As a lover of medieval literature, William Morris studied medieval manuscripts and early prints, produced illuminated manuscripts, and translated several works into English. In his later years, in 1891, Morris established a private press called Kelmscott Press (named after the Oxfordshire village Kelmscott but located in Hammersmith), and published many beautiful books in a style of an illuminated manuscript. The Tale of Beowulf is one of them, and only 300 copies were made (8 copies were printed on vellum). The above is a specimen leaf from it, covering lines 1777-1835 of the original.
Beowulf is an anonymous Old English heroic poem composed in Mercia or Northumbria probably in the early eighth century, and its unique manuscript from c. 1000 is preserved in the British Library, under the shelf mark Cotton Vitellius A. xv. Morris believed that Beowulf is 'the first and the best poem of the English race'.
Not an expert in Old English ー and he himself writes that he does not know Anglo-Saxon in his letter to Wyatt ー, Morris is based on a prose translation by A. J. Wyatt, an Anglo-Saxonist at Christ's College, Cambridge, who published an edition of the poem in 1894. In 1892, Morris wrote to Wyatt and asked for his assistance by providing him with a prose translation of the poem which would serve as a basis of his alliterative verse translation. Wyatt agreed and they started to work together. It took them only two years to finish it.
Morris's is a literal translation faithful to the original. He often introduces archaic and/or unusual words or word-forms such as 'eyen' for 'eyes' in the fifth line in the below transcription of the text, 'twain' for 'two' in line 7, 'mickle' for 'much, great' in line 8, etc. He even uses 'whenas' for 'when' and 'whereas' for 'where'. Archaic and/or unusual words and phrases are often those taken directly from the original text, as in 'mickle mood-care' in line 2 for OE modceare micle (1778), 'dree' in line 6 for dreoh (1782) 'endured, suffered', 'glad of mood' in line 9 for glædmod (1785) 'glad at heart', 'settle' in line 10 for setles (1786) 'seat', 'floor-sitters' in line 12 for fletsittendum 'sitters in the hall', and so on.
The following is a transcription of the text printed on this leaf:
I from that onfall bore ever increasing
Mickle mood-care; herefor be thanks to the Maker,
To the Lord everlasting that in life I abided.
Yea, that I on that head all sword-gory there,
Now the old strife is over, with eyen should stare.
Go fare thou to settle, the feast-joyance dree thou,
O war-worshipp'd unto us twain yet there will be
Mickle treasure in common when come is the morning.
Glad of mood then the Geat was, and speedy he gat him
To go see the settle, as the sage one commanded.
Then was after as erst, that they of the might-fame,
The floor-sitters, fairly the feasting bedight them
All newly. The helm of the night loured over,
Dark over teh host-men. Uprose all teh Doughty,
for he, the hoar-blended, would wend to his bed,
That old man of teh Scyldings. The Geat without measure,
The mighty shield-warrior, now willed him rest.
And soon now the hall-thane him of way-faring weary,
from far away come, forth showerd him the road,
E'en he who for courtesy cared for all things
Of the needs of teh thane, e'en such as on that day
The farers o'erocean would fainly have had.
Rested then the wide-hearted, high up the house tower'd
Wide-gaping all gold-dight; within slept the guest;
Until the black raven, the blithe-hearted, boded
The heavens' joy; then was come thither a-hastening
The bright sun o'er the plains, and hasten'd the scathers,
The Athelings, once more aback to their people
All fain to be faring; and far away thence
Would the comer high-hearted go visit his keel;
Bade then the hard one Hrunting to bear,
The Ecglaf's son bade to take him his sword,
The iron well-loved; gave him thanks for the lending,
Quoth he that war-friend for worthy be told,
full of craft in the war; nor with word blam'd he aught
The edge of the sword. Hah! the high-hearted warrior.
So whenas all way-forward, yare in their war-gear
Were the warriors, the dear one then went to the Danes,
To the high seat went the Atheling, whereas was the other;
The battle-dear warrior gave greeting to Hrothgar.
XXVII. Beowulf bids Hrothgar farewell; the Geats fare to ship ✿✿
Out then spake Beowulf Ecgtheow's bairn;
As now we sea-farers have will to be saying,
We from afar come, that now are we fainest
Of seeking to Hygelac. Here well erst were we
Serv'd as our wills would, and well thine avail was.
If I on the earth then, be it e'en but a little.
Of the love of thy mood may yet more be an-earning,
O Lord of the menfolk, than heretofore might I,
Of the works of teh battle yare then soon shall I be,
If I should be learning, I over teh flood's run,
That the sitters about thee beset thee with dread,
Even thee hating as otherwhile did they;
Then thousands to theeward of thanes shall I bring
for the helping of heroes. Of Hygelac wot I,
The lord of the Geat-folk, though he be but a youngling,
That shepherd of folk, that me will he further
By words and by words, that well may I ward thee,
And unto thine helping the spear-holt may bear,
A main-staying mighty, whenas men thou art needing.
The same translation is published as William Morris and A. J. Wyatt, The Tale of Beowulf Sometime King of teh Folk of the Weder Geats (London: Longman, Green and Co., 1898). Wyatt's edition of Beowulf is entitled Beowulf Edited with Textual Foot-notes, Index of Proper Names, and Alphabetical Glossary (Cambridge: CUP, 1894).
For the characteristics of Morris's translation, see Robert Boeing, 'The Importance of Morris's Beowulf', Journal of William Morris Studies 12.2 (1997): 7-13. Boeing concludes that Morris's is the best translation of Beowulf available (p. 12). It is an interesting essay, but occasionally what he writes about Beowulf or Old English poetry is inaccurate or peculiar; for instance, he writes that Thorkelin had made two transcriptions of the poem before the fire at the Cotton Library damaged it in 1731 (p. 10), but Thorkelin started to work on the manuscript at the British Museum (rather than at the Cotton Library in Ashburnham House) in 1786. Born in 1752, Thorkelin was not even born at the time of the fire (for more details, see this page). Boeing's understanding of Sievers's metrical theory (p. 10) seems also inaccurate, while the early ninth century is not widely accepted as the date of Beowulf, and it is unusual to adopt the peculiar date without mentioning whom he follows for what reason (p. 11).