Epic of Beowulf Essay - Foreign and English Translations and Versions of Beowulf

Beowulf is an epic poem written 1000 to 1300 years ago in Old English and translated by Seamus Heaney into Modern English. Beowulf is a significant piece of literature art work not only because it is one of the earliest known works, but also because it reflects and represents the authors, the Anglo-Saxons’ culture and values. At first, this story was passed around orally, from one person to another. Then, later on, the Anglo-Saxons wrote the entire story down into a manuscript. As well as the Anglo-Saxons loved their stories, they loved to boast, too. Boasting wasn’t an arrogant thing to do in their society, instead, it was socially acceptable, or even essential in one’s life. The Anglo-Saxons loved telling stories and boasting; they also liked material things such as gold swords and silver shields. Those were the rewards a soldier receives from their king, which represents their qualities and achievements. Beowulf reveals the Anglo-Saxons’ values in many parts of the poem.

Being a hero can be defined many different ways. Several qualities like courage, respect, and strength can define heroism. A hero is noted for his or her actions for being brave, powerful, and acting with honor. In the epic poem, Beowulf, the main character Beowulf shows all of these characteristics by defending the Danish king, Hrothgar, and his people. He is a true hero by honoring his country and exerting his power and strength to protect others. Beowulf embodies the qualities of bravery, being powerful, and demonstrating his honor; therefore, he can be considered a true hero.

Beowulf speaks volumes about the ways of life during the Anglo-Saxon period. It is to England what Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad are to Greece. It is, as some call it, the mother poem of England. This mother poem has been passed down through oral tradition for numerous years and scholars believe that an educated Christian monk transcribed the poem, preserving it in written form. Beowulf has survived for nearly 1,300 years due to how well it conveys the Anglo-Saxon culture and the unique characteristics of the poem in its imagery, tone, style and diction.

As the poem “Beowulf” continues

  There is not unanimity among Beowulf translators concerning all parts of the text, but there is little divergence from a single, uniform translation of the poem. Herein are discussed some passages which translators might show disagreement about because of the lack of clarity or missing fragments of text or abundance of synonyms or ambiguous referents.

In some select stories of old/middle english, we can see that people have been fascinated by ideals of heroism, chivalry, and what we now refer to as romance for a very long time. I will argue in this document, that our fascination with such imaginary laws has never ceased, and in some ways is even more fantastic. Every further mention of romance will refer to all of these ideas, the way it did when the term was introduced into english. If all things are to be considered this short essay would turn into a book. I would like to compare and contrast Beowulf, Lanval, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with some of the modern day creations especially in looking at the values, and belief systems in all of the three

Beowulf is an epic poem written 1000 to 1300 years ago in Old English and translated by Seamus Heaney into Modern English. Beowulf is a significant piece of literature art work not only because it is one of the earliest known works, but also because it reflects and represents the authors, the Anglo-Saxons’ culture and values. At first, this story was passed around orally, from one person to another. Then, later on, the Anglo-Saxons wrote the entire story down into a manuscript. As well as the Anglo-Saxons loved their stories, they loved to boast, too. Boasting wasn’t an arrogant thing to do in their society, instead, it was socially acceptable, or even essential in one’s life. The Anglo-Saxons loved telling stories and boasting; they also liked material things such as gold swords and silver shields. Those were the rewards a soldier receives from their king, which represents their qualities and achievements. Beowulf reveals the Anglo-Saxons’ values in many parts of the poem.

Within West Saxon Dialect in the world, one of the most important manuscripts that the world has ever seen is Beowulf. Now encased in the British Library, the story of how this famous manuscript found its home, how Old English survived over the years, and the mystery of who wrote this epic poem are just part of the reasoning of why this poem is seen to be important to the understanding of how Beowulf is so important to Literature in today’s society.

      The characters in the Old English poem Beowulf certainly delighted in the seas. This essay seeks to compare their attitude toward the sea with that expressed in another Old English poem, The Seafarer.

The epic poem Beowulf is a story of heroes and monsters, good and evil. The poem tells about the accomplishments and deeds of a legendary Geatish hero who first rids the Danish kingdom of Hrothgar of two demonic monsters: Grendel and Grendel's mother. Later in the story, Beowulf meets a dragon, kills it with the help of Wiglaf, but dies of wounds.

While these messages would have been plain to the Anglo-Saxon reader, our culture has changed to the extent that only a very careful reader will glean the full meaning of the text. This gives adaptors of Beowulf several options. They have the opportunity to either try to relay the information in a way the readers will understand or to make these Scandinavian heroes behave in a way more consistent with their own society. Adaptations of Beowulf are powerful because they not only illustrate how their authors conceive of the Anglo-Saxons, but also reveal what they imagine their own culture to be. The themes which the author emphasizes in retellings of the tale communicate to us how they read the story, what messages captured their attention, and especially what they themselves value.

Translations of historical text vary depending on the translator, location, and year it was translated. The enjoyable feature of translations is they are all different. Each text has its own unique style and word choice, allowing the audience to get an altered read of the same story or passage. Longfellow (pg 304), Raffel (pg 312), and Heaney (320), all have very different styles of writing and ideas on how Beowulf should be translated. They also each lived in a different century, making the varying language of their interpretations of Beowulf clear.

A?closer look at the?data?indicates that Beowulf has its origins in an earlier pagan era. As it has been suggested by many scholars, the author of the written

When first reading Beowulf it would appear that the Christian references within it superimpose onto the essentially pagan view that makes a huge body of the poem. Therefore, within this assignment, there will be investigations of inconsistencies. Sources clearly show that Beowulf was written by Germanic pagans that had been debauched by some leftist ecclesiastic wordsmith , to the insistence that the author designedly created the Christian allegory along the lines of Book 1 of The Faerie Queen.

Beowulf is an important work of Old English literature, since it gives historical information about the Anglo-Saxon’s culture. The epic consists of fame, honor, and accomplishments on which the Anglo-Saxons held dearly upon themselves. Representation was the key on how the Saxons lived their life only wanting to bring great honor and to create or to continue on a family legacy.