Record no. 1136. How do I cite this entry?

[Translations of selected passages from Beowulf]

  • Genre/Type Descriptor(s)
    Translation from Old English
     
    Language(s)
    English
    Old English
  • Translator
    Wright, Thomas
    Translator (uncredited)
    Kemble, John M.
  • Contained in
    Biographia Britannica Literaria, vol. 1, by Thomas Wright
    Location Details
    Volume 1, pages 9-11
    City
    London
    Publisher
    John W. Parker
    Date
    1842
  • Relationships
    (Downstream) Excerpted and recontextualized in -> Beowulf, Guerber, H. A. (1896)
  • Descriptive Notes

    Volume 1 of Wright's Biographia Britannica Literaria is vii + 554 pp. Wright's long opening chapter, "Introductory Essay on the State of Literature and Learning under the Anglo-Saxons" (1-112), includes several short translated extracts from Beowulf on pp. 9-11, the longest being a rendering of lines 1321-31a, following the wording of Kemble's 1837 translation almost exactly and giving the translations in parallel with the Old English.  The Old English given by Wright for that passage begins:

    Hróð-gár maþelode,
    helm Scyldinga:
    ne frin þú æfter sæ'lum,—
    sorh is ge-niwod
    Denigea leódum; (10)

    And ends:

    nú seó hand lig[eð],
    se þe eów wel hwylcra
    wilna dóhte. (11)

    The parallel translation begins:

    Hrothgar spake,
    the protector of the Syldings:
    "Ask not thou after happiness,—
    sorrow is renewed
    to the Danish people;["] (10)

    And ends:

    ["]Now the hand lieth low,
    which was good to you all
    for all your desires." (11)

     
    Authentication

    BAM.

  • Last Updated
    10/23/2024