[Janice D. Soderling]

This is particularly for Tim Murphy, but it might be of interest for several so I'm putting it here in GT.

I'm reading "Beowulf" as translated by Seamus Heaney (Faber and Faber, 1999) and in a parallel reading, the translation by Tim and Alan Sullivan (Longman Cultural Edition, 2004). Two quite different styles, but both highly enjoyable.

My comment concerns the line designated in Tim's version as line 1957 which mentions "raven". The lines aren't stated in the Heaney presentation and it might not exactly agree so I'm writing the significant passage below.

The translations are as follows:

(Heaney)

That great heart rested. The hall towered,
gold-shingled and gabled, and the guest slept in it
Until the black raven with raucous glee
announced heaven's joy, and a hurry of brightness
overran the shadows. (…)

(Sullivan & Murphy)

Beneath golden gables the great-hearted guest
dozed until dawn in the high-roofed hall,
when the black raven blithely foretold
joy under heaven. Daybreak hastened

Tim and Alan have an interesting footnote about the target word "raven"

(footnote 29)

29. black raven The raven makes an ironic bearer of joyful news. The Old English adjective modifying the bird could be either blæc, "black" or blac, "shining" which conveys the quality of the raven's glossy feathers. Brightness and luster seem to be an integral part of the comprehension of color in Old English.
This reference is surely to (Turdus merula) which we in Sweden call "koltrast" (literal translation "coal thrush"), in English it is called "blackbird" or "merle". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_blackbird

It has a beautiful song, very loud, offers it up at night, an hour or so before dawn. (At least I think the song is beautiful, though when I was younger and had been up partying until late, I didn't think it was so beautiful when it woke me up after a few hours sleep!)

This is the same bird of which Paul McCartney wrote "Blackbird singing in the dead of night…" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ehhZ53zysQ

So it seems to me that the footnote is spot on, that the translators Alan and Tim sensed instinctively that "raven" (genus Corvus) did not fit the context, but had never heard the purling song of turdus merula. The raven, all of the Corvus family, is indeed raucous and so NOT a bearer of joyful news. I think it wasn't a raucous raven that woke Beowulf's warriors who would be setting forth for Geat.