Publisher's Synopsis
Annotations This book is unique because it contains a literary criticism that was made by Juan Acevedo Composed in the 8th century AD, Beowulf's Gesta is the oldest epic monument of Germanic literatures. It was discovered in 1705 and registered in a catalog of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts as an epic of the wars between Danes and Swedes. This erroneous definition is due to the difficulties of poetic language; At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were scholars in England capable of understanding Anglo-Saxon prose, but not of deciphering a poem, written in the artificial language we have already considered. Attracted by the mention of the catalog, a Danish scholar, Thorkelín, went to England in 1786 to copy the manuscript. Twenty-one years devoted to study it, to transcribe it and to prepare it, with a Latin translation, for the printing press. In 1807, the English squad attacked Copenhagen, set fire to the house of Thorkelín and destroyed the pious fruit of so many years and so many cares. Incarnated in violent men, in men more akin to Beowulf than to Beowulf's editor, the patriotic passion that had brought him to England turned against him and annihilated his work. Thorkelín overcame that misfortune and published in 1815 the prince edition of Beowulf. This edition, now, has almost no other value than that of a literary curiosity. Another Danish, Pastor Grundtvig, published in 1820 a new version of the poem. There were no Anglo-Saxon dictionaries then, there were no grammars; Grundtvig learned it in the light of works in prose and Beowulf himself. He corrected the text published by Thorkelín and suggested amendments that were confirmed, afterwards, by the original manuscript that he did not get to see, and that naturally provoked the old editor's anger. Subsequently, many German and English versions have appeared; of these, those of Clark Hall and Earle in prose and that of William Morris in verse are noteworthy. Excluding some secondary episodes, Beowulf's Gesta consists of two parts, which can be summarized as follows: Beowulf, prince of the lineage of the geatas, a nation from the south of Sweden that some have identified with the Jutes and others with the Goths, arrives with his people at the court of Hrothgar, who reigns in Denmark. Twelve years ago-twelve winters, says the poem-that a demon from the swamps, Grendel, in a gigantic and human form, penetrates during the dark nights in the king's room to kill and devour the warriors. Grendel is of the race of Cain. By the work of an enchantment, it is invulnerable to arms. Beowulf, who in his fist has the strength of thirty men,