Editing Beowulf (section)

== Editions, translations, and adaptations ==
=== Editions ===
Many editions of the Old English text of ''Beowulf'' have been published; this section lists the most influential.

The Icelandic scholar [[Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin]] made the first transcriptions of the ''Beowulf''-manuscript in 1786, working as part of a Danish government historical research commission. He had a copy made by a professional copyist who knew no Old English (and was therefore in some ways more likely to make transcription errors, but in other ways more likely to copy exactly what he saw), and then made a copy himself. Since that time, the manuscript has crumbled further, making these transcripts prized witnesses to the text. While the recovery of at least 2000 letters can be attributed to them, their accuracy has been called into question,{{refn|group="lower-alpha"|For instance, by Chauncey Brewster Tinker in ''The Translations of Beowulf'',<ref name="chaucey">{{cite book |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25942 |publisher=Gutenberg |first=Chauncey Brewster |last=Tinker |title=The Translations of Beowulf |year=1903}}</ref> a comprehensive survey of 19th-century translations and editions of ''Beowulf''.}} and the extent to which the manuscript was actually more readable in Thorkelin's time is uncertain.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Malone |editor-first=Kemp |title=The Thorkelin Transcripts of Beowulf in Facsimile |series=Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile |volume=1 |publisher=Rosenkilde and Bagger |year=1951}}</ref> Thorkelin used these transcriptions as the basis for the first complete edition of ''Beowulf'', in Latin.<ref name="translationhistory"/>

In 1922, [[Frederick Klaeber]], a German philologist who worked at the University of Minnesota, published his edition of the poem, ''[[Frederick Klaeber#Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg|Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg]]'';<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Klaeber |editor-first=Frederick |editor-link=Frederick Klaeber |title=Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924059417794/page/n7/mode/2up |publisher=Heath |year=1922}}</ref> it became the "central source used by graduate students for the study of the poem and by scholars and teachers as the basis of their translations."<ref name="Bloomfield 1999"/> The edition included an extensive glossary of Old English terms.<ref name="Bloomfield 1999">{{cite journal |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/modern_language_quarterly/v060/60.2bloomfield.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151004105406/http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/modern_language_quarterly/v060/60.2bloomfield.pdf |archive-date=4 October 2015 |url-status=live |last =Bloomfield |first=Josephine |title=Benevolent Authoritarianism in Klaeber's Beowulf: An Editorial Translation of Kingship |journal=Modern Language Quarterly |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=129–159 |date=June 1999 |doi=10.1215/00267929-60-2-129 |s2cid =161287730}}</ref> His third edition was published in 1936, with the last version in his lifetime being a revised reprint in 1950.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Klaeber |editor-first=Frederick |editor-link=Frederick Klaeber |title=Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg |url=https://archive.org/details/beowulffightatfi0003unse_k3g4/page/n7/mode/2up |edition=3rd |publisher=Heath |year=1950|isbn=9780669212129 }}</ref> Klaeber's text was re-presented with new introductory material, notes, and glosses, in a fourth edition in 2008.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Fulk |editor1-first=Robert D. |editor2-last=Bjork |editor2-first=Robert E. |editor3-last=Niles |editor3-first=John D. |title=Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg |edition=4th |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2008}}</ref>

Another widely used edition is [[Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie]]'s, published in 1953 in the [[Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records]] series.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dobbie |first=Elliott van Kirk |author-link=Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie |title=Beowulf and Judish |url=http://ota.ox.ac.uk/desc/3009 |series=Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|volume=4 |year=1953}}</ref> The British Library, meanwhile, took a prominent role in supporting [[Kevin Kiernan (scholar)|Kevin Kiernan]]'s ''[[Kevin Kiernan (scholar)#Electronic Beowulf|Electronic Beowulf]]''; the first edition appeared in 1999, and the fourth in 2014.<ref name="KiernanE"/>

=== Translations and adaptations ===
{{Main|Translating Beowulf|List of translations of Beowulf|List of adaptations of Beowulf}}

