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Widsith, Beowulf, Finnsburgh, Waldere, Deor. Done Into Common Dear Reader, This book was referenced in one of the 185 issues of 'The Builder' Magazine which was published between January 1915 and May 1930. To celebrate the centennial of this publication, the Pictoumasons website presents a complete set of indexed issues of the magazine. As far as the editor was able to, books which were suggested to the reader have been searched for on the internet and included in 'The Builder' library.' This is a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by one of several organizations as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online. Wherever possible, the source and original scanner identification has been retained. Only blank pages have been removed and this header- page added. The original book has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. 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Please do not assume that a book's appearance in 'The Builder' library means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. The Webmaster UNIFORM WITH BEOWULF THE SONG OF ROLAND Done into English in the Original Measure by CHARLES SCOTT MONCRIEFF With an Introduction by G. K. CHESTERTON and a Note on Technique by GEORGE SAINTSBURY. (Second Impression). SOME CRITICAL OPINIONS. " Mr. Frederic Harrison, in The Fortnightly Review : I take a lively interest in the new translation of the grand mediaeval Epic Chanson de Roland. ... It is a bold and successful venture. ... I advise all who care for mediaeval history and for primitive epics to study the original side by side with Captain Scott Mon- criefFs translation." " Mr. Edmund Gosse, C.B., in The Sunday Times : There have in the past been made efforts to render the Song of Roland into English, but they have not hitherto been very successful. Captain Scott Moncrieffhas approached this rough epic in exactly the read his version and right spirit ; having carefully, having accustomed my ear to his treatment of the assonance, I feel that his success is very considerable indeed." Mr. G. K. Chesterton At the of the World's End in " (" Sign ") The New Witness : The horn of Roland, unlike the horns of elfland, really does roll from soul to soul, and grow for ever and for ever. The enthusiasm of a rising and very critical critic like Mr. Scott Moncrieff is a type of its renewal. There is something of immortal moment about that image of the king and his court riding home in triumph, and hearing from the dark pass behind them the dreadful note of doom. Indeed, it is very like our present rulers are to have and position ; when our supposed triumphed made peace, and through the chorus of praise come wild un accountable voices from Poland and Italy, and the intolerable irony of Ireland. However it be explained or applied, there re mains arrested for ever the pageant of that halted march." Mr. James in The Star and in The Nottingham " Douglas, Journal : The war has bred many poets, and now it has bestowed upon us a noble translation of a noble poem, a translation which is itself a fresh grace and glory of our English tongue. Know ing nothing of the Song, as I read this translation I felt like Keats " as he read Chapman's Homer." It was like a door opening and. Not a scholar like Pro letting out great music. being great fessor Saintsbury, I can bestow on this translation only the praise of instinctive in a masterpiece of English a thing com delight " " " or Rabelais." It parable with FitzGerald's Omar Urquhart's has the savour of genius in its marvellous resurrection of a lost time and a forgotten faith. ... If a poetry be a means of escape from this is a libera the petty dust of one's environment, surely thing tion and enlargement. Our day will pass, and men will see the heroic element in it to which we are blind. I can imagine a scholar a hundred years hence citing this translation as a proof that our soldiers were heroical." " Professor Robert Nichols, in The Observer : So adequate is Scott Moncrieffs translation that it can but take its Captain " place with the classics in this sort with Florio's Montaigne," Fitz " " Omar," Watts-cum-Pusey's St. Augustine," Urqu gerald's" " hart's Rabelais," and Burton's Arabian Nights." The work has that considerable accuracy with the maximum of the original flavour which amounts to a recreation, and which alone makes a translation worthy of the text translated. Such a recreation is in all cases an uncommon feat in this case it amounts to a ; " triumph." B.S., in The Manchester Guardian : There are other trans " lations of the Chanson de Roland," of course, but we doubt if they have been widely read. The virtue of Captain Moncrieffs version is that it popularises for us one of those great works literature which contain and summarise an No one who " epoch." once fairly begins to read his Song of Roland will want to put the book down till he has finished it. This is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of a very remarkable achievement." " H.O., in The Athenceum : Our author revels in the battle- the of which has never been he pieces, vigour surely surpassed ; can be tender at the right moment ; nor does he ever miss the spirit of pure religious faith and the fervent note of patriotism that inform the whole." The Tablet : "We feel that the translation will prove most useful to those who may be teaching English literature or history in our Catholic . schools. The Catholic atmosphere of the poem, its Catholic setting, and its religious feeling can be grasped only by one who still professes the same faith." The Christian " ' ' Science Monitor : The Song of Roland is one of the greatest pagan epics, if not the greatest, in the world's literature. It is full of every splendid nobleness to which humanity is heir, except that particular nobleness which was taught and practised by the Founder of Christianity ' There can be little but praise for the way in which Captain Scott Moncrieff has carried out the superlatively difficult task of rendering the great epic into English. The combination of rugged dignity and breathless speed which is characteristic of the original has been reproduced with astonishing success." " The Saturday Westminster Gazette : We cannot commend the experiment. The book is the most literal translation that we know. It is not poetry." " The Pall Mall Gazette : The experiment, we think, is a real success. It is only a true craftsman who can handle such a thing and be not to have dimmed its judged " brightness." The Liverpool Post : The reviewer's first feeling was one of ' ' vain regret How useful this might have been to me once ! And one still feels . that the work will prove mainly useful for educational purposes, or, if one prefers to put it so, as an undergraduate's crib." " ' ' The Times Literary Supplement : The Chanson de Roland ' ' is and barbarous if its effect as a is to felt abrupt ; poem be in English the translation, while keeping faithfully to the meaning, must reproduce the abruptness and barbarity of the French laisses. That is what Mr. Moncrieff, unlike the other translators of this has done. " poem, The enthusiasm, the flash of one poet catching almost in tuitively the emotion of another long dead, the thrill of reading an intelligent transcript of a great poem these are the valuable things in this book." " The Morning Post : We took up this volume with a certain sense of disappointment. It seemed to us that Captain Scott Moncrieff might have given us a more modern epic . not of Roland, but of Tommy Atkins. But our ingratitude was short lived. " This Song not only sings of triumph, but is in itself a wonder ful triumph for our mother tongue." " The Glasgow Herald : The blessing of Mr. Saintsbury . should suffice the most scholarly. For ourselves, we can imagine no finer gift for the right kind of boy. Every noble element of romance leaps into life in the tale of the fight and the horn-blow ing, and no braver teaching will be found in mortal story than in the last meeting of Roland and Oliver." " " Peter Bell," in Land and Water : To have translated this work is to have a service to readers to performed English ; and have translated it in the original measure with so much success as here is to have achieved a notable feat of dexterity." " Country Life : Captain Scott Moncrieff writes from the very heart and centre of his theme.
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