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Beowulf: the literal translation
16 years ago
I've now read Beowulf fully in Modern English and partially in Old English, and now realize how much Seamus Heaney changed it from it's original form. The original opening paragraph sounds like this:
"Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon".
And in the Modern English version, Mr. Heaney translates it into this:
"So.The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns".
In a way Mr. Heaney was basically re-writing the entire story in his own words. So I did some research on my own and wrote down how it would really sound if they translated it directly from Old English into Modern English:
What! we spear-danes in year-day
nation-kings great multitude friends
how then sons of kings strength fulfillment.
That sounds really wonky, so I'm glad we now have people like Seamus Heaney around to fill in the gaps and make the story more inturesting
"Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon".
And in the Modern English version, Mr. Heaney translates it into this:
"So.The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns".
In a way Mr. Heaney was basically re-writing the entire story in his own words. So I did some research on my own and wrote down how it would really sound if they translated it directly from Old English into Modern English:
What! we spear-danes in year-day
nation-kings great multitude friends
how then sons of kings strength fulfillment.
That sounds really wonky, so I'm glad we now have people like Seamus Heaney around to fill in the gaps and make the story more inturesting
though I do have to say, I'm glad that there are people who do translations; I'd have to far up my geek ante to be able to deal with the original version. I can plough through chaucer well enough though.