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Study Guide Home Least Tern

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Below you will find selections from six other translations of Beowulf plus an interlinear translation from a Beowulf website. We will compare these selections to the same "lines" in Beowulf the Warrior , and to two recordings. As we read these quotations, we will try to answer these questions:

• Which translation sounds the most like the Old English?

• In what ways does the author use grammar to affect sound and meaning?

• In what ways does the author use word choice to affect sound and meaning or to create a mood?

• The "concrete meaning" of all passages is the same, but how do the moods or abstract meanings (feelings associated with the text) differ?

• Which selection do you like the best, and why?

 

 

The quotations have been grouped into four sections:

- The first three or four lines of the epic, or the first full sentence. 

- The arrival of Grendel.

- From the battle between Beowulf and Grendel's mother.

- The lines following the last words spoken by Beowulf.

This is omitted from our text.  Do you think it should have been included?

Intralinear:

1   HwÊt. We Gardena in geardagum,
          LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings
2 œeodcyninga, œrym gefrunon,
          of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
3   hu •a Êœelingas ellen fremedon.
          we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!

Rebsamen:

Yes! We have heard   of years long vanished
how Spear-Danes struck   sang victory-songs
raised from a wasteland   walls of glory.

Raffel:

Hear me! We've heard of Danish heroes,
Ancient kings and the glory they cut
For themselves, swinging mighty swords!

Lehmann:

Now we have heard stories of high valor
In times long past   of tribal monarchs,
Lords of Denmark,   how those leaders strove.

Hieatt:

Indeed, we have heard of the glory of the great Danish kings in days of old and the noble
deeds of the princes.

Alexander:

Attend!
We have heard of the thriving of the throne of Denmark,
how the folk-kings flourished in former days,
how those royal athelings earned that glory.

Child:

Lo! We have heard tell of the might in the days of old of the Spear-Danes' folk-kings, how
deeds of prowess were wrought by the athelings.

The arrival of Grendel, compressed into lines 11-14 in our text.

Intralinear:

102 WÊs se grimma gÊst Grendel haten,
          Grendel this monster grim was called,
103 mÊre mearcstapa, se œe moras heold,
          march-riever mighty, in moorland living,
104 fen ond fÊsten; fifelcynnes eard
          in fen and fastness; fief of the giants
105 wonsÊli wer weardode hwile,
          the hapless wight a while had kept
106 siœ•an him scyppend forscrifen hÊfde
          since the Creator his exile doomed.

Rebsamen:

Grendel circled   sounds of the harp
prowled the marshes   moors and ice-streams
forests and fens.   He found his home
with misshapen monsters   in misery and greed.

Raffel:

Till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend,
Grendel, who haunted the moors, the wild
Marshes, and made his home in a hell
Not hell but earth.

Lehmann:

That ghastly grim one,   Grendel, they called him,
was that fiend of fens   who defended the waste
marsh and moorland.

Hieatt:

This grim spirit was called Grendel. A notorious prowler of the waste lands, he held
sway in the moors, the fen and fastness.

Alexander:

Grendel they called this cruel spirit,
the fell and fen his fastness was,
the marsh his haunt.

Child:

The grim demon, the fell prowler about the borders of the homes of men, who held the
moors, the fens, and the fastnesses, was called Grendel.

From the battle between Beowulf and Grendel's mother, which appears about mid-way down page 26 in our text. (intralinear lines not available)

Rebsamen:

Now he could see her   sorrowful blood-fiend
great mere-monster--he grabbed his sword then
swung high with it   swept it down at her
struck at the head   with a sounding blade-tone
steel-song ringing.

Raffel:

          Then he saw
The mighty water witch, and swung his sword,
His ring-marked blade, straight at her head;
The iron sang its fierce song,
Sang Beowulf's strength.

Lehmann:

Then that worthy man   saw the witch near him,
a monstrous merewife.   He gave a mighty stroke
with the battlebrand;   the blow was not weakened.
The ring-sword rang out   on her wretched head
with a wild warcry.

Hieatt:

Now the brave man could see the accursed monster of the deep, the mighty
mere-woman. He did not hold back his blow, but gave a mighty rush with his sword
so that the blade sang a fierce war song on her head.

Alexander:

It was then that he saw the size of this water-hag,
damned thing of the deep. His dashed out his weapon,
not stinting the stroke, and with such vengeance and violence
that the circled sword screamed on her head
a strident battle song.

Child:

The worthy one looked then on the she-wolf of the sea-bottom, the mighty
water-wife. The full strength of onset he gave with his battle-axe, his hand held
not back from the stroke, so that on her head the ring-decked blade sang out
its greedy war-song.

The lines following the last words spoken by Beowulf, which appear at top of page 46 in our text. (intralinear lines not available)

Rebsamen:

Those words were the last   of that long-loved king
his final heart-thoughts   for the hot balefire
bone-cracking flames--from his breast at last
his soul went seeking   safety in praise.

Raffel:

The old man's mouth was silent, spoke
No more, had said as much as it could;
He would sleep in the fire, soon. His soul
Left his flesh, flew to glory.

Lehmann:

Those were the final words   of the fallen king
before his funeral rites--   the flaming balefire,
blazing and burning.   From his breast there passed
his spirit seeking   the splendor of the righteous.

Hieatt:

These were the last words the old man spoke before he was ready for the hot,
hostile flames of his funeral pyre. His soul departed to seek the judgment of the
righteous.

Alexander:

This was the aged man's uttermost word
from the thoughts of his breast; he embraced the pyre's
seething surges; soul left its case,
going its way to the glory of the righteous.

Child:

That was the last thought of the old king's heart, ere he made choice of the pyre,
the hot death-surges. His soul went forth from his bosom to find the award of the
steadfast in right.

 

 

Notes:

• athelings - a male member of the ruling household; a prince

• moor - open, peaty waste land, often covered with heath (a short, scruffy plant)

• fell - a moor or thicket of scruffy growth

• fen - a boggy land, a marsh

• fastness - a stronghold, defended territory; in this case, it is the territory of Grendel

• strident - making or having a harsh sound, grating in sound

• mere - a lake or pond (not the meaning we give the word when we use it today)

• hag - an ugly old woman, a witch

• brand - an iron used to burn a mark into something you own; the poet is using this metaphorically.

• balefire - a funeral pyre

• pyre - a pile of wood for burning a dead body

The following texts are the sources of the quotations used in this lesson:

• Alexander, Michael. Beowulf.  1973, Penguin
• Child, Clarence Griffin, Beowulf and the Finnish Fragment. 1932, Houghton Mifflin (Riverside Literature Series)
• Hieatt, Constance, translator.  Beowulf and Other Old English Poems. 1982, Bantam
• Lehmann, Ruth P.M., translator.  Beowulf, an Imitative Translation. 1988, University of Texas Press
• Raffel, Burton, translator and editor.  Beowulf.  1999, Signet Classic
• Rebsamen, Frederick, translator. Beowulf. 1991, HarperCollins Icon Editions

Our text is:

• Serraillier, Ian.  Beowulf, the Warrior.  illustrated by Severin. 1994, Bethlehem Books

Least Tern

 

Elizabeth Sky-McIlvain 2/14/05