Traduccion

1.− Comente brevemente los primeros escritos ingleses. Señale las obras más importantes. As an introduction, let begin with the fact that the Roman presence did not give an elaborated literature to the Islands, but Latin was the written language of inhabitants of the Islands because of the powerful influence of Christian monks. After the withdrawal of the Roman legions, in the fifth century, theGerman peoples who had lived in the North Sea coast would begin to take up the Island. Those German peoples: Anglos, Jutes and Saxons, brought a primitive oral culture from which a primitive written literature in Anglo−Saxon language was born. The primitive English texts appeared mainly written in four Anglo−Saxon dialects: Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish and West Saxon The first religious poetwould be Caedmon, VII century, who was the author of a short poem that was mentioned by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History. The most important literary works are the following ones: The Anglo−Saxon Chronicle, which was written in King Alfred of Wessex days, is a highly appreciated literary work because it describes in detail the events that had taken place until that time. In Latin, I must mentionthe famous manuscript Lindisfarne Gospels. It was written, in 700, in Latin and with the graph known as half−uncial: Latin with certain Irish influence. In Anglo−Saxon, Beowulf, The Fight at Finns Borough, The Fight at Bruna Borough and The Fight of Maldon and Waldere are considered the primitive cycle of the English heroic poetry. Beowulf is thought to have been written in either in the seventh oreighth century. The oldest text of Beowulf we have was written in the dialect known as West Saxon in the year 1000, though most of investigators do not consider it to be the primitive one. The Fight at Finns Borough is considered to be a priceless literary work of primitive English epic poetry from which only a 46 lines long fragment remains. The topic that this poem deals with is also mentionedin Beowulf, so it is thought that this poem was written by the same person who wrote Beowulf and that he belonged to the Northumbrian School. The Fight at Bruna Borough shows us the fight of the Anglo−Saxon King Athelstan against the army of the Gaelic Scottish and Scandinavian The Fight of Maldon deals with the battle of the Anglo−Saxon noble Byrthnoth and a Viking expedition. Byrthnoth shows usthe scribe as a Christian knight, which indicates that it was elaborated after Beowulf had been. In contrast to the battle of Brunanburg, in The Fight of Maldon the Anglo−Saxon armies would be defeated due to the bad strategy of their leader. Finally, Waldere deals with the fight of the hero Waldere against a Burgundy warrior party led by his King Guthere. Possibly inspired in the X century, it waswritten in Waltharius Latin, in which only one warrior faced thirteen enemies. 2.− Comente los principales problemas en la traducción de la Literatura Inglesa Medieval.

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In my opinion, the main problems we have to face when translating a medieval English text into any modern language rest, among others, on two points: • Sources, original argument and interpretation. • The vocabulary andexpressions which were used in the original texts. First of all, the sources sometimes remain in the dark and they are very difficult to be identified. For example, although it is thought that the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is made up of a number of traditional elements: the Beheading Game, the Temptation, the Exchange of Winnings which can be traced back over several centuries, theseelements are not found linked together in any possible source of the poem. Also, as these texts were put in written form by Christian monks who took them from the oral transmitted legends. They probably put a good deal of Christian morality in their works. As a result of that, the original argument and subsequently the true meaning might have been changed. This may make a correct interpretation...