List of translations of Beowulf explained

This is a list of translations of Beowulf, one of the best-known Old English heroic epic poems. Beowulf has been translated many times in verse and in prose. By 2020, the Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database listed some 688 translations and other versions of the poem, from Thorkelin's 1787 transcription of the text, and in at least 38 languages.^[1]

The poet John Dryden's categories of translation have influenced how scholars discuss variation between translations and adaptations.^[2] In the Preface to Ovid's Epistles (1680) Dryden proposed three different types of translation:

The works listed below may fall into more than one of Dryden's categories, but works that are essentially direct translations are listed here. Versions of other kinds that take more "latitude" are listed at List of adaptations of Beowulf.

Translations

There are hundreds of translations or near-translations of Beowulf, and more are added each year, so a complete list may well be unattainable. Listed here are the major versions discussed by scholars, along with the first versions in different languages.

English Translations

Date	Title	Translator	Location	Publisher !	Type	Notes
1837	Beowulf		London	William Pickering	Prose	First complete translation into modern English; archaizing, and translating word-for-word. The 1st ed. in 1833 had no translation.
1849	Beowulf, an epic poem translated from the Anglo-Saxon into English verse		London	William Pickering	Verse	Walter Scott-like romance verse using rhyme and modern metre (iambic tetrameters), no attempt to imitate alliterative verse
1855	Anglo-Saxon Poems of Beowulf		Oxford	James Wright	Verse, prosaic	Parallel text, with "literal" translation "reading like prose ... chopped up into short lines" as if verse
1876	Beowulf: a Heroic Poem of the Eighth Century, with a translation		London		Prose	An archaizing version, translating word-for-word.[3]
1881	Beowulf: an old English poem, translated into modern rhymes	Lumsden, Henry William	London		Verse
1882	Beowulf: an Anglo-Saxon poem, & the Fight at Finnsburg	Garnett, James Mercer, the younger	Boston	Ginn, Heath, & Co.	Verse	"With facsimile of the unique manuscript in the British Museum".[4]
1888	I. Beówulf: an Anglo-Saxon poem. II. The Fight at Finnsburh: a fragment	Harrison, James Albert; Moritz Heyne; Robert Sharp	Boston	X. Ginn & Co.	Prose	Not exactly a translation. Annotated text and long glossary
1892	The Deeds of Beowulf		Oxford	Clarendon Press	Prose	An archaizing version.
1894	Beowulf	Wyatt, Alfred John	Cambridge	Cambridge University Press	Prose	Not exactly a translation. Annotated text and long glossary
1895	The tale of Beowulf sometime King of the folk of the Weder Geats	Morris, William Alfred John Wyatt	London		Verse	"Genuinely foreignizing ... medievalizes" in a distinctive style, with "breaking rhythms and irregular syntax ... an insistently archaizing diction and a striking literalism to produce a defamiliarizing effect".
1897	Beowulf: an Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem		Lexington		Verse	[5]
1901	Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg		Cambridge	Cambridge University Press	Prose	A literal approach, somewhat archaic; smoother and more uniform than Kemble. "One of the most enduringly popular of all translations of the poem".[6]
1910	Beowulf	Gummere, Francis B.	New York	The Collier Press	Verse	The Harvard Classics, Charles W. Eliot, (Ed.)
1910	Beowulf	Sedgefield, Walter John	Manchester	University of Manchester	Prose	Not exactly a translation. Annotated text and long glossary
1913	The Story of Beowulf	Kirtlan, Ernest John Brigham	London	C. H. Kelly	Prose	Decorated and designed by Frederick Lawrence.
1914	Beowulf. A Metrical Translation into Modern English		Cambridge	Cambridge University Press	Verse
1921	Widsith; Beowulf; Finnsburgh; Waldere; Dior [sic], done into Common English after the Old Manner	Charles Scott Moncrieff[7]	London	Chapman and Hall	Verse	With an introduction from Lord Northcliffe. Moncrieff had studied Old English at the University of Edinburgh in 1913.
1922	Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg		Boston		Prose	Classic, continuously in print through 4 editions. Not exactly a translation. Annotated text and long glossary
1923	The Story of Beowulf and Grendel. Retold in modern English prose	Spencer, Richard Augustus	London, Edinburgh	W. & R. Chambers	Prose
1923	The Song of Beowulf rendered into English prose		London	J.M. Dent & Sons	Prose
