“Where
is the horse and the rider…” —
Select Translations from
Old English Poetry
EDITED
AND WITH PREFATORY NOTES AND INDEXES
BY
Albert S. Cook
Professor of English
Language and Literature in
AND
Chauncey B. Tinker
Professor of English
Literature in
EMENDED
AND REVISED EDITION
Antiquam exquirite matrem
All
rights reserved under International
and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions
Format
& Design Copyright © 2005 by
Capricorn
Publishing, Inc.
ISBN
0-9753970-6-0
PR1508
.C5 2004 829.10822 Cook
Original
edition published in 1902
By
Athenaeum Press and Ginn and Company,
Published
in the
Capricorn
Publishing, Inc., in 2005
Revised
Production by
John
H. Costello and Dimitar
D. Guetov
Original
punctuation and spelling have been retained.
Cover
Design by Antonina Guetov
www.CapricornPublishing.com
PREFACE
This book is addressed to
those intelligent students of English literature, whether under tutelage or
beyond it, who have not been quite willing to accept the statement that Chaucer
was the father of our literature and the creator of our language, and who have
yet not been able to gratify their curiosity as to what might lie beyond by
reason of their inability to read the tongue of our pre‑Chaucerian
ancestors. We are persuaded that there are many who are quite aware that
Beowulf was not the author of the poem which bears his name, who yet are
uncertain how that poem compares in diction, in imagery, in character-painting,
in variety of interest, and in loftiness of sentiment, with the Iliad, the Æneid, or Paradise Lost.
We are convinced that there are those who are too well instructed to call
Cædmon and Cynewulf Seedmon and Sighneewolf who still have no clear
conception as to the relation, whether in bulk or character, borne by the
extant poetry of the one to that of the other. We feel sure that there are
those who would prefer to appraise for themselves the qualities of our oldest
literature rather than remain in helpless dependence upon the dry or
rhapsodical estimates of the current writers upon the subject. So long as there
are educated persons misled into imagining the missionaries and civilizers of
Europe north of the Alps as mere drunken savages or torpid churls, or into
looking upon them as fatalists and ascetics plunged in hopeless gloom and
continually occupied with images of the charnel-house, so long there is need that convenient opportunity be
afforded to revise such opinions, and to frame juster views concerning those
ancient students of Latin and Greek, those patriots who fought with Alfred,
those scholars who founded the empire of Charlemagne by arts, as he by arms.
To
this end their poetry should be rendered accessible. The prose can wait, if
need be ; but specimens of the better Old English poetry, translated, where
that is possible, rather than traduced, should be drawn from the cabinets of
professional scholars into the light of day. He who will should have some
opportunity to read for pleasure that which may be well written ; to admire what may be spirited, pathetic,
or sublime ; to realize the variety of
theme and treatment within the four or five hundred years which the period
covers ; to compare poem with poem, and,
if possible, century with century, or even writer with writer ; to trace the relation between our older
literature, broadly considered, and the later
; and to do this unvexed, so far as may be, by misleading comment, while
provided with brief suggestion on important matters, and especially with
respect to the sources of fuller information.
By two
things, at least, this poetry at its best is characterized — by
the sense of reality and the instinct of reverence. The poet writes with his
eye upon the object, but it is with an eye that admires, that discerns
spiritual qualities and meanings, with the eye of the soul no less than that of
the body. Here is vivid apprehension, profoundly imaginative insight,
worshipful awe, and sometimes a masterly restraint in expression. Here is
respect for simple manliness, admiration for magnanimity, homage for divine
tenderness and self-sacrifice. The range is not small — from
characterization of a life-less object, like a bow, to that of the terrors of
Doomsday and the music of archangels ;
from the turmoil of ocean, which
shouts aloud and groans in mighty pain,
While sounds the tramp of floods along the
shore,
to the colors of
an imaginary peacock, the fragrance of a blossoming forest, and the splendor of
sunrise over the sea. To these poets heroic deeds are matters to be recounted
with simplicity and sober enthusiasm, true kingship is sacred, the good things
of life are to be duly enjoyed, the instinctive feelings of the breast before
the mystery, the might, and the glory of nature are not to be restrained, while
all is tempered by reflections upon an endless future and the due retributions
attendant respectively upon evil conduct and right living. Here are pictured,
or reflected, men bearing their part of life’s burdens, doing the world’s work
in stoutness or humbleness of heart, not without consciousness of an infinite
background for the performance, and infinite rewards for high service, yet with
senses alert to sight, and odor, and sound, to the spectacle of an old churl tangled
and tripped by the ancient representative of John Barleycorn, the artistry of a
beautiful book, the gleam of armor, or the thrill of harp‑strings. They
tell tales, drink the mead, race horses across the plain, ply bow and spear,
are loyal to their lords, defiant of their foes, hungry for honor ; moreover,
when they see death approaching, they face it with solemnity — if
pagans, with fortitude and calm resignation ; if Christians, with godly fear
and joyful hope. Not savages these, not mere drunken churls, not cravens
continually occupied with images of the charnel-house, but men who challenge
our respect, and deserve it. It is of their poetry that we would fain present
some fragment in modern rendering as little unfit as may be.
