Record no. 432. How do I cite this entry?

Beowulf: An Updated Verse Translation

  • Genre/Type Descriptor(s)
    Translation from Old English
     
    Language(s)
    English
  • Translator
    Rebsamen, Frederick
  • City
    New York
    Publisher
    Perennial Classics (HarperCollins)
    Date
    2004
  • Relationships
  • Identifying Numbers
    ISBN: 0060573783
     
    Descriptive Notes

    xxv + 113 pp. A revised version of Rebsamen's 1991 verse translation in which he has "concentrat[ed] on improvement of the poetry" of his original version (vii): see, for example, changes in ll. 4a, 4b, 8a, and 9b in the opening passage quoted below. The translation remains freely creative, with minimal punctuation.

    As in the introduction to the 1991 version, Rebsamen explains that he has attempted "to adhere strictly to the rules of alliteration, to imitate … the stress patterns of Old English half-lines, and to choose Modern English words and compounds that give at least some idea of the strength and radiance of the original" (xxi); and that he has "reluctantly inserted … prose explanations of obscure passages" (xxii). Examples of these prose interjections include a blurb on Unferth (17) and a transition from Wealhtheow's speech to the Finnsburh episode (39). The translation is preceded by a new introductory note to this edition (vii) and the original introduction (ix-xxiii), and is followed by genealogical tables, a select glossary of proper names, and a brief select bibliography.

    The translation begins:

    Yes! We have heard     of years long vanished
    how Spear-Danes struck     sang victory songs
    raised from a wasteland     walls of glory.
    When Scyld Scefing     shamed his enemies
    measured meadhalls     made them his own
    since down by the sea-swirl     sent from nowhere
    the Danes found him     floating with gifts
    bound to their shore.     Scyld grew tall then
    roamed the waterways     rode through the lands
    till every strongman     each warleader
    sailed the whalepaths     sought him with gold
    there knelt to him.     That was a king! (2)

    And ends:

    Around the barrow-base     rode the lost ones
    twelve good spearmen     circled the mound
    mourned their hall-lord     hailed their good king
    spoke of his courage     sang their word-songs
    praised his earlship     and his proud throne-years
    as good men should     when their shieldman has gone.
    A good wine-lord     needs words of praise
    love from his people     when he leaves this earth
    when breath is borne     from his body at last.
    So the Geats went grieving     gathered by the mound.
    Hearth-companions     praised their lost one
    named him the ablest     of all world-kings
    mildest of men     and most compassionate
    most lithe to his people     most loving of praise. (101)

     
    Authentication

    BAM (from 2006 reprint).

  • Last Updated
    03/29/2022