** Preface to the Project Gutenberg Edition of Beowulf **
This text is a revised and corrected version of the fourth edition of Harrison and Sharp in its entirety. It comes in two basic versions. The base version (available in plain-text and HTML) presents the original text as printed. It preserves the source-text's idiosyncratic use of accented vowels with the exception of y-circumflex (ŷ), which is replaced by y-acute (ý) to fit within the Latin-1 character set. Manifestly unintentional errors in the text have been corrected. In general, this has only been done when the text is internally inconsistent (e.g., a quotation in the glossary does not match the main text). Forms that represent deliberate editorial choice have not been altered, even where they appear wrong. (For example, some of the markings of vowel length do not reflect current scholarly consensus.) In a few instances, quotations in the glossary use the correct vowel length where the main text does not. These have not been altered. Where an uncorrected problem may confuse the reader, I have inserted a note explaining the difficulty, signed KTH. A complete list of the changes made is appended at the end of the file. In order to make the text more useful to modern readers, I have also produced a revised edition (HTML only). The file you are reading is this revised version. Notes from the source text that indicate changes adopted in later editions have been incorporated directly into the text and apparatus. Further, long vowels are indicated with macrons, as is the common practice of most modern editions. Finally, the quantity of some words has been altered to the values currently accepted as correct. Quantities have not been changed when the difference is a matter of editorial interpretation (e.g., gæst vs. gǣst in l. 102, etc.) A list of these altered quantities appears at the end of the list of corrections. Your browser must support the Unicode character set to use this file. To tell if your browser supports the necessary characters, check the table of vowel equivalents below. If you see any empty boxes or question marks in the "revised" columns, you should use the basic version.
Explanation of the Vowel Accenting
In general, Harrison and Sharp use circumflex accents over vowels to mark long vowels. For ash, however, the actual character 'æ' represents the long vowel. Short ash is rendered with a-umlaut (ä). The long diphthongs (ēo, ēa, etc.) are indicated with an acute accent over the second vowel (eó, eá, etc.).
Vowel Equivalents in Different Versions:
Orig. Revised Orig. Revised ä æ Ô Ō Ä Æ û ū æ ǣ Û Ū Æ Ǣ ý ȳ â ā Ý Ȳ Â Ā eá ēa ê ē Eá Ēa Ê Ē eó ēo î ī Eó Ēo Î Ī ié īe ô ō ió īo
** End of PG Preface **
I. BĒOWULF:
AN ANGLO-SAXON POEM.
II. THE FIGHT AT FINNSBURH:
A FRAGMENT.
WITH TEXT AND GLOSSARY ON THE
BASIS OF M. HEYNE.
EDITED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED, BY
JAMES A. HARRISON, LL.D., LITT. D.,
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH AND MODERN LANGUAGES, WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY,
AND
ROBERT SHARP (PH.D. LIPS.), PROFESSOR OF GREEK AND ENGLISH, TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA.
FOURTH EDITION. REVISED, WITH NOTES.
GINN & COMPANY BOSTON-NEW YORK-CHICAGO-LONDON
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1883, by JAMES ALBERT HARRISON AND ROBERT SHARP in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
DEDICATED
TO
PROFESSOR F. A. MARCH, OF LAFAYETTE COLLEGE, PA.,
AND
FREDERICK J. FURNIVALL, ESQ. FOUNDER OF THE "NEW SHAKSPERE SOCIETY," THE "CHAUCER SOCIETY," ETC., ETC.
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
The favor with which the successive editions of "Bēowulf" have been received during the past thirteen years emboldens the editors to continue the work of revision in a fourth issue, the most noticeable feature of which is a considerable body of explanatory Notes, now for the first time added. These Notes mainly concern themselves with new textual readings, with here and there grammatical, geographical, and archæological points that seemed worthy of explanation. Parallelisms and parallel passages are constantly compared, with the view of making the poem illustrate and explain itself. A few emendations and textual changes are suggested by the editors with all possible diffidence; numerous corrections have been made in the Glossary and List of Names; and the valuable parts of former Appendices have been embodied in the Notes.
