View source for Benjamin Thorpe

{{Short description|English scholar}}
{{For|the Canadian Archdeacon of St Andrews|Benjamin Thorpe (priest)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
'''Benjamin Thorpe''' (1782 – 19 July 1870) was an English scholar of [[Old English language|Anglo-Saxon]] [[literature]].

==Biography==
In the early 1820s he worked as a banker in the [[House of Rothschild]], in [[Paris]]. There he met [[Thomas Hodgkin]], who treated him for tuberculosis.<ref>Amalie M. Kass and Edward H. Kass, ''Perfecting the World: The life and times of Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, 1798–1866'' (1988), pp. 101–3.</ref>

After studying for four years at [[Copenhagen University]], under the Danish [[philologist]] [[Rasmus Christian Rask]], Thorpe returned to England in 1830. In a few years he established a reputation as an Anglo-Saxon scholar.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In recognition of unremunerative work, Thorpe was granted a [[civil list pension]] of £160 in 1835, and on 17 June 1841 this was increased to £200 per annum. He was a [[Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London]], a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Munich, and of the Society of Netherlandish Literature at Leyden<ref name=DNB>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Thorpe, Benjamin}}</ref> He died at [[Chiswick]] in July 1870.

==Bibliography==
[[File:Thorpe, Benjamin – Ancient laws and institutes of England, 1840 – BEIC 13760904.jpg|thumb|''Ancient laws and institutes of England'', 1840]]

In 1830 Thorpe brought out at Copenhagen an English version of Rask's ''Anglo-Saxon Grammar'' (a second edition of this appeared at London). That same year he moved to London with his new wife Mary Otte and her daughter [[Elise Otté]]. Thorpe educated and oppressed his step daughter and she had a troubled relationship and unattributed partnership with him throughout his life.<ref>Thomas Seccombe, ‘Thorpe, Benjamin (1781/2–1870)’, rev. John D. Haigh, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/27375, accessed 17 Feb 2015]</ref>

In 1832 he published at London ''Cædmon's Metrical Paraphrase of Parts of the Holy Scriptures in Anglo-Saxon; with an English Translation, Notes, and a Verbal Index'', which was well reviewed. It was followed in 1834 by the ''Anglo-Saxon Version of the Story of Apollonius of Tyre''<ref>''Anglo-Saxon Version of the Story of Apollonius of Tyre, upon which is founded the play of "Pericles," from a MS., with a Translation and Glossary''.</ref> and by ''Analecta Anglo-Saxonica'', a textbook which was adopted at Oxford by [[Robert Meadows White]].<ref>''Analecta Anglo-Saxonica: a selection in prose and verse from Anglo-Saxon authors of various ages, with a Glossary'' (Oxford, 1834, 1846 and 1868).</ref> The ''Analecta'' was used, with Vernon's ''Anglo-Saxon Guide'', for 40 years.<ref name=DNB/>

In 1835 Thorpe published ''Libri Psalmorum Versio antiqua Latina''<ref>''Libri Psalmorum Versio antiqua Latina; cum Paraphrasi Anglo-Saxonica ... nunc primum e cod. MS. in Bibl. Regia Parisiensi adservato'' (Oxford).</ref> and then ''Ancient Laws and Institutes of England'' (1840).<ref>''Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, comprising the Laws enacted under the Anglo-Saxon Kings from Ethelbert to Canut, with an English Translation'' (London, 1840).</ref> Two more volumes were published by Thorpe in 1842, ''The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon''<ref>Based on Cod. Bibl. Pub. Cant. li. 2, 11, collated with Cod. C. C. C. Cambr., s. 4, 140.</ref> and ''Codex Exoniensis, a Collection of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, with English Translation and Notes'', an edition of the poems in the [[Exeter Book]] with English translation. Next came, for the [[Ælfric Society]], ''The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church'',' with an English version, published in ten parts between 1843 and 1846.<ref name=DNB/>

