Criticism of the Translation.
The extract illustrates the paraphrastic nature of parts of the translation. Lumsden frequently seems to feel it necessary to read a meaning into the obscure lines and passages that do not easily lend themselves to translation; cf. lines 11, 12. At line 2258 Lumsden translates:—
The mail that bite of sword
O’er clashing shield in fight withstood must follow its dead lord.
Never again shall corselet ring as help the warriors bear
To comrades far.
The Old English from which this passage is taken reads:—
ge swylce sēo here-pād, sīo æt hilde gebād
ofer borda gebræc bite īrena,
brosnað æfter beorne; ne mæg byrnan hring