For the Notes, the editors are much indebted to the various German periodicals mentioned on page 116, to the recent publications of Professors Earle and J. L. Hall, to Mr. S. A. Brooke, and to the Heyne-Socin edition of "Bēowulf." No change has been made in the system of accentuation, though a few errors in quantity have been corrected. The editors are looking forward to an eventual fifth edition, in which an entirely new text will be presented.
October, 1893.
NOTE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
This third edition of the American issue of Bēowulf will, the editors hope, be found more accurate and useful than either of the preceding editions. Further corrections in text and glossary have been made, and some additional new readings and suggestions will be found in two brief appendices at the back of the book. Students of the metrical system of Bēowulf will find ample material for their studies in Sievers' exhaustive essay on that subject (Beiträge, X. 209-314).
Socin's edition of Heyne's Bēowulf (called the fifth edition) has been utilized to some extent in this edition, though it unfortunately came too late to be freely used. While it repeats many of the omissions and inaccuracies of Heyne's fourth edition, it contains much that is valuable to the student, particularly in the notes and commentary. Students of the poem, which has been subjected to much searching criticism during the last decade, will also derive especial help from the contributions of Sievers and Kluge on difficult questions appertaining to it. Wülker's new edition (in the Grein Bibliothek) is of the highest value, however one may dissent from particular textual views laid down in the 'Berichtigter Text.' Paul and Braune's Beiträge contain a varied miscellany of hints, corrections, and suggestions principally embodying the views of Kluge, Cosijn, Sievers, and Bugge, some of the more important of which are found in the appendices to the present and the preceding edition. Holder and Zupitza, Sarrazin and Hermann Möller (Kiel, 1883), Heinzel (Anzeiger f.d. Alterthum, X.), Gering (Zacher's Zeitschrift, XII.), Brenner (Eng. Studien, IX.), and the contributors to Anglia, have assisted materially in the textual and metrical interpretation of the poem.
The subject of Anglo-Saxon quantity has been discussed in several able essays by Sievers, Sweet, Ten Brink (Anzeiger, f.d. Alterthum, V.), Kluge (Beiträge, XI.), and others; but so much is uncertain in this field that the editors have left undisturbed the marking of vowels found in the text of their original edition, while indicating in the appendices the now accepted views of scholars on the quantity of the personal pronouns (mē, wē, þū, þē, gē, hē); the adverb nū, etc. Perhaps it would be best to banish absolutely all attempts at marking quantities except in cases where the Ms. has them marked.
An approximately complete Bibliography of Bēowulf literature will be found in Wülker's Grundriss and in Garnett's translation of the poem.
JAMES A. HARRISON,
ROBERT SHARP.
WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY, LEXINGTON, VA., May, 1888.
NOTE TO THE SECOND REVISED EDITION.
The editors feel so encouraged at the kind reception accorded their edition of Bēowulf (1883), that, in spite of its many shortcomings, they have determined to prepare a second revised edition of the book, and thus endeavor to extend its sphere of usefulness. About twenty errors had, notwithstanding a vigilant proof-reading, crept into the text,-errors in single letters, accents, and punctuation. These have been corrected, and it is hoped that the text has been rendered generally accurate and trustworthy. In the List of Names one or two corrections have been made, and in the Glossary numerous mistakes in gender, classification, and translation, apparently unavoidable in a first edition, have been rectified. Wherever these mistakes concern single letters, or occupy very small space, they have been corrected in the plates; where they are longer, and the expense of correcting them in the plates would have been very great, the editors have thought it best to include them in an Appendix of Corrections and Additions, which will be found at the back of the book. Students are accordingly referred to this Appendix for important longer corrections and additions. It is believed that the value of the book has been much enhanced by an Appendix of Recent Readings, based on late criticisms and essays from the pens of Sievers, Kluge, Cosijn, Holder, Wülker, and Sweet. A perplexed student, in turning to these suggested readings, will often find great help in unravelling obscure or corrupt passages.