Beowulf
Beowulf is an Old English poem of over 3000 lines, set over the life and battles of its eponymous hero. It is one of the earliest, and certainly the longest, examples of literature in English, shining a light onto the lost literary culture of the Anglo-Saxons. The poem survives in one single manuscript source and its author is unknown.
In 1936, JRR Tolkien gave a lecture entitled ‘Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics’, as the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture presented to the British Academy. This lecture is often considered one of the most important and transformative in the study of Beowulf, arguing for it to be considered through the lens of literary as opposed to historical analysis. Whereas previous scholars had mined Beowulf for its perceived wealth of historical information about, as Professor Archibald Strong, 1920s Beowulf scholar, put it: ‘the picture of a whole civilisation’, Tolkien presented it as pure poetry, cementing its place in the canon of English literature.
History and Authorship
Surprisingly, for such a well-known and oft-studied poem, it is still uncertain exactly when Beowulf was first written. It is considered likely that the story was composed sometime in the 7th to 8th century, in Mercia or Northumberland, and then transmitted orally until it was eventually recorded in the form we have today. The only extant manuscript containing a written Beowulf is the Nowell Codex, which is estimated to have been produced around 1000 CE from analysis of the scribal hand. The poem is primarily in the West Saxon dialect of Old English, but there are examples of other dialects present in the text which suggest a history of oral transmission.
The Nowell Codex is currently held at the British Library and is fully digitised and available to view online (see the resources at the end of this article). One thing which you might note is the quite considerable damage to the edges of many of the pages. The manuscript was part of the collection of Sir Robert Cotton, a collector of manuscripts, who made these available for consultation through the Cotton Library. After his death, the collection was passed on through his family, eventually to his grandson who bequeathed the whole collection to the nation. It was originally stored in Essex House in London, before the location was designated a fire risk and the whole collection was moved to Ashburnham House, now a part of Westminster School. Sadly, and somewhat ironically, in 1731 a fire broke out at Ashburnham House leading many of the collection to be heavily damaged or even destroyed. The Nowell Codex did not escape, leaving the Beowulf manuscript permanently damaged, evident in the charred and blackened edges visible on the manuscript.
Story
Despite being one of the first pieces of literature in Old English, the precursor to modern English, the story is set in 6th century Scandinavia. It tells the story of how Beowulf, a Geatish warrior (from present day Sweden), saves the Danish kingdom ruled by Hrothgar from the monster Grendel. The story is both an epic, following its eponymous hero’s great battles, and a tragedy. Death stalks the poem, which begins and ends with a funeral and, despite the heroics of its central character, it ends on a sombre note forewarning of the destruction of the Geats.
Structure
Old English poetry is structured very differently from much modern English poetry in a form known as alliterative verse. Very simply, this means that the first half of each line sets out a scheme of alliteration – one sound repeated at the start of multiple words – then there is a cesura (a pause) and then the second half of the line follows the scheme set out in the first half. Each half-line tends to have two stressed syllables and alliterated letters fall on these. In its simplest form, a line of Beowulf looks like this:
Oft Scyld Scefing || sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum, || meodosetla ofteah,
The two lines (||) indicate the cesura in the middle of each line of poetry. Note which of the words start with repeated sounds. The alliterating letter from the first half tends to be used on the first stressed syllable in the second half. In practice, this can get more complicated with sounds linking across lines, but this basic structure is what carries the poem on. The repeated sounds also likely acted as an aid for memorisation when the poem was passed on orally.
Translations
Most people who encounter Beowulf nowadays will do so in translation. Even though Old English is the precursor to the language we use today, it has changed so much over time that reading it now its meaning is almost unrecognisable to a modern reader without glosses and dictionaries. This means that a translator of Beowulf has many decisions to make about what they choose to preserve – the direct meaning of the language or the structure of the poetry. Over the years, different translators have made this decision in different ways and what follows is a very brief rundown of three translations and how they have chosen to present the poem:
JRR Tolkien (written 1926, published 2014)
Tolkien’s translation is very scholarly – it preserves the direct or literal meanings of the text at the expense of preserving its poetic characteristics. It provides a thorough commentary alongside the translation, making it a particularly good resource for reading alongside the original. Prose translations like Tolkien’s tend to work best in combination with the Old English, as the original text provides the poetics and the translation gives the literal words for the sake of understanding.
Seamus Heaney (1999)
Seamus Heaney’s translation, on the other hand, chooses to preserve the sound of the text and the poetics of it over the literal meaning. His is a verse translation that focuses on translating the poem’s original alliterative nature in such a way that it can be appreciated as a work of art in itself, a stand in for experiencing the Old English for people who cannot read it.
Maria Headley (2021)
Headley’s version is another verse translation, but rather than sticking to more archaic sounding language, she includes a mixture of voices. It has some beautiful lyrical passages, which it contrasts jarringly with modern slang, highlighting elements of satire that are suggested by the original text, but which are not generally noted by modern translators. It also attempts to reframe Grendel’s mother from the sexist ways in which previous translations have presented her character, showing her as more human than monstrous and as a formidable power in herself. Themes of the original poem, like destructive ideals of masculinity, are brought to the forefront presenting interesting analyses of the original text in her translation.
Further reading:
Bibliography and Further Reading British Library Beowulf pages