I cannot add anything to the wonderful discussion about Beowulf and translation, though I am eagerly awaiting the publication of Tolkien's version. I finally got the chance to read "On Fairy Stories" start to finish today, however, instead of in the snippets I usually get. I was very struck by the poetic response Tolkien gives to man calling fairy tales and stories lies:
Quote:
'Dear Sir'...Although now long estranged,
Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
Dis-graced he may be, yet is not de-throned,
and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned:
Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build
Gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sowed the seeds of dragons - 'twas our right
(used or misused). That right has not decayed:
we make still by the law in which we're made.
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To me, this is justification for and a call to create the stories that speak to us. The real lie is to deny that our minds and hearts are moved by fantasy and creativity.
[ May 13, 2003: Message edited by: The X Phial ]