In this book the Old English text and the Danish translation were printed in parallel columns. The text, which was taken literally from Kemble[1], need not detain us here. No mention is made of the work of Leo[2], Ettmüller[3], or of the 1837 volume of Kemble, although the influence of the latter is evident throughout the book, as will be shown below. The notes are drawn largely from the works of preceding scholars, and in these the author makes an occasional acknowledgement of indebtedness.
The translation is literal. Grundtvig’s translation[4] had been so paraphrastic as often to obscure the sense, and always the spirit, of the original. Schaldemose had the advantage of presenting the most modern text side by side with the translation. Thus the book became a valuable apparatus criticus for the Danish student.
Schaldemose.
The life of Frederik Schaldemose (1782–1853) was by no means the quiet, retired life of the student. He had, it is true, been professor at the school of Nykjøbing from 1816 to 1825, and later devoted himself to literary work; but a large part of his life had been spent in military service, in which he had had many exciting adventures by land and sea. After leaving his professorship he again entered military service. Later, he devoted his time alternately to literary and commercial work.
His interest in Beowulf seems to have been, like that of Thorkelin[5], primarily the interest of the Danish antiquary. In 1846 he had published a collection of Heroic Danish Songs, ancient and modern. It was doubtless a desire to add to this collection that led him to undertake an edition of the Beowulf.
It was hardly to be expected that a man whose life had been so unsettled could materially advance the interpretation of Old English poetry.
Extract.
Hunferd sagde,
Sønnen af Ecglaf;
han sad ved Scyldinge-