Beowulf - A Student Edition

258 Pages·1995·20.309 MB·English

by  George Jack

--EDITED BY
GEORGE JACK
OXFORD

BEOWUI^F
A STUDENT EDITION

BEOWULF
A STUDENT EDITION
EDITED BY
GEORGE JACK
CLARENDON PRESS OXFORD
Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford 0X2 6dp
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© George Jack 1994
First published 1994
Reprinted with corrections, and revisions 1995
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Data available
ISBN 0-19-871043-7
ISBN 0-19-871044-5 (Pbk)
3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Printed in Great Britain
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PREFACE
This edition is designed both to make Beowulf more readily accessible and to
provide a commentary and other ancillary materials suitable for detailed
study of the poem. To facilitate understanding and fluent reading the Old Eng­
lish text is accompanied by a running glossary, in which the greater part of the
vocabulary of the poem has been included. Words that occur more than once
are glossed on each occasion, and grammatical information is supplied when
forms depart from the more common inflectional patterns of Old English. But
to avoid encumbering the text unreasonably words that are of very frequent
occurrence or seem unlikely to cause difficulty have been excluded from the
running glosses, and these are listed separately in the Supplementary Glos­
sary. The provision of glosses beside the text is intended in particular to be of
help to those who may be at an early stage in the study of Old English, and for
whom the demanding vocabulary of the poem would otherwise be a severe
difficulty; but the edition is designed to be suitable for students at any stage,
and those who are already familiar with the language of Old English verse
may also find the glosses of value in enabling Beowulf to be read more
fluently.
For ease of use the commentary on Beowulf as well as the apparatus giving
manuscript readings and other textual information, has been set beneath the
text rather than in a separate section. The commentary is directed towards the
needs of more advanced students, particularly in its discussion of textual and
linguistic points and in the provision of references to further studies, though it
also provides translations of passages that may be a source of difficulty. An
edited text of The Fight at Finnsburh has been included, because of its special
relevance to Beowulf and this is likewise accompanied by running glosses
and by a textual apparatus and commentary. Since critical writings on Beo­
wulf are abundant and widely available I have not thought it desirable to
discuss the structure or interpretation of the poem within the Introduction,
which is confined to other issues; but critical works have been included in the
guide to further reading at the close of the Introduction.
I have approached the task of editing Beowulf afresh, but in doing so I have
inevitably depended very heavily on the work of previous editors, particularly
Klaeber, Dobbie, and von Schaubert, and on the numerous contributions of
those who have written on the poem or have provided the fundamental works
of scholarship without which no editor could proceed. I acknowledge with
gratitude the debt that I owe to all those on whose work I have drawn. I have
also benefited from the comments made by the anonymous readers of the
edition for Oxford University Press; and in the later stages of its preparation I
received invaluable help and advice from staff of the Press, for which I am
VI PREFACE
extremely grateful. Hania Allen and Julian Crowe of the Computing Labora­
tory at St Andrews were generous in giving advice and assistance.
In a draft form this edition has been used in courses at the University of St
Andrews, and I am glad to express thanks to my students and colleagues for
their encouraging comments on it. I am also grateful to the School of English
at St Andrews for a generous grant towards the costs of preparing the edition.
Note to the corrected reprint (March 1995)
Reprinting has allowed a number of corrections to be made, some of which
affect the text and apparatus. In addition, at two points different readings have
been adopted (1372 hydan and 3169 -diore, in place of helan and -deore); and
some revisions have been made to glosses and to the commentary on Beowulf.
CONTENTS
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
The manuscript 1
Date and circumstances of composition 4
Narrative elements 7
Style and diction 15
The Fight at Finnsburh 20
Editorial procedure 21
The running glosses 22
Further reading 25
Beowulf 27
The Fight at Finnsburh 212
Supplementary Glossary 217
Index of Names 229
Bibliography 233