Tolkien's Beowulf to be published!

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

The cashing in accusation is really quite ludicrous. Had he wanted to cash in it would have been infintessimally easier to sign a few licensing agreements rather than forty years with boxfuls of chaotic manuscripts - not to mention more lucrative.

Indeed, and people who make these accusations also seem to fail to recognise that there are those of us who are actually interested in reading this material. Ought it to never see the light of day?

This publication is actually extremely timely for me, as a chapter of my PhD thesis, which I am to complete this year, looks at certain ideas present in Old English texts which I argue are reflected in Professor Tolkien's work. I realise that the connections between the Anglo-Saxon world and Middle-earth have been examined before, but I am actually dealing with very specific notions of an as yet unexplored nature that I'd rather avoid discussing anonymously online. Being able to reinforce my work on Beowulf with Professor Tolkien's own translation will be extremely useful.

[IxnaY AintsaY]

Any reactions yet from yall? I haven't yet read it, myself.

Warning: SPOILERS!

Joan Acocella's review in The New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critic...urrentPage=all

Katy Waldman in Slate.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/b...eviewed.2.html

[Aiwendil]

I picked it up yesterday but so far have only read Christopher Tolkien's preface. I'm quite excited about it, though. It's a thicker volume than I was expecting, which is of course very nice. My only disappointment is the already mentioned fact that the unfinished verse translation is not included - why, I wonder, was it not?

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

I picked it up yesterday but so far have only read Christopher Tolkien's preface. I'm quite excited about it, though. It's a thicker volume than I was expecting, which is of course very nice. My only disappointment is the already mentioned fact that the unfinished verse translation is not included - why, I wonder, was it not?

I am thinking CT considered the verse version so incomplete as to be unworthy of his father's legacy, and would leave him open to unjustified criticism that the son was "cashing in" on his father, and simply throwing out anything for publication.

In any case, I am looking forward to getting my copy any day now, Amazon willing.

[Zigûr]

Picked up my copy today. Enjoying it so far. I've never been a particularly huge Beowulf enthusiast I must admit, so Professor Tolkien's particular choices of translation are quite engaging.

[Belegorn]

I've not read my Seamus Heaney translation in a bit, but I do love to read about heroes. The chainmail cover is cool.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

The translation is enjoyable but perhaps a bit "dry;" this is clearly Tolkien the scholar at work, with accuracy of rendering taking precedence over "poetry." But that isn't to say it doesn't have its own compelling, sharp-angled impact. In particular, unlike Heaney's modern, almost conversational rendering (verse-form notwithstanding), Tolkien by design or as a byproduct of literalism has "forcibly removed the reader from his comfort zone," as one reviewer said of another JRRT work, and made us view this world from an A-S perspective. I'm reminded a bit of T's letter to Hugh Brogan on the semi-archaic language in "The King of the Golden Hall" and his assertion that people who talk like moderns also think like moderns; to express Theoden's way of thinking he has to speak as he does.

But the real prize here may not be the translation itself, but the voluminous excerpts from T's lextures inclded as the "commentary"- proof not only of Tolkien's nimble brain and vast learning, but a reminder that he was the world's leading Beowulf expert in his day. A master at the height of his powers.