Part 12 (1/2)

_Nature of the Translation._

The translation is a literal prose version, printed under the text. It resembles Kemble's work[4], rather than Thorpe's[5]. It eschews unwieldy compounds, and makes no attempt to acquire an archaic flavor. Supplied words are bracketed.

_Criticism of the Text._

Arnold had access to the MS., and gave the most thorough description of it that had yet appeared. But, strangely enough, he did not make it the basis of his edition. He speaks of a 'partial collation' of the MS., but this appears to have been nothing more than a transcription of certain fragmentary parts of the MS. One of these pa.s.sages is printed in the Introduction, where it is referred to as an 'exact transcript'; yet, in collating it with the Zupitza _Autotypes_, I have found the following errors:--

Line 2219[6], eowes _for_ eofes.

2220, biorn _for_ beorna.

2211, geweoldum _for_ ge weoldum.

2223, b _for_ .

2225, wea ... _for_ weal ...

2226, inwlitode, inwatode _for_ mwatide.

Of course the faded condition of the MS. offers some excuse for one or two of these errors, but, if we encounter mistakes in a short transcript professedly exact, what would have been the fate of the text had the entire MS. been collated?

Professor Garnett[7] has noted that Arnold's text was taken from Thorpe's, with some changes to suit the 1857 text of Grein. In order to test the accuracy of these statements I have made a collation of the texts of Arnold, Thorpe, and the MS. The list of errors in Thorpe's text, which I have mentioned in a discussion of that work[8], is repeated bodily in Arnold's. Yet there was no excuse at this time for the retention of many of these readings. Grundtvig[9] had corrected several of them as early as 1861 by his collation of the Thorkelin transcripts[10]; Heyne had got rid of them by collating Thorpe's work with Kemble's[11] and Grundtvig's. Arnold makes almost no reference to the work of Heyne, and incorporates none of his emendations. He also overlooked Grein's 1867 text, which contained new readings and a glossary. Arnold himself did not emend the text in a single instance.

EXTRACT.

VIII.

Hunferth spake, the son of Ecglaf, who sat at the feet of the master of the Scyldings; he unbound the secret counsel of his malice. The expedition of Beowulf, the valiant mariner, was to him a great cause of offence; for that he allowed not that any other man on the earth should ever appropriate more deeds of fame under heaven than he himself. 'Art thou that Beowulf who strove against Breca in a swimming-match on the broad sea? where ye two for emulation explored the waves, and for foolish boasting ventured your lives in the deep water. Nor could any man, either friend or foe, warn you off from your perilous adventure. Then ye two rowed on the sea, where with your arms [outspread] ye covered the ocean-stream, measured the sea-ways, churned up [the water] with your hands, glided over the deep; the sea was tossing with waves, the icy wintry sea. Ye two toiled for seven nights in the watery realm; he overcame thee in the match, he had more strength. Then, at dawn of morn, the sea cast him up on [the coast of] the Heath.o.r.eamas; thence he, dear in the sight of his people, sought his loved native soil, the land of the Brondings, the fair safe burgh where he was the owner of folk, burgh, and precious jewels.'

--Pages 37, 38.

_Criticism of the Translation._

The translation is literal, and its value is therefore in direct ratio to the value of the text, which has been discussed above.

[Footnote 1: See supra, p. 49.] [[Thorpe]]

[Footnote 2: A theory which the author continued to regard as partially tenable. See _Notes on Beowulf_ (London, 1898), p. 114.]

[Footnote 3: Contrast this with the editions of Heyne. See p. 64.]

[Footnote 4: See supra, p. 33.] [[Kemble]]

[Footnote 5: See supra, p. 49.] [[Thorpe]]

[Footnote 6: The numbers are those of Wyatt's text; for Zupitza's and Arnold's add 1.]

[Footnote 7: See _Amer. Journal of Philol._ I. 1. 90.]

[Footnote 8: See supra, p. 51.] [[Thorpe: Criticism...]]