With the weeds of war, with the weapons of the battle,
With the bills and byrnies. On his breast there lay
A great heap of gems that should go with him,
Far to fare away in the Flood’s possession[2]. —Page 26.
Criticism of the Translation.
While the extracts cannot always be praised for their accuracy, they are, perhaps, sufficiently faithful for a popular work. When the author undertakes to emend the text for himself, or offers an original interpretation, his work is not always trustworthy. Emendations in his Beowulf selections, however, are rare.
The style of the extracts seems needlessly obscure. This is due in part to following too closely the original word-order (see lines 4 and 5 of the extract), and in part to the free use of archaic language. Mr. Brooke does not hesitate to employ such forms as, ‘house-carles,’ ‘grit-wall,’ ‘ness-slopes,’ ‘host-shafts,’ ‘war-wood,’ ‘gold-flakèd shields,’ ‘grinning-masked helms,’ which it would seem must be quite unintelligible to the majority of Mr. Brooke’s readers.
The verse, which has been fully discussed above, is, perhaps, the most satisfactory feature of Mr. Brooke’s work. Of course it is not strictly imitative, as he himself explains, but it gives a fairly good impression of the movement of the Old English verse.
[1.] The swimming-match is not available for illustration here.
[2.] In the second edition, the penultimate line reads, ‘Jewels great and heaped,’ &c.