I’m reading the (relatively) new Beowulf translation by Irish poet Seamus Heaney. I didn’t know what to expect actually. I was surprised to find it much more “prosey” than the old Gumerre translation that is in the public domain. This new one is much easier to read and understand and certainly still maintains the fun alliterative verse. It’s very different though and after reading Tolkien’s version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight last year, I can’t help but find the old alliteration-laid-on-thick version a bit more strange and enjoyable at times.<\/p>\n
Here is a comparison Heaney translation (first) with the Gumerre, starting at line 115.<\/p>\n
So, after nightfall, Grendel set out
\nfor the lofty house, to see how the Ring-Danes
\nwere settling into it after their drink,
\nand there he came upon them, a company of the best
\nasleep from their feasting, insensible to pain
\nand human sorrow. Suddenly then
\nthe God-cursed brute was creating havoc:
\ngreedy and grim, he grabbed thirty men
\nfrom their resting places and rushed to his lair,
\nflushed up and inflamed from the raid,
\nblundering back with the butchered corpses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nand<\/p>\n
Went he forth to find at fall of night
\nthat haughty house, and heed wherever
\nthe Ring-Danes, outrevelled, to rest had gone.
\nFound within it the atheling band
\nasleep after feasting and fearless of sorrow,
\nof human hardship. Unhallowed wight,
\ngrim and greedy, he grasped betimes,
\nwrathful, reckless, from resting-places,
\nthirty of the thanes, and thence he rushed
\nfain of his fell spoil, faring homeward,
\nladen with slaughter, his lair to seek.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’m reading the (relatively) new Beowulf translation by Irish poet Seamus Heaney. I didn’t know what to expect actually. I was surprised to find it much more “prosey” than the old Gumerre translation that is in the public domain. This new one is much easier to read and understand and certainly still maintains the fun … <\/p>\n