Translated,
where that is possible, rather than traduced — such
has been our ideal, yet none can be more conscious than we how often the
corruption of manu-scripts, or textual problems as yet unsolved, or avoidable
ignorance, or sheer incapacity and lack of literary feeling on the part of the
translators — ourselves included — have
obscured the qualities of the original, now by deficiency and now by excess. We
are tempted to ask pardon of those who know ; yet, on second thoughts, we ask
rather for unsparing criticism in the form of better renderings of the same
selections, or excellent versions of other pieces.
It
will be seen that the book does not represent any particular theory of
translation to the exclusion of others. Indeed, in view of the fact that
opinions on the best medium for the translation of poetry are so divergent, the
attempt has been made to exhibit a variety of media. Hence the latter range
from prose to ballad measures, from blank verse to verse roughly imitative of
the original movement. In certain cases, as in that of Widsith, the translation is nearly literal ; elsewhere, as in that
of The Ruined City, the rendering is
decidedly paraphrastic. Thus the book should be useful as an illustration of
the different methods of translating our older poetry, and at the same time
point the way to something better than its own present form.
The
best Old English poetry is, we believe, fairly represented here by specimens,
while pieces like Widsith and the Charms have been admitted not so much
for their poetic interest as for their bearing upon the history of culture. It
was of course impossible to do more than make selections from the longer poems,
but, when possible, an entire composition has been used. The desire to present
complete productions must excuse the apparently undue prominence given to a
poem like The Phœnix.
The
classification of the poems is naturally unsatis-factory. A chronological
arrangement was manifestly impossible ; an arrangement by authors was equally
impossible. The word ‘lyric,’ in the classification we have adopted, must be understood
in its widest signification. The cross‑references may in some instances
aid in counteracting the faults of our arrangement, in addition to such value
as they may otherwise have.
We
take pleasure in acknowledging our indebtedness to various publishers,
particularly to Messrs. Cassell & Co. for permission to use the extracts
from Morley’s English Writers, and to
The Macmillan Co. for similar permission to use Tennyson’s Brunanburgh ; the Beowulf selections are from the
translation published by Newson & Co. (New York, 1902), and the Christ selections from Whitman’s
translation (Boston, Ginn & Company, 1900). *
The
Andreas extracts are from Root’s
translation (Yale Studies in English VII
; New York, Holt & Co., 1899), and The Battle in the Elene from Lewis’ The
Beginnings of English Literature (Ginn & Company, 1899). The Battle of Maldon was originally
published in Macmillan’s Magazine 55
371 ff. ; The Wanderer in the Academy 19 355 ; A Love‑Letter
in the Journal of Germanic Philology 3 7 ff. ; Hallam Tennyson’s Song of Brunanburh in the Contemporary Review 28 920 ff. The other renderings appear here
for the first time, and, with the exception of The Dream of the Rood, have been made especially for this book.
In
the interest of uniformity, the editors have taken minor liberties with the
extracts as respects punctuation, paragraph division, etc., and at times the
spelling of a word. They are also, in general, responsible for the headings of
the various sections, and even for the division into sections of poems like Judith and The Phœnix.
The
topics of the subject‑index will, we trust, prove suggestive to teachers
and students, and may be pro-ductive of entertainment to the general reader.