[ BOTKINE’S TRANSLATION]
Beowulf, Épopée Anglo-Saxonne. Traduite en français, pour la première fois, d’après le texte original par L. Botkine, Membre de la Société Nationale havraise d’Études diverses. Havre: Lepelletier, 1877. 8o, pp. 108.
First French Translation. Prose.
Old English Studies in France.
The only attention that Beowulf had received in France prior to this time was in the work of Sandras, De Carminibus Cædmoni adiudicatis[1]. Other scholars, if they devoted themselves to English at all, studied chiefly the later periods of the literature[2]. In 1867 the author of the article on Beowulf in Larousse’s Dictionary could say, ‘Le poème n’est pas connu en France.’ In 1876 Botkine published a historical and critical analysis of the poem[3]. This was the first scholarly attention that the poem received in France. In the following year Botkine’s translation appeared.
France has added nothing to our knowledge of Beowulf; there has never been another translation, nor even a reprint of Botkine’s. There has been no further scholarly work done on the poem; and the principal literary notices of it, such as Taine’s and Jusserand’s, have been notoriously unsympathetic. The genius of Old English poetry is at the furthest possible remove from that of the French.
Aim of the Translation.
It will be made evident in the section that follows on the nature of Botkine’s translation that his work could never have been intended for scholars. Had it been so intended, the translator would have rendered more literally. His introduction[4] proves that the book was addressed to the general reader rather than the student of Old English.
The Introduction deals with the nature of Old English poetry, and makes historical and critical remarks on the Beowulf. There are occasional notes explanatory of the text.