Frederick Klaeber
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Frederick J. Klaeber (born Friedrich J. Klaeber) (1 October 1863 – 4 October 1954) was a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
who was Professor of Old and Middle English at the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
. His edition of the poem '' Beowulf'', published as ''Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg,'' is considered a classic work of ''Beowulf'' scholarship; it has been in print continuously since 1922 and is now in its fourth edition.


Biography

Klaeber was born in
Beetzendorf Beetzendorf is a municipality in the district Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It consists of the following ''Ortsteile'' or municipal divisions:Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...
to Hermann and Luise Klaeber. He received his doctorate from the
University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...
(Philosophy) in 1892. He was invited to join the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
as an Assistant Professor of English Philology. He was Professor of English and Comparative Philology from 1898 to 1931. In 1902 he married Charlotte Wahn. Klaeber retired from Minnesota in 1931 and returned to Berlin, where he continued to work on what would become the 1936 third edition of ''Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg''. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, his house in Berlin was destroyed, including his books, articles, and notes; he and his wife fled to her house in
Bad Kösen Bad Kösen () is a spa town on the Saale river in the small wine-growing region of Saale-Unstrut, Germany. It is a former municipality in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt. Bad Kösen has a population of around 5,300. Since 1 Janu ...
, where he continued work on what would be published as the second supplement to the third edition of ''Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg'' (1950). During this time, because he no longer had his library and paper was scarce (Bad Kösen was in the
Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a ...
), he depended greatly on colleagues and friends in the US. Toward the end of his life, Klaeber was bedridden, impoverished, and partially paralyzed but continued his scholarly work nevertheless. He died in 1954.


''Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg''

Klaeber was fluent in a number of languages (Greek, Latin, French, Germanic, Old, Middle, and Modern English) and was thus asked by the University of Minnesota to create an English language edition of ''Beowulf'' in 1893. Klaeber spent three decades on the project, finally publishing the first edition, ''Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg'', in 1922. The
Finnesburg Fragment The "Finnesburg Fragment" (also "Finnsburh Fragment") is a portion of an Old English heroic poem about a fight in which Hnæf and his 60 retainers are besieged at "Finn's fort" and attempt to hold off their attackers. The surviving text is tantal ...
which he included is all that remains of another poem about an event alluded to in ''Beowulf''.Bloomfield, Josephine. "Benevolent Authoritarianism in Klaeber's Beowulf: an editorial translation of kingship", in ''Modern Language Quarterly''; 60:2, June 1999
/ref> The second edition was published in 1928. The third edition was published in 1936;''Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg / edited, with introduction, bibliography, notes, glossary and appendices by Fr. Klaeber''; 3rd ed. with first and second supplements. clxxxvii, 471 pp.; illustrated. Boston MA; London: D. C. Heath, 1950. (Reprint of 3rd ed. 1936 with 2 suppls.) it was republished with a supplement in 1941, and then republished again with a second supplement in 1950. All of Klaeber's editions have included a substantial Introduction, discussing a range of different topics related to the poem, and a comprehensive Commentary section on particular aspects of the text, as well as an extensive glossary. For many years, Klaeber was considered one of the world's leading ''Beowulf'' researchers, and his great work, ''Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg'', became enormously important and influential on scholars and students of those poems. As Josephine Bloomfield observes: :Among the editions of ''Beowulf,'' Frederick Klaeber's remains the most important. A monumental project begun in 1893, published in 1922, and revised and supplemented up to 1950, it continues to be the central source used by graduate students for the study of the poem and by scholars and teachers as the basis of their translations. In 2008, a new version prepared by an editorial team consisting of Robert Dennis Fulk, Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles was published as the "fourth edition"; it retains much of Klaeber's third edition design and text, but also substantial alterations intended to update the work by taking into account scholarship on ''Beowulf'' published since 1950.


Selected publications

* 1903: "Notes on Old English Prose Text", in: ''Modern Language Notes''; 18.8; pp. 241–247 * 1912: "Die christlichen Elemente im Beowulf", in: '' Anglia''; 35; pp. 111–136 (in German) * 1929: ''Studies in English Philology: a miscellany in honor of Frederick Klaeber''. Ed. Kemp Malone and Martin B. Ruud. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (includes: "A bibliography of the works of Frederick Klaeber"; yStefán Einarsson, pp. 477–85)


See also

* Beowulf *
Grendel's mother Grendel's mother ( ang, Grendles mōdor) is one of three antagonists in the anonymous Old English poem '' Beowulf'' (c. 700-1000 AD), the other two being Grendel and the dragon. Each antagonist reflects different negative aspects of both the h ...


Notes


External links


Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg (first edition, 1922)
- Archive.org *

'. - Fordham University
Fulk, Bjork and Niles 2008 Sidelights on Klaeber's Beowulf
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klaeber, Frederick German medievalists German literary critics University of Minnesota faculty Translators from Old English Anglo-Saxon studies scholars American academics of English literature 1863 births 1954 deaths German male non-fiction writers Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America