I was never forced to read Beowulf in high school, I knew of the story and learned the basics from an episode of Star Trek: Voyager my little brother insisted I watch. I became somewhat obsessed after learning that first published translation for adult by a woman came out in 2020 on the Nerdette podcast. Wait, what?!
That’s right, an ancient tale was not translated by a woman until 2020. Let’s review how Beowulf is (ish) to put things in perspective.
Apparently there are so many translations of Beowulf that it could be ready every day for months with each version being different. The tale likely began as oral entertainment in dining halls and was put to paper, er, parchment sometime in the tenth century CE. It was written by two different scribes in Old English (Headley, 2020). Right from the start, the manuscript used for each modern English translation was a translation itself. The manuscript hasn’t had the easiest life either. There was a library fire and bookworms and rebindings; some of the words were literally lost (Headley, 2020). And so, history provided the perfect scenario for translation after translation as researchers filled in the gaps; not to mention the ever-evolving nature of language which means the tale is re-translated at least once a generation.
A quick comparison of covers immediately tells us that Tolkien’s and Headley’s versions are from different eras. Tolkien’s contains a detailed dragon illustration reminiscent of a medieval manuscript and is embellished with gold, embossed titling. Headley’s version gives us a headless dragon but it’s minimal and more abstract. Still the letter b with a crown, wrapped up in the dragon tell us more about the contents than the Tolkien translation.
Although it wasn’t published until 2014, Tolkien translated the tale around 1924 for a class he taught at Oxford (Tolkien, 2014). It’s laid out on the page more like prose than poetry and with lines like “Ever may God perform marvel upon marvel…” (Tolkien, 2014/1926) is honestly a bit of a slog. It seems like Tolkien was aiming for a more word-for-word translation and this edition is definitely more scholarly and includes translation notes, lecture notes, and the full poem in Old English for any scholar casually wishing to translate for themselves. This translation and its notes does provide fans of the Lord of the Rings series insight into Tolkien’s inspiration for that world and words like “orc” and “ent” just might have some really close connections to Old English (Tolkien, 2014/1926).
I didn’t read Headley’s translation until after Tolkien’s but let me just say hers is a page turner even if you already know the tale! She grabs our attention at the start by shouting “Bro!” (Headley, 2020, p. 3) and holds with description that of Grendel: “Unlucky, fucked by Fate” (p7). Headley’s pages are visually less dense and the translation has rhythm and meter, mimicking how it might have been told in a dining hall back in the old school days before electricity. This version is exciting and dares to interpret language in a way that pokes fun at toxic masculinity in a tale that features women as servants, currency, and evil monsters only worthy of death. The shift in perspective is welcome, Headley talks to us in our language, not that of our forefathers, and makes an agéd tale relatable and relevant. It makes me excited for the next translation to come (c’mon Gen Z…).
Citations (not linked above)
Headley, M. D. (2020). Beowulf: A new translation. MCD x FSG Originals: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Tolkien, J.R.R. and Tolkien, C. (2014). Beowulf: A translation and commentary. Mariner Books.