Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary: Difference between revisions
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'''''Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell''''' is a forthcoming book which will publish [[J.R.R. Tolkien|Tolkien]]'s [[1926]] translation of ''[[Beowulf]]'' for the first time. In addition to Tolkien's commentary on the ancient poem, it will also feature ''[[Sellic Spell|Sellic spell]]'', a story by Tolkien written in the form and mode of ''Beowulf''.<ref>{{webcite|author=[[HarperCollins]]|articleurl=http://www.tolkienbeowulf.com/|articlename=Press Release|dated=19-March-2014|website=[http://www.tolkienbeowulf.com/ J.R.R. Tolkien's Beowulf]|accessed=19-March-2014}}</ref> | '''''Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell''''' is a forthcoming book which will publish [[J.R.R. Tolkien|Tolkien]]'s [[1926]] translation of ''[[Beowulf (poem)|Beowulf]]'' for the first time. In addition to Tolkien's commentary on the ancient poem, it will also feature ''[[Sellic Spell|Sellic spell]]'', a story by Tolkien written in the form and mode of ''Beowulf''.<ref>{{webcite|author=[[HarperCollins]]|articleurl=http://www.tolkienbeowulf.com/|articlename=Press Release|dated=19-March-2014|website=[http://www.tolkienbeowulf.com/ J.R.R. Tolkien's Beowulf]|accessed=19-March-2014}}</ref> | ||
==History== | ==History== | ||
Revision as of 23:21, 30 March 2014
| Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell | |
|---|---|
| File:Beowulf - A Translation and Commentary.jpg | |
| Author | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Editor | Christopher Tolkien |
| Publisher | HarperCollins (UK) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (US) |
| Released | 22 May 2014 |
| Format | Hardback |
| Pages | 448 |
| ISBN | 0007590075 |
Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell is a forthcoming book which will publish Tolkien's 1926 translation of Beowulf for the first time. In addition to Tolkien's commentary on the ancient poem, it will also feature Sellic spell, a story by Tolkien written in the form and mode of Beowulf.[1]
History
Tolkien worked on two translations of Beowulf, one in alliterative verse, another in prose. While the former was left unfinished, the latter was completed in April 1926.[2]
Tolkien already remarked on his translation of Beowulf in 1940 in his "Prefatory Remarks on Prose Translation of 'Beowulf'", published in Beowulf and the Finnsburg Fragment. Two passages (one verse and one prose) from the translations appeared in J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator. In the mid-2000s, Michael D.C. Drout worked on an edition of Tolkien's translation of Beowulf, but the Tolkien Estate withdrew permission for the project.[3]
Official description
The translation of Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien was an early work, very distinctive in its mode, completed in 1926: he returned to it later to make hasty corrections, but seems never to have considered its publication. This edition is twofold, for there exists an illuminating commentary on the text of the poem by the translator himself, in the written form of a series of lectures given at Oxford in the 1930s; and from these lectures a substantial selection has been made, to form also a commentary on the translation in this book.
From his creative attention to detail in these lectures there arises a sense of the immediacy and clarity of his vision. It is as if he entered into the imagined past: standing beside Beowulf and his men shaking out their mail-shirts as they beached their ship on the coast of Denmark, listening to the rising anger of Beowulf at the taunting of Unferth, or looking up in amazement at Grendel’s terrible hand set under the roof of Heorot.
But the commentary in this book includes also much from those lectures in which, while always anchored in the text, he expressed his wider perceptions. He looks closely at the dragon that would slay Beowulf “snuffling in baffled rage and injured greed when he discovers the theft of the cup”; but he rebuts the notion that this is “a mere treasure story”, “just another dragon tale”. He turns to the lines that tell of the burying of the golden things long ago, and observes that it is “the feeling for the treasure itself, this sad history” that raises it to another level. “The whole thing is sombre, tragic, sinister, curiously real. The ‘treasure’ is not just some lucky wealth that will enable the finder to have a good time, or marry the princess. It is laden with history, leading back into the dark heathen ages beyond the memory of song, but not beyond the reach of imagination.”
Sellic spell, a “marvellous tale”, is a story written by Tolkien suggesting what might have been the form and style of an Old English folk-tale of Beowulf, in which there was no association with the “historical legends” of the Northern kingdoms.
External links
- HarperCollins' Tolkien's Beowulf website
- JRR Tolkien's translation of Beowulf: bring on the monsters
- JRR Tolkien's Beowulf translation to be published
References
- ↑ HarperCollins, "Press Release" dated 19 March 2014, J.R.R. Tolkien's Beowulf (accessed 19 March 2014)
- ↑ Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond (2006), The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: II. Reader's Guide, pp. 84-85
- ↑ Michael D.C. Drout, "Tolkien's Beowulf: The Real Story" dated 27 March 2014, Wormtalk.blogspot.com (accessed 28 March 2014)