1925	Beowulf. Translated into modern English rhyming verse		London		Verse
1926	Beowulf. Translated into English verse	Crawford, D. H.	London		Verse
1933	The Story of Beowulf. Retold from the ancient epic	Riggs, Strafford	New York			Decorated by Henry Clarence Pitz.
1940	Beowulf. the oldest English epic. Translated into alliterative verse with a critical introduction	Kennedy, Charles W.	New York	Oxford University Press	Verse, alliterative	.
1945	Beowulf. In modern verse with an essay and pictures	Bone, Gavin David	Oxford		Verse
1949	Beowulf in Modern English. A translation in blank verse	Waterhouse, Mary Elizabeth	Cambridge		Verse, blank
1952	Beowulf: A Verse Translation into Modern English		Berkeley		Verse	Based on Klaeber's text; "of special significance in its own right but also as the beginning of translation of Beowulf into a genuinely modern poetic idiom, leading the way for many later followers down to and beyond Seamus Heaney".
1953	Beowulf, with the Finnsburg fragment		London			Wrenn was one of the Inklings.
1953	Beowulf and Judith	Dobbie, Elliott van Kirk	New York
1954	Beowulf the Warrior		Oxford			Illustrated by John Severin.
1957	Beowulf		Harmondsworth		Prose	Reprinted by Panther Books, 1970
1963	Beowulf		New York		Verse	Raffel writes in his essay "On Translating Beowulf that the poet-translator "needs to master the original in order to leave it".
1966	Beowulf		London		Prose	Widely read in The Norton Anthology of English Literature; accurate, "foreignizing" prose, using asyndetic coordination, "somewhat ponderous but ... dignified tone ... viewed by teachers as dull".
1968	Beowulf		London	Macmillan
1968	Beowulf and its Analogues	Garmonsway, George N.	London	J.M. Dent & Sons	Prose	Hugh Magennis calls this "much-used"; Michael J. Alexander says it has "dignity and rhythmical shape".
1973	Beowulf: A Verse Translation		Harmondsworth	Penguin Classics	Verse	Closely "shadows" the original
1977	Beowulf: A Dual-Language Edition	Howell D. Chickering	New York	Anchor Books	Verse
1983	Beowulf: a Verse Translation with Treasures of the Ancient North		Berkeley		Verse	[8]
1985	A Readable Beowulf		Carbondale			"Simultaneously a poem and, by virtue of the nature of translation, an act of criticism".(Greenfield, p. ix)
1991	Beowulf: A Verse Translation	Rebsamen, Frederick	New York		Verse	imitates original's poetic form as closely as possible, with alliterative half-lines; seven prose sections interrupt the translation, instead of using footnotes[9]
1991	Beowulf: Text and Translation	Porter, John		Anglo-Saxon Books	Verse	Parallel text; "the most literal"[10]
1999			Swarthmore, Pennsylvania		Verse	The translation seeks to bring over into modern English the carved syntax of the original poetry without things becoming too "wooden". url=https://www.aimsdata.com/tim/beow/beowulf_trans.htm
1999			London		Verse
2000	Beowulf		Peterborough, Ontario			Parallel text. 2nd edition 2013
2012	Beowulf: A Translation	Meyer, Thomas	Santa Barbara, California
2013	Grinnell Beowulf: A Translation with Notes	Arner, Timothy D.; Eva Dawson; Emily Johnson; Jeanette Miller; Logan Shearer; Aniela Wendt; Kate Whitman	Grinnell, Iowa	Grinnell College Press	Verse	Illustrated translation and teaching edition.[11] [12]
2013	Beowulf	Purvis, Meghan	London	Penned in the Margins	Verse	A collection of connected poems, or read as one long poem. "The Collar" won The Times Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation, 2011[13] and the collection was Poetry Book Society recommended translation, Summer 2013.[14]
2014 [1926]			London		Prose	Translated 1920–1926, edited by Christopher Tolkien, published posthumously with "Sellic Spell", a version reconstructed as an Anglo-Saxon folktale, i.e. without the heroic elements
2017	Beowulf		New Haven, Connecticut	Yale University Press[15]
2020	Beowulf: A New Translation	Headley, Maria Dahvana	London	Macmillan	Verse	It translates the opening English, Old (ca.450-1100);: Hwæt as "Bro!"[16] Won the 2021 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award[17] and the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Related Work.[18]
2021	'Beowulf' By All: Community Translation and Workbook	Abbott, Jean; Treharne, Elaine, and Fafinski, Mateusz (Eds.)	Leeds	Arc Humanities Press		Translated by over 200 contributors. An earlier version appeared in 2018, as Beowulf by All, Version 1.0 from Stanford TexT (of Stanford University Press).
2022	After Beowulf	Nicole Markotić	Toronto, Canada	Coach House Books	Verse

