ABSTRACT

Mr Grundtvig accuses me of ‘having given false translations in many places; of having mingled events together and altered the names of princes: Hræþel, Herebald, Hæþcyn, Hardred, to insignificant adjectives’. Such a bold assertion as this bears witness to the author’s utter ignorance of the Anglo-Saxon language. He ought really to have known that the words brought forward by him are never used other than as appellatives. A king is named Hræþel, swift in counsel and in deeds, just as we find in Horace celer Ajax. Herebald, warlike, mighty in war. Hæþcyn, the heathen people, that is the Jutes and Frisians, Denmark’s enemies. For Hæþ, Hæþen, see my Preface p. xiii [i.e. the note mentioned on p. 93 above]. The appellative Heardred, severe, commanding, is still known from Harald, king of Norway. These words are never used in the poem reported on here as proper names, and I would give Mr Grundtvig Golconda’s treasures, if I had them, if he could show me the contrary in the Anglo-Saxon skalds. On p. 947 Mr Grundtvig says that I have misunderstood the introduction, and to rectify that he puts forward a new translation, which he says (so opportunely) ‘naturally cannot be literal’. I well believe it; for in no other way could he shroud his sweet dreams, absurd fantasies, and wilful distortions of the original and of my work within the Chaos that surrounds him. He relies on the fact that there are few these days who scrutinise the text; and in addition he knows the carper’s golden rule: Calumniare audacter, aliquid semper haeret [‘Cast aspersions boldly, something always sticks.’] To show the way Mr Grundtvig works, let this be said: that in his translation of the introduction he deliberately leaves out Sciold’s son Beowulf (who appears under the name of Beowius in Simeon of Durham), upon which

whom God, who knows humanity’s need, sent as a comfort to the people. In time he was established as king. For a long time his life was fortunate and glorious. With blood, widely shed, did Sciold’s heir drench the land.’ At this the poet describes Beowulf’s fitting-out for a campaign (which our new skald alters into a funeral procession), in this fashion. ‘Then he was to present himself there at the appointed time, take many of their own free will on to the free ocean. The retainers (courtiers) assembled on the sea-shore. He had so commanded his loyal stable-brothers. While he ruled the friends of the Skjoldungs with his word, he was for a long time the land’s beloved father. There stood at the harbour the hero’s vessel. Ready and prompt was the atheling’s following. They led then the dear lord, the giver of rings into the ship’s bosom (on board), near the mast. There great treasures from far lands were loaded on. I have not heard of which weapons of Hilda, costly clothes, axes and mail-coats the ship’s cargo consisted. In the ship’s bosom (the cargo: not in the king’s bosom, which Mr Grundtvig makes it into out of his ignorance of Anglo-Saxon grammar) lay many treasures, which were to go with the rest on to the floodways to far countries. No less gifts did the people load on to the other ships which they fitted out there.’ [Thorkelin gives twenty-four lines of Grundtvig’s version in three footnotes, adding to the first, ‘What a translation! What lunacy!’ and to the third, The rest deviates just as far from the original as East is from West.’] When one now compares Mr Grundtvig’s so-called translation with mine, it can easily be seen that only brief mention is made there of King Sciold’s death, and certainly none at all either of his obsequies, or the disposal of his body on the Danish coast. It is therefore shown that Mr Grundtvig is composing with his own hand; and that he understands not so much of Anglo-Saxon as a man, to use his own assertion, can learn in a fortnight. A further proof of this is that Mr Grundtvig, after having laid about him with rash and groundless reproaches, wrongly makes Sciold and Beowulf into one person, and utterly incorrectly translates Þa wær [sic] on burgum Beowulf Scyldinga leof leodcyning as ‘Now Beowulf, the beloved throne-king of the Skjoldungs, was buried’. What lunacy! One could say here with Aesop: Quanta species, sed cerebrum non habet [‘What a creature, but it has no brain’: the reference is to Aesop’s fable of the fox and the mask]. Master Stygotius [a character in Holberg’s play Jacob von Thybo] could not produce a greater masterpiece. Mr Grundtvig ought to believe and thank me for saying this to him: that Beow, just as much in the rest of the introduction as in the words just quoted, has a right to keep his own identity, to be totally distinguished from his father Sciold, and to follow him in ruling; for wær on burgum means ‘to rule’, not ‘to be buried’.