The oldest and, arguably, the greatest epic in English literaturesvast history. Beowulf is an epic poem, originally written in Old English, thatdetails the heroic exploits of the warrior, Beowulf, throughout his life. Itrepresents the heroic ideal and the role of fates importance to the Old Englishpeople, while also addressing politics, war, old-age, kinsmanship, and fantasy. The depth of the poem, in both its poetry and narration, is incredible, and in theoriginal Old English the integration and weaving of meaning throughout the textis virtually unparalleled. Though Beowulf is an obvious masterpiece of Englishliterature, its true importance in history is often understated and misrepresented. This is because the Old English that the poem is written in is very difficult anddifferent from what most readers consider English, or even old English. Theantiquity of the text limits the poems greatness and true understanding to a verysmall group of scholars, armed with their word-hoards and knowledge of OldEnglish; the rest of the unready literary world sees a diluted representationthrough translation. Over time there have been large numbers of translations ofBeowulf, in various forms, that have provided the greater literary world with acommon perception of the text. It is this papers focus to examine a variety ofthese translations in relation to the meaning evident in the original Old Englishtext. As it would be impossible to examine the entire poem in Old English withmultiple translations, due to the depth and complexity present in the text, I haveselected the following short passage from Beowulf for the analysis:Gewat da neosian, sypdan niht becom, hean huses, hu hit Hring-Deneaefter beorpege gebun haefdon.Fand pa daer inne aepelinga gedrihtswefan aefter symble; sorge ne cudon,wonsceaft wera. Wiht unhaelo,grim ond graedig, gearo sona waes,reoc ond repe, ond on raeste genampritig pegna; panon eft gewathude hremig ...
