27 July 2013

Fitt 40: The News Comes to Camp


 Hi, I'm back after working (yet again) on editing my book on poetry. I haven't given up this project...certainly not now when I have only 237 lines left to do!

An earlier version of the first lines appear in a posting below, but here's the whole fitt. 

I should explain the translation choices made in one section:
He beseiged the grove and the swords' leavings,
tired from their wounds. He trumpeted threats
to that wretched band the rest of the night.
That morning, he said, his sword's edges
would give one to the gods on the gallows tree,      2940
I'm following a particular point of view here, expressed in the notes on these lines on Ben Slade's site heorot.dk, which say this:
2937] sinherge is usually rendered 'with a vast army'; Tripp (277-8 & personal communication) recommends 'at the huge (sacred) grove', taking herge as a variant of hearg, hearh 'temple, altar, santuary, idol; grove' (Clark Hall). Compare with The Wife's Lament (in the Exeter Book), l. 15 'het mec hlaford min / herheard niman' ("my lord commanded me be taken to the grove/sanctuary"). See also n. 2941-2 below.

[2941] gétan here could related to agétan 'to waste, destroy'; or a form of géotan 'to pour, shed, gush', here meaning 'to cause to shed blood', or 'to sacrifice', as I translate it; or it could be an otherwise unattested verb with the meaning 'to cut, to pierce', judging from the context (cf. Christ and Satan 508b-9a (in Minor Poems ): 'beornas sticodon, / garum on galdum' ["the warriors pierced, with spears on the gallows(cross)"].

[2941-2: The Sacrifice in the Forest] As North (142), Tripp (277) and others point out, the fact that the Geats are in a forest called 'Raven's Wood', and especially if we take sinherge as 'at the huge sacred grove', then this passage may well allude to sacrifices to Woden.
So these lines could be translated differently. Seamus Heaney writes
His army surrounded the weary remnant
where they nursed their wounds; all through the night
he howled threats at those huddled survivors,
promised to axe their bodies open
when dawn broke, dangle them from gallows
to feed the birds.
Burton Raffel did them like this
With his mass of soldiers, circled around
The Geats who'd survived, who'd escaped him, calling
Threats and boasts at that wretched band
The whole night through. In the morning he'd hang
A few, he promised, to amuse the birds,
Then slaughter the rest.
The reference to "Othere's wise father" means Ongentheow.
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He told them to tell the tidings of battle                          2892
at the clifftop camp where the company waited
sad in spirit through the slow morning,
the spearbearers expecting both
their king was killed or would come again,
beloved man. The messenger
left out little that lapsed in the battle
but told them all the honest truth.

Now the one who held the Weders’ hopes,
the lord of the Geats, lies on his death-bed,                      2900
stretched out like the dead by the dragon's strike.
He lies beside his lethal foe,
sick from saxe-wounds. No sword was able
to make a mark on that monstrous being
whatever the way. Wiglaf was sitting,
Weohstan's son, beside Beowulf,
a living lord along by the dead,
weary in mind, watching over
the loved and the loathed. Now our land must expect            2910
a time of war when the truth spreads
to Frisians, Franks, and far-off lands,
the king was killed. The conflict with the Hugas
was worked to hardness when Hygelac went
afloat with his fleet to Frisian land
where Hetwares warred against him.
There courage came with such crushing power
the armoured man was overwhelmed.
He fell in the front. No further treasures
could he offer his men. Ever since then,               2920
no mercy for us from the Meroving.
And I place no trust in peace or truce,
not with the Swedes, for news has spread
that Ongentheow had overthrown
Haethcyn himself, who was Hrethel's son,
at Ravenswood when, in their pride,
the Geats first went against War Scylfings.
Shortly after, Othere's wise father
turned to attack, terrible and old.
He ended the sea-dog, honoured his wife,             2930
his ancient companion, deprived of her gold,
Onela's mother and Otheres',
then was hard on the heels of his hated foes
who could scarcely escape from him,
to Ravenswood, robbed of their lord.
He beseiged the grove and the swords' leavings,
tired from their wounds. He trumpeted threats
to that wretched band the rest of the night.
That morning, he said, his sword's edges
would give one to the gods on the gallows tree,      2940
a ravens' toy. Relief returned
to those downcast men as day began
when they heard Hygelac's horn and trumpet
and knew his war-cry. That worthy came
" with seasoned soldiers swift on the path."               2945

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