The tightly interwoven structure of Old English poetry makes [[translating Beowulf|translating ''Beowulf'']] a severe technical challenge.{{sfn|Magennis|2011|pp=1–25}} Despite this, a great number of translations and adaptations are available, in poetry and prose. [[Andy Orchard]], in ''A Critical Companion to Beowulf'', lists 33 "representative" translations in his bibliography,{{sfn|Orchard|2003a|pp=4, 329–30}} while the [[Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies]] published [[Marijane Osborn]]'s annotated list of over 300 translations and adaptations in 2003.<ref name="translationhistory"/> ''Beowulf'' has been translated many times in verse and in prose, and adapted for stage and screen. By 2020, the Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database listed some 688 translations and other versions of the poem.<ref name="BABD">{{cite web |title=Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database |url=http://beowulf.dh.tamu.edu/ |website=Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database |access-date=30 November 2020}}</ref> ''Beowulf'' has been translated into at least 38 other languages.{{sfn|Schulman|Szarmach|2012|p=4}}<ref name="BABD"/>

<!--19th century-->
In 1805, the historian [[Sharon Turner]] translated selected verses into [[modern English]].<ref name="translationhistory">{{cite web |last=Osborn |first=Marijane |author-link=Marijane Osborn |title=Annotated List of Beowulf Translations |url=https://acmrs.org/academic-programs/online-resources/beowulf-list |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141121165748/https://acmrs.org/academic-programs/online-resources/beowulf-list |archive-date=21 November 2014}}</ref> This was followed in 1814 by [[John Josias Conybeare]] who published an edition "in English paraphrase and Latin verse translation."<ref name="translationhistory"/> [[N. F. S. Grundtvig]] reviewed Thorkelin's edition in 1815 and created the first complete verse translation in Danish in 1820.<ref name="translationhistory"/> In 1837, [[John Mitchell Kemble]] created an important literal translation in English.<ref name="translationhistory"/> In 1895, [[William Morris]] and A. J. Wyatt published the ninth English translation.<ref name="translationhistory"/>

<!--20th century-->
In 1909, [[Francis Barton Gummere]]'s full translation in "English imitative metre" was published,<ref name="translationhistory" /> and was used as the text of Gareth Hinds's 2007 graphic novel based on ''Beowulf''. In 1975, John Porter published the first complete verse translation of the poem entirely accompanied by facing-page Old English.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kears |first=Carl |date=10 January 2018 |title=Eric Mottram and Old English: Revival and Re-Use in the 1970s |journal=The Review of English Studies |volume=69 |issue=290 |pages=430–454 |via=Oxford Academic |doi=10.1093/res/hgx129 |url=https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/files/97630647/Eric_Mottram_and_Old_KEARS_Firstonline10January2018_GREEN_AAM.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/files/97630647/Eric_Mottram_and_Old_KEARS_Firstonline10January2018_GREEN_AAM.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Seamus Heaney]]'s 1999 translation of the poem (''[[Beowulf: A New Verse Translation]]'', called "Heaneywulf" by the ''Beowulf'' translator Howell Chickering and many others{{sfn|Chickering|2002}}) was both praised and criticised. The US publication was commissioned by [[W. W. Norton & Company]], and was included in the ''Norton Anthology of English Literature''. Many retellings of ''Beowulf'' for children appeared in the 20th century.<ref name="McGrath NYT 2007">{{cite news |last=McGrath |first=Charles |title=Children's Books {{!}} Young Adults: Reviews |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/books/review/McGrath-t.html |access-date=27 January 2021 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=17 June 2007 |quote=the graphic novelist Gareth Hinds has reimagined ''Beowulf'' as a kind of superhero tale ... A. J. Church's 1904 prose translation ... James Rumford's ''Beowulf: A Hero's Tale Retold'' ... An even better text is Michael Morpurgo's ''Beowulf'' ...}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Jaillant |first=Lise |title=A Fine Old Tale of Adventure: Beowulf Told to the Children of the English Race, 1898–1908 |journal=Children's Literature Association Quarterly |url=https://www.academia.edu/3765663 |year=2013 |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=399–419 |doi=10.1353/chq.2013.0055 |s2cid=53377090 |access-date=7 December 2020}}</ref>