In 1834 Thorpe had begun a translation of [[Johann Martin Lappenberg]]'s works on old English history, but was deterred. By 1842 he had started another version, with alterations, corrections, and notes of his own; it was published in two volumes in 1845 as ''A History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings''. It was followed eventually by a version of Lappenberg's ''History of England under the Norman Kings'' (1857). Thorpe's two-volume edition of [[Florence of Worcester]] was issued in 1848–49.<ref name=DNB/><ref>''Florentii Wigornensis monachi Chronicon ex Chronicis ab adventu Hengesti ... usque ad annum mcxvii, cui accesserunt continuationes duæ'', collated and edited with English notes (London).</ref>

For the publisher Edward Lumley Thorpe produced ''Northern Mythology'' (1851)<ref>''Northern Mythology, comprising the principal popular Traditions and Superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, and the Netherlands ... from original and other sources'' (London, 3 vols.)</ref> with notes and illustrations. It was followed in 1853 by  ''Yule Tide Stories''<ref>''Yule Tide Stories: a collection of Scandinavian Tales and Traditions''</ref> which appeared in [[Bohn's Antiquarian Library]]. For the same library he translated in 1854 ''Pauli's Life of Alfred the Great'', with Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of ''[[Orosius]]''. In 1855 appeared Thorpe's ''Anglo-Saxon Poems of [[Beowulf]]'', with parallel prose translation, notes, glossary, and indexes. He had planned this work as early as 1830, and his text was collated with the [[Cottonian MS]] before [[John Mitchell Kemble]]'s; the scorched edges of the manuscript suffered further shortly afterwards.<ref name=DNB/>

In 1861 Thorpe edited for the [[Rolls Series]] of ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, according to the several Authorities''. In the first volume are printed synoptically the Corpus Christi, Cambridge, the Bodleian, and the various Cottonian texts, with facsimiles and notes, while in volume two appeared the translation. Four years later, through the support of [[Joseph Mayer (antiquary)|Joseph Mayer]] of [[Liverpool]], Thorpe was able to publish his supplement to Kemble's ''Codex Diplomaticus ævi Saxonici''.<ref>''Diplomatarium Anglicum Ævi Saxonici: a Collection of English Charters'' (605–1066), containing Miscellaneous Charters, Wills, Guilds, Manumissions, and Aquittances, with a translation of the Anglo-Saxon’ (London).</ref> His final work, done for [[Trübner & Co|Trübner]] in 1866, was a translation of the ''[[Elder Edda]]''.<ref name=DNB/><ref>''Edda Sæmundar Hinns Frôða: the Edda of Sæmund the Learned, from the old Norse or Icelandic'', with a mythological index and an index of persons and places, issued in two parts (London).</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

;Attribution
*{{DNB|wstitle=Thorpe, Benjamin|volume=56|first=Thomas|last=Seccombe}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Thorpe, Benjamin |volume=26 |pages=881–882}}
*{{cite ODNB|first1=Thomas|last1=Seccombe|title=Thorpe, Benjamin (1781/2–1870)|first2= John D. |last2=Haigh|id= 27375}}

==External links==
*{{commonscat-inline}}
*{{wikisource  author-inline}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=39402| name=Benjamin Thorpe}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Benjamin Thorpe}}
* {{Librivox author |id=16891}}
*[https://archive.org/details/analectaanglosax68thor ''Analecta Anglo-Saxonica'' (1868)]
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=1kcAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA98 Brief entry on Thorpe in Notes and Queries, 1898]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorpe, Benjamin}}
[[Category:1782 births]]
[[Category:1870 deaths]]
[[Category:University of Copenhagen alumni]]
[[Category:Anglo-Saxon studies scholars]]
[[Category:Historians of the British Isles]]
[[Category:British textbook writers]]
[[Category:19th-century English historians]]
[[Category:19th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:English translators]]
[[Category:Germanic studies scholars]]
[[Category:Translators from Old English]]
[[Category:Translators from Old Norse]]
[[Category:Writers on Germanic paganism]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London]]
[[Category:Translators of the Poetic Edda]]
[[Category:19th-century English translators]]
[[Category:English male non-fiction writers]]