Beowulf: A Trilingual Etymological Bridge

by Charles Long

This translation provides a means to relate modern languages to the language of Beowulf. This rendition is not therefore a poetic interpretation or an exact "accurate" translation, but a word-for-word and line-by-line placement of Old English, modern German, and modern English if Professor Long can possibly coerce the modern word and line into a meaningful context. Since the language of Beowulf resembles modern German and modern English more than it does any other Germanic language, the poem would seem to be more the heritage of those two languages than Scandinavian or other Germanic languages, but within the text are imbedded frequent allusions to Old Norse and older Germanic deities, all the immediate heritage of all Germanic speakers.

490 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2000