<!--21st century-->
In 2000 (2nd edition 2013), Liuzza published his own version of ''Beowulf'' in a parallel text with the Old English,{{sfn|Liuzza|2013|pp=51–245}} with his analysis of the poem's historical, oral, religious and linguistic contexts.{{sfn|Liuzza|2013|pp=1–43}} R. D. Fulk, of [[Indiana University]], published a facing-page edition and translation of the entire [[Nowell Codex]] manuscript in 2010.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sims |first=Harley J. |year=2012 |title=Rev. of Fulk, ''Beowulf'' |journal=[[The Heroic Age (journal)|The Heroic Age]] |volume=15 |url=http://www.heroicage.org/issues/15/reviews.php#fulk}}</ref> [[Hugh Magennis (scholar)|Hugh Magennis]]'s 2011 ''Translating Beowulf: Modern Versions in English Verse'' discusses the challenges and history of translating the poem,{{sfn|Magennis|2011|pp=1–25}}{{sfn|Magennis|2011|pp=41ff}} as well as the question of how to approach its poetry,{{sfn|Magennis|2011|pp=27ff}} and discusses several post-1950 verse translations,{{sfn|Magennis|2011|pp=191ff}} paying special attention to those of [[Edwin Morgan (poet)|Edwin Morgan]],{{sfn|Magennis|2011|pp=81ff}} [[Burton Raffel]],{{sfn|Magennis|2011|pp=109ff}} [[Michael J. Alexander]],{{sfn|Magennis|2011|pp=135ff}} and Seamus Heaney.{{sfn|Magennis|2011|pp=161ff}} Translating ''Beowulf'' is one of the subjects of the 2012 publication ''Beowulf at Kalamazoo'', containing a section with 10 essays on translation, and a section with 22 reviews of Heaney's translation, some of which compare Heaney's work with Liuzza's.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Geremia |first=Silvia |date=2007 |title=A Contemporary Voice Revisits the past: Seamus Heaney's Beowulf|journal=Journal of Irish Studies |issue=2 |page=57}}</ref> Tolkien's long-awaited prose translation (edited by his son [[Christopher Tolkien|Christopher]]) was published in 2014 as ''[[Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary]]''. The book includes Tolkien's own retelling of the story of Beowulf in his tale ''Sellic Spell'', but not his incomplete and unpublished verse translation.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/19/jrr-tolkien-beowulf-translation-published |title=JRR Tolkien translation of Beowulf to be published after 90-year wait |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=17 March 2014 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=21 March 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Acocella |first=Joan |date=2 June 2014 |title=Slaying Monsters: Tolkien's 'Beowulf' |url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2014/06/02/140602crbo_books_acocella?currentPage=all |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=2 June 2014}}</ref> ''[[The Mere Wife]]'', by [[Maria Dahvana Headley]], was published in 2018. It relocates the action to a wealthy community in 20th-century America and is told primarily from the point of view of Grendel's mother.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/review-the-mere-wife-explores-beowulf-in-the-suburbs/2018/07/16/06d19a96-890b-11e8-9d59-dccc2c0cabcf_story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180717150053/https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/review-the-mere-wife-explores-beowulf-in-the-suburbs/2018/07/16/06d19a96-890b-11e8-9d59-dccc2c0cabcf_story.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 July 2018 |title=Review: 'The Mere Wife' explores 'Beowulf' in the suburbs |last=Kay |first=Jennifer |date=16 July 2018 |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=25 July 2018}}</ref> In 2020, Headley published a translation in which the opening "Hwæt!" is rendered "Bro!";<ref>{{cite web |last=Grady |first=Constance |title=This new translation of Beowulf brings the poem to profane, funny, hot-blooded life |url=https://www.vox.com/culture/21399477/beowulf-maria-dahvana-headley-review |website=Vox |access-date=29 November 2020 |date=27 August 2020}}</ref> this translation subsequently won the [[Hugo Award for Best Related Work]].<ref name="Hugo21">{{cite web |url=http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2021-hugo-awards/ |title=2021 Hugo Awards |date=January 2021 |publisher=World Science Fiction Society |access-date=24 August 2022}}</ref>