'Ofer hronrade': al di là del mare, la via delle balene: questioni sulla traduzione del 'Beowulf' in prosa italiana

The Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf is undoubtedly the most famous and the most studied poem written in Old English. It has been translated in several languages all over the world and though the heterogeneous panorama of English translations is unparalleled, the Italian translations available nowadays are characterized by some interesting translating choices a poem that is very distant both linguistically and chronologically. This article offers a brief overview of the history of Beowulf in translation, with a focus on Italy and the Italian language. In analyzing some of the central questions that arise in the translating process of such a text, this study takes into account the solutions adopted by four different authors (Olivero, Cecioni, Koch, Brunetti). It focuses on the different strategies recurring in the now outdated prose translations as opposed to the recent verse translations, while insisting on the need for a Philologist-Translator, rather than any other translator dealing with modern languages, to bring the Old English poem into a modern cultural and linguistic sphere.