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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