What was the chief problem of translating a poem of Beowulf.?

Answer 1

Old English is an entirely different language from Middle English (Shakespeare's language) or modern English, constructed upon an entirely separate set of linguistic groundwork. It bears more in common with various Scandinavian and antiquated Anglo-Saxon languages than it does with any more contemporary rendition of the English language; consequently, Old English must be approached as an entirely separate tongue all its own. This immensely complicated the translation process.

Answer 2

One of the chief problems in translating Beowulf is preserving the Old English language's unique characteristics, such as alliteration, kennings, and caesura, while also making the text accessible to modern readers. Additionally, capturing the rich symbolism, cultural context, and nuances of meaning in the original poem poses a challenge for translators.

Answer 3

Beowulf, created by the unknown author before the Sixth century consists of 3182 lines, formulated at a time when there were no books and paper but were read loudly before great audiences. It was constructed not to be read with eyes, but to be sung loudly in public. It's creator was first trained as a traditional singer. It survived as an oral epic, handed over through generations orally. In those times, poetry creators were extremely skilled in constructing very long instant poems before audiences. Therefore they often did not have a concrete continuous story. Several adventures of kings and soldiers were clubbed together to form an epic. Moreover there would happen many editings and eliminations during these mouth to mouth transfer through generations. All these are impediments to even a skilled translator. Added to this is the fact that only one copy of the ancient manuscript survived raid and fire, which is kept in the British Museum. But the chief problem of translating the epic Beowulf is the ancient text being so complex and so imperfectly understood that only translations roughly equivalent in the modern English language have been possible till now.