicae egregium exem- ' plum but he was very wide of the mark in supposing it to be a description of wars between Denmark and Sweden. It is the more to be deplored that his dis covery should have been so imperfect, and his descrip tion so uninviting, as the Manuscript was at that time still entire, and so continued to be for twenty-six years after the appearance of Wanley's Catalogue. During this period a complete copy might have been taken, had Wanley's notice afforded any hint of the importance 1 of the poem . After Wanley, the first mention of the Beowulf in literature was by Sharon Turner, who in 1807, in his History of the Anglo-Saxons, gave some extracts from it, with such a translation as he was able to offer. Towards the end of the century there was a strong movement among scholars in Denmark (prominent 1 ' He begins his description thus: 'ix. fol. 130. Tractatus nobi- lissimus poetice scriptus,' and then he proceeds to give two specimens of the text, one from the Prologue, which he calls the Preface, and a second from the first Canto, which he calls the first Chapter, and then ' concludes thus : In hoc libro, qui Poeseos Anglo-Saxonicce egregium est exemplum, descripta videntur bella quse Beowulfus quidam Danus ex regia Scyldengorum stirpe ortus, gessit contra Suecise regulos.' I xi names were Suhrn the historian, and Langebek the editor of Rerum Danicarum Scriptores) for the preser vation of their own and kindred antiquities. In con sequence of this movement, Thoj^ejjjj. came to England in the year 1786, and obtained two copies of the poem. One of these he made with his own hand, and one was made by a professional scribe, who, being quite ignorant J of the language, operated by way of facsimile . During the following years this Danish scholar devoted much time to the study of the poem, as he was preparing it for the Press and the he it ; by year 1807 had nearly in order for publication. But in that year the old city of Copenhagen was stormed by the English fleet, and Thorkelin's house was burnt, and his literary property was destroyed, including his edition of the Beowulf. Fortunately, however, the transcripts which he had. brought from England were saved. After this crushing discouragement Thorkelin would hardly have renewed the attempt, had he not been to urged it, and munificently aided too, by the Danish privy councillor, John Billow, by whom he was induced, 2 though now old, to make another effort . At length in he out the Editio of the jj|i5, brought Princeps Beowulf, containing the first printed text, with a parallel Latin translation and indices. According to the theory which' he had formed in the course of his labours, this poem was supposed to be a translation from a Danish original which had been written by an author contemporary 1 These are now the transcripts a and b, which serve to eke out the testimony of the wasted Manuscript : they are preserved in Copenhagen. 2 ' Thorkelin's account of it is in these words : Periit isto excidio versio toto et seternum Scyldingidos mea cum apparatu suo ; periisset una animus earn iterandi, nisi Heros illustrissimus JOANNES BULOWIUS, dynasta Sanderumgaardi, exhortatus fuisset me, consiliis et sere suo adjutum, opus iterum inchoare, ut publicam videret lucem.' xii ^Introduction with his heroes and personally acquainted with them; and he thought this Anglo-Saxon translation mighj: have been executed by or at the command of King Alfred. In 1835, Kemble put on record his opinion of Thorkelin's work, both as to the transcript and the translation, in terms which were needlessly harsh and severe; it is enough for us now to say that in the present state of our knowledge, this first edition is chiefly valuable as a historical monument and a literary l curiosity . The work of elucidating the new discovery fell next to the lot of Pastor Grundtvig (such was the title by which he was best known in later years). As soon as the poem was published, he addressed himself to the study of it, and in the same year produced a series of critiques which appeared in a periodical called The Copenhagen Sketch Book (Kjobenhavns Skilderie), and among the rest a poetical translation of the Prologue. fGrundtvig's work divided the learned world of Copen- l hagen info two hostile camps. It is touching at this date, when time has quieted the agitation, to take a glance back at the extinct volcanoes of those passions which then blazed around the Beowulf. Thorkelin was furious the and as against young daring pretender ; and for the shipping of Scyld's dead body off to sea as it appeared in Grundtvig's lines, he pronounced it all mere inven tion and a gratuitous fabrication of the translator's own. But when Privy-Councillor Billow, the Mecaenas of 1 Thorpe in the Preface to his edition (1855) taught us to congratulate ' ourselves on the ignorance of Thorkelin. He said : When Thorkelin, in the year 1786, made his transcript, the manuscript was evidently much less injured than when I collated it with his edition, there being many words in his text which were not to be found in the manuscript in and his of is 1830 ; ignorance Anglo-Saxon alone a sufficient guarantee that they were really found there, and not supplied by him.' 1 Xlll that time, saw Grundtvig's work, he thought other wise. He at once made liberal proposals to the ardent young scholar, and induced him to devote himself to this poem, with a view to produce a complete poetical version of it in the Danish language.