Archive for the ‘Translations’ Category

Pope’s Theory of Metre in Old English

Thursday, February 12th, 2026

According to Pope[1] the verses of OE poetry should be read so that one can beat time to the stresses in the same way that one can beat time to music. To emphasize this he uses musical notation to guide the reading of each syllable. He then proposes that the ...

Beowulf ll 3074 f

Tuesday, July 9th, 2019

In continuing the Beowulf translation I came to ll. 3074f which are described as a locus desperatus in Klaeber in a long note (pp. 266 f.) There is no agreed upon solution to the problems of the text - which do not seem to be errors in transcription or copying, but in ...

The Seafarer

Monday, March 21st, 2016

From the Exeter Book (Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501). The OE text is presented as in Mitchell & Robinson (2012) A Guide to Old English (8th edn) Wiley-Blackwell:UK pp. 284-290. They note several emendations of the OE text, but none are of great significance. As usual in that text, ? ...

The Battle of Maldon

Friday, September 25th, 2015

This is not presented as a polished translation, just as a helper for my reading of the text. It’s just another of my Anglo-Saxon homework texts. As before, note that the OE text is presented as in Mitchell & Robinson (2012) A Guide to Old English (8th edn) Wiley-Blackwell:UK pp. ...

The Wanderer

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015

This is not presented as a polished translation, just as a helper for my reading of the text. This is another of the texts that we prepare as 'homework' for an Anglo-Saxon group that is being run by Bill Krebs on Thursday afternoons. This poem is from the Exeter Book (Exeter ...

The Ruin

Sunday, September 13th, 2015

From the Exeter Book (Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501). The OE text is presented as in Mitchell & Robinson (2012) A Guide to Old English (8th edn) Wiley-Blackwell:UK pp. 261-3. They note several emendations of the OE text, but only the reconstruction of line 12 is really significant. As usual ...