Beowulf, Page Seven

Eleven English translations of the poem have been published (see C. B. Tinker, The Translations of Beowulf, 1903). Among these may be mentioned those of J. M. Garnett (6th ed., 1900), a literal rendering in a metre imitating that of the original; J. Earle (1892) in prose; W. Morris (1895) in imitative metre, and almost unintelligibly archaistic in diction; and C. B. Tinker (1902) in prose.

For the bibliography of the earlier literature on Beowulf, and a detailed exposition of the theories therein advocated, see R. P. Walker, Grundriss der angelsachsischen Litteratur (1882). The views of Karl Mallenhoff, which, though no longer tenable as a whole, have formed the basis of most of the subsequent criticism, may be best studied in his posthumous work, Beovulf, Untersuchungen fiber das angelsachsische Epos (1889). Much valuable matter may be found in . B. ten Brink, Beowulf, Untersuchungen (1888). The work of G. Sarrazin, Beowulf-studien (1888), which advocates the strange theory that Beowulf is a translation by Cynewulf of a poem by the Danish singer Starkadr, contains, amid much that is fanciful, not a little that deserves careful consideration. The many articles by E. Sievers and S. Bugge, in Beitrage zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache and Litteratur and other periodicals, are of the utmost importance for the textual criticism and interpretation of the poem. (H. BR.)

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