[ II.]
Mr. S. H. Church’s ‘Beowulf.’
Beowulf, a Poem by Samuel Harden Church. New York: Stokes and Co., 1901.
An original poem, using some of the Beowulf material.
After speaking of his original intention of translating the Beowulf, which he later discarded, the author says:—
‘I have . . . composed an original narrative in which the leading characters and some of the incidents of the early work[1] have been freely used, but as materials only. I have transferred to my hero, Beowulf, the picturesque history of Sceaf[2]; have changed the relationship of characters and incidents; have inserted the illumination of Beowulf’s soul, and his banishment; and have introduced the love motive between Beowulf and Freaware that runs through the poem to the end. Indeed the structure, language, style, description, elaboration, interpretation, and development of the story are new. I have arbitrarily laid the scene in England, under purely idealized conditions; and have initiated nearly all that the poem contains of womanhood, of love, of religion, of state-policy, and of domestic life and manners. It is clear, therefore, that my work must not be judged either as a translation, version, or paraphrase of the old Beowulf.’
[1.] i.e., the translation.
[2.] Scyld