“Beowulf” does not translate well into Hollywoodese, to judge by the new sex-sword-and-dragon epic of that title starring Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie.
But it does translate well from Old English into Modern English. Fortunately, since Old English is not now and never was exactly a lingua franca, except in Wessex and Mercia and environs, there have been more than 60 translations of the heroic narrative, which was written probably sometime between the middle of the seventh and the end of the 10th century.
Better yet is the recent recorded translation by Dick Ringler, professor emeritus of English and Scandinavian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, designed specifically for oral delivery. That brings things full circle, for that is how the poem was intended to be appreciated.
By no means is this the first such recording. For one, Seamus Heaney recorded his Whitbread Prize-winning, and surprisingly best-selling, translation of seven years ago. But each translator renders “Beowulf” with a specific emphasis in mind — to some, it’s word-for-word accuracy; to others, it’s to better capture the poem’s meaning. Ringler translated to represent the meter of the Old English more faithfully than previous versions and thus make it suitable for oral delivery.
He succeeds admirably. This is a stirring, accessible version of the oldest narrative poem in English literature. Ringler himself narrates, and does it sonorously well, but characters are voiced by professional actors, accompanied by appropriate background music and sounds.
The three CDs in this set total three hours, though it took me somewhat longer because I also glanced occasionally at another translation; I tried the one Ringler recommends, by Howell D. Chickering, but found that I preferred Heaney’s. (Ringler’s translation has also been published in book form as “Beowulf: A New Translation for Oral Delivery,” Hackett Publishing, 188 pages, $27.95.)
Suffused, as Heaney says, with “the melancholy and fortitude that characterized Old English poetry,” the poem is about a “pagan Germanic society governed by a heroic code of honour.” Though it was about a pagan culture, it was written by an unknown Englishman (or Englishmen) with a Christian understanding.
A meditation on mortality combined with the events of the hero’s life, it is written in unrhymed, four-beat alliterative meter. The lines (nearly 3,200 in all) are each made up of two balancing halves, each half containing two stressed syllables.
Here, from when the monster Grendel’s mother attacks, is an example of Ringler’s efforts to re-create the alliterative sound, sense and meter of the original Old English: “Snatching up a thane with her slashing claws, she fled in panic.”
Because it generally is viewed as serious, or “important,” or classic, or all three, “Beowulf” is also viewed as being too boring and incomprehensible for the average reader (or listener). In truth, it is anything but. “Beowulf,” combining fantastical elements with real events, is really quite simple and straightforward. And exciting.
Beowulf, a young, valiant and strong hero, travels from his own land of the Geats (in what is now southwestern Sweden) to fight Grendel, a man-eating monster who terrorizes Heorot, the grand hall of Hrothgar, a rich king of Denmark. (Unanswered down the ages is why Hrothgar’s warriors keep returning to Heorot each night to sleep, seeing as Grendel keeps returning nightly to devour them. Logic does not always play a determining role in fantasy, whether 10th-century or 21st.)
After Beowulf mortally wounds Grendel, the monster’s monstrous mother comes to avenge her son’s death. Beowulf pursues her to her underwater lair and kills her. Both Hrothgar and Beowulf’s uncle, Hygelac, king of the Geats, reward him handsomely.
Beowulf then rules the Geats as king for 50 years, until, as an old man, he sets himself the task of battling a flying, fire-breathing dragon. Abandoned by all but one of his followers, he slays the creature, but at the cost of his own life.
The grieving Geats give him a hero’s burial, and the poem ends: “He had been, they said, the best and wisest of kings of this world, kindest to his people, most open handed, most eager for praise.”
When Michael Mann released his film of “The Last of the Mohicans” in 1992, he scrambled relationships in James Fenimore Cooper’s novel and didn’t even let Natty Bumppo have his own name (he was called Nathaniel Poe). It makes you wonder if they borrow a famous title from a better story to give luster to a different — or, rather, an indifferent — one.
Similarly, the “Beowulf” film may be (a)rousing, but it isn’t “Beowulf.”
Roger K. Miller is a freelance writer and author of the novel “Invisible Hero.”
FICTION
Beowulf: The Complete Story — A Drama Translated from the Old English, by Dick Ringler (three audio CDs) $29.95
