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RR1STOL COMMUNITY COLl^OE TC 4001

Record Set)

READ IN- OLD ENGLISH BY KEMP MALONE

The poem of 3182 lines here recorded has come down to us in a manuscript of A.D. 1000 or thereabouts. Both poem and poet go nameless in the manuscript, but modern editors think that in all likelihood the poet was an English monk of the eighth century and they have named his poem after its hero Beowulf, a prince (later king) of the Gauts, the Gautigoths of the sixth-century Gothic historian Jordanes. In Old English the name of the hero’s tribe had the form Geatas, whence our modern Greats. The Geats lived in Scandinavia, between the Swedes and the Danes; their hold¬ ings now make part of Sweden. Their English neighbors on the Jutland peninsula had shifted abode to Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries, taking along a goodly stock of Scandinavian story. The poet drew heavily on this stock in making his poem and brought in, besides, sundry tales from other parts of Germania. He was concerned first of all to sing Beowulf’s deeds and virtues, but in the course of the narrative he gave his hero the setting that befitted the time of the action: the heroic age of the Germanic peoples, the centuries when many a Germanic tribe left its old seats and won a new home within the bounds of the Roman Empire.

The poet knew of those heroic days not from books but from tra¬ ditional tales, songs about heroes of olden time. He thought of the period as a golden age, when heroism blossomed as never before or after. And the man he sang became in his poem a hero indeed, mightiest in fight (he had the strength of 30) and noblest in mood: “of earthly kings mildest and gentlest to all then, kindest to his people, and gladdest of good name.”

The poet took up in full very little of the hero’s life: a week of heroism in young manhood, a day (his last) in old age. The long stretch of years between was told of in less than a dozen lines. The poem thus falls into two contrasting parts, each worked out with the other in mind.

In both, the hero fights not with human foes but with monsters so formi¬ dable that of all mankind only he can brave them and win. He is young when we first meet him as he goes to help his father’s friend. King Hrothgar of the Danes, whose hall has long been haunted at night by a man-eating troll named Grendel. What the imperial power of Hrothgar cannot do in twelve years BEOWULF does in one night: he overcomes Grendel single- handed. Later he slays Grendel’s mother, the would-be avenger of her son. In time he becomes king of the Geats and in old age defends his people against the ravages of a fire-dragon, killing the monster at last but losing his own life in the fight. The poem ends with the words of praise quoted above. Woven into the main story are episodes and allusions that give glimpses of other events in the hero’s life and in his world, and the whole recaptures in glorified form the ways and ideals of Germanic society in its heroic age.

In structure the poem is strikingly original. In style it is marked not so much by originality as by mastery of a traditional mode of expres¬ sion. Nobody has better brought out the poet’s achievement here than has the late M. B. Ruud, with whose words we make an end: BEOWULF has “a magnificence of language which leaves critic and translator helpless. Indeed, if the poem has a weakness as a work of art, it lies in this all- pervasive artistry. BEOWULF seldom pierces one with a stab of eloquence straight from a heart on fire, . . .; it carries one along on a great golden stream of poetic rhetoric. ... It is a great literary tradition at its finest flowering. ... BEOWULF may not be one of the half-dozen great poems of the world . . . but for sheer style there are not many works to be put above it.”

—KEMP MALONE

Chaucer, Geoffrey TC 1151

The Canterbury Tales General Prologue, in Middle English

J. B. BESSINGER, JR., the distinguished New York University scholar, reads in Middle English the whole of the General Prologue • Prologue to the Parson's Tale • Chaucer's Retrac¬ tion. Original text and modern translation included.

1-12" $5.95

Gawain and the Green Knignt & Pearl, TC I 192 dialogues, in Middle English

PROFESSOR J. B. BESSINGER, JR. of New York University, and PROFESSOR MARIE BORROFF of Yale University read dialogues from these two medieval allegories in Middle Eng¬ lish. Original text and modern translation included.

1-12" $5.95

Chaucer, Geoffrey TC 1223

Two Canterbury Tales in Middle English:

The Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale

J. B. BESSINGER, JR. reads in Middle English the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale. Includes text in Middle English.

1-12". $5.95

OTHER CAEDMON RECORDS Chaucer, Geoffrey TO 1226

Poetry in Middle English: The Parliament of Fowls and Six Other Poems

J. B. BESSINGER, JR. reads in Middle English The Parliament of Fowls • Merciless Beauty • To Rosamund • Lack of Stead¬ fastness (including Envoy to Richard II) • Complaint to his Purse (including Envoy to Henry IV) • To his Scribe Adam • Envoy to Scogan. Includes text in Middle English.

1-12" $5.95

Chaucer, Geoffrey TC 1008

Two Canterbury Tales, in Middle English

The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale and The Nun's Priest's Tale, complete: a lusty reading in Middle English by ROBERT ROSS, the noted stage actor. Original text and modern translation included. 1-12" $5.95

Chaucer, Geoffrey TC 1102

The Wife of Bath, in Modern English

DAME PEGGY ASHCROFT reads Chaucer's Canterbury Tale, The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, in-the modern * English

- of J. U. Nicholson. . 1-12" $5.95

Chaucer, Geoffrey TO 1130

Two Canterbury Tales, in Modern English

The Pardoner's Tale, read by MICHEAL MacLIAMMOIR, and The Miller's Tale, read by STANLEY HOLLOWAY, in the modern English translation by Theodore Morrison.

142" $5.95

Beowulf and Other Poetry in Old English TC 1161

J. B. BESSINGER, JR., the distinguished New York University Professor, reads Beowulf: II. 1-125, 195-225, 702-852, 3137- 3180 • Caedmon's Hymn • The Dream of the Rood • "The Wanderer • The Battle of Brunan Burg • A Wife's Lament, all in Old English, accompanied by the Sutton Hoo harp. Original text and modern translation included. | |2" $595

WARNING: It is expressly forbidden to copy or reproduce this recording or any portion thereof in any manner or form, whether for profit, amateur, institutional, or educational use. Permission for broadcast, telecast or public performance use must be obtained in advance in writing. Caedmon Records, Inc. 505 Eighth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10018.

MADE IN U.S.A.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number R 67-3202 (monaural)

OLD ENGLISH-MODERN TEXT INCLUDED

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BEOWULF

(In Old English)

TC-4001-A

Lines 1 through 455 (beginning)

Kemp Malone

BEOWULF

(In Old English)

Lines 456 through 836 (continued)

Kemp Malone

^ V L°r b'ot,

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0 (In Old English)

Side 3

-Lines 837 through 1250 1 (continued)

Head by

Kemp Malone

BEOWULF

(In Old English)

TC4001-H

Lines 2821 through 3182 (conclusion)

Read by

Kemp Malone