Other Languages

Date	Title	Translator	Location	Publisher !	Language	Type	Notes
1815	Latin: De Danorum rebus gestis secul. III & IV. Poema danicum dialecto anglo-saxonica. Ex bibliotheca Cottoniana Musaei britannici edidit versione lat. et indicibus auxit Grim. Johnson Thorkelin.		Copenhagen	Th. E. Rangel	Latin	Prose	Transcription (full of errors) and first translation (considered poor)
1820	Bjowulf's Drape		Copenhagen	A. Seidelin	Danish	Verse	First version in a modern language, "a free paraphrase in a rhyming ballad metre"
1863	German: Beowulf, mit ausführlichem Glossar		Paderborn	Ferdinand Schoningh	German
1920	Telugu: Byovulpu caritramu: vacana kavyamu	Kesava Pillai, Rayapeta	Madras	R. Purushottam & Co.
1932	Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg	Kuriyagawa, Fumio	Tokyo	Iwanami	Japanese		Parallel text with Old English. .
1951	Spanish; Castilian: La gesta de Beowulf	Borges, Jorge Luis Delia Ingenieros	Mexico City	Fondo de Cultura Económica	Spanish
1954	Beowulf		Stockholm	Swedish: [[Natur och Kultur]]|italic=no	Swedish	Verse, alliterative	Illustrated by Per Engström.
1959	Italian: Beowulf: poema eroico anglosassone	Cecioni, Cesare G.	Bologna	Italian: Edizioni Giuseppe Malipiero|italic=no	Italian	Prose
1969	Beowulf	Duțescu, Dan and Levițchi, Leon	Bucharest	Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Editura pentru literatură universală|italic=no	Romanian	Verse	First and only translation in Romanian. Using alliteration and triple meters, as they are considered closer to the heroic tradition in the target literature.
1982	Serbian: Beovulf: Staroengleski junački spev i odlomci iz junačkih pesama	Kovačević, Ivanka	Belgrade	Serbian: Narodna knjiga	Serbian	Prose	With translations of "The Fight at Finnsburg", "Widsith", "Exodus", "The Battle of Brunanburh", "The Battle of Maldon"
1986	Hungarian: Beowulf: Részletek	Hungarian: Képes, Júlia|italic=no Hungarian: Weöres Sándor|italic=no Hungarian: András T. László|italic=no	Budapest	Hungarian: Európa Könyvkiadó|italic=no	Hungarian	Verse, alliterative	Excerpts (10 pages).
1990	Beowulf: anglosaksi eepos	Sepp, Rein	Tallinn	Eesti Raamat	Estonian	Verse	imitates original's poetic form as closely as possible, with half-lines
1996	Greek, Modern (1453-);: Μπέογουλφ: Αγγλο-σαξονικό επικό ποίημα Greek, Modern (1453-);: Béowoulf: Anglo-saxonikó epikó poéima	Karagiórgos, Pános	Thessaloniki	Kyriakides	Greek		Title reads "Beowulf: Anglo-Saxon epic poem".
1999	Beowulf	Pekonen, Osmo; Clive Tolley	Porvoo		Finnish	Verse	with Finnsburh fragment.
2007	Beowulf	Ramalho, Erick	Belo Horizonte, Brazil	Tessitura Editora	Portuguese		Parallel text with Old English
2012	Беовульф		Львів	Астролябія	Ukrainian	Verse
2013	Бэўвульф		Мінск	Зміцер Колас	Belarussian	Verse
2017	Latvian: Beovulfs	Linde, Māris	Riga	Linde	Latvian	Verse, in half-lines	Compared with Latvian folktales Latvian: [[Lāčplēsis]] and Latvian: Kurbads.

Sources

• Book: Magennis, Hugh . Hugh Magennis (scholar) . Translating Beowulf: Modern Versions in English Verse . 2011 . D. S. Brewer . 978-1-84384-394-8.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database . Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database . 30 November 2020.
2. John Dryden, 'The Preface to Ovid's Epistles' . University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle . 1680 . Theoretical Texts on Translation Textes théoriques en traduction . 10.58079/uy1c . 29 November 2020.
3. Web site: Arnold . Thomas, the Younger . Thomas Arnold the Younger . Beowulf: a Heroic Poem of the Eighth Century, with a translation . 1876.
4. Web site: Garnett . James Mercer, the younger . Beowulf . Hathi Trust . 30 November 2020 . 1882.
5. Book: Hall, John Lesslie . John Lesslie Hall . Beowulf . Standard ebooks . 2 December 2020.
6. Book: Hall, J. R. Clark . J. R. Clark Hall . Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg . 1901 . . London . 3ff .
7. France . Peter . 2012 . Scott Moncrieff's First Translation . Translation and Literature . 21 . 3 . 364–382 . 10.3366/tal.2012.0088 . 41714388 . 0968-1361.
8. Web site: Beowulf: A Verse Translation with Treasures of the Ancient North (Part 1) . University of Oxford . 30 November 2020.
9. Dockray-Miller . Mary . Rebsamen, Frederick. Beowulf: A Verse Translation. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. $4.50 (pb). : 0064302121. . The Medieval Review . July 1994 .
10. Nelson . Marie . Prefacing and Praising: Two Functions of "Hearing" Formulas in the "Beowulf" Story . Neuphilologische Mitteilungen . 2009 . 110 . 4 . 487–495 . 43344436.
11. Web site: The Grinnell Beowulf editions. The Grinnell Beowulf. 11 July 2014 .
12. The Grinnell Beowulf : A Translation with Notes. Digital Grinnell. 2013 .
13. Web site: The Times Stephen Spender Prize 2011. 2011. Stephen Spender Trust.
14. Web site: Summer Selections . PBS Bulletin Summer 2013.
15. Book: Beowulf. Mitchell, Stephen, 1943-. January 2017 . 978-0-300-22888-5. New Haven. 982566515.
16. Web site: Grady . Constance . 27 August 2020 . This new translation of Beowulf brings the poem to profane, funny, hot-blooded life . 29 November 2020 . Vox.
17. Web site: poets.org . Harold Morton Landon Translation Award . September 15, 2021 .
18. Web site: 2021 Hugo Awards . . December 18, 2021 . December 19, 2021 .