Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary

The name Beowulf refers to more than one character, item or concept. For a list of other meanings, see Beowulf (disambiguation).

Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell
Author	J.R.R. Tolkien
Editor	Christopher Tolkien
Publisher	HarperCollins (UK) Houghton Mifflin (US)
Released	22 May 2014
Format	Hardcover; paperback; deluxe edition
Pages	448
ISBN	0007590067

Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell is a prose translation of the early medieval epic poem Beowulf from Old English to modern English. Translated by J.R.R. Tolkien from 1920 to 1926, it was edited by Christopher Tolkien and published in 2014.

The translation is followed by a commentary on the poem that became the base for Tolkien's acclaimed 1936 lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics". Furthermore, the book also includes Tolkien's previously unpublished short story "Sellic Spell" and two versions of the poem "The Lay of Beowulf".

Contents

• Preface
• Introduction to the Translation

• Beowulf
• Notes on the text of the Translation
• Introductory note to the Commentary
• Commentary

• Sellic Spell
• The Lay of Beowulf

From the publisher

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.

Background

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.

According to Colin Duriez, Tolkien "certainly showed his friend the first of two prose translations of Beowulf he made in the late 1920s or early 1930s, as the typescript contains amendments in what is more than probably Lewis's handwriting.This indicates that Lewis read and commented on the translation. Tolkien incorporated the emendations into his final version".

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.

Tolkien considered its publication

In a discussion at facebook Nelson Goering noted that the original press release for the Beowulf translation quotes Christopher Tolkien as saying that his father seems never to have considered its publication. But Scull & Hammond's entry on Beowulf seems to suggest that he did actually make slight moves in that direction:

On 25 October 1932 he suggested to R.W. Chapman that his prose translation of Beowulf might be published by Oxford University Press... but that it should be preceded by introductory matter on the diction of Old English verse, its metre, and so forth, and include notes concerning particularly difficult problems in the text. Later George Allen & Unwin, publishers of The Hobbit and other works by Tolkien, expressed an interest in the translation, but it was never brought to the point of submission.'

And Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond replied:

If the press release, and the dust-jacket text where the statement 'never to have considered its publication' is also found, was written by Christopher, then one would have to say he nodded; for he keeps our Companion and Guide at hand, and referred to it at least in regard to his father sending a specimen of Beowulf translated to Kenneth Sisam in 1926 (he asked us to clarify the dating). Tolkien's letter to Chapman (from the Oxford University Press Archives) is mentioned in both volumes of the Companion and Guide.

Possible mistake

Rocke or Recke

In a discussion group at Facebook, Renée Vink noted a possible error in Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary and asked:

Did Tolkien actually make a spelling error in the commentary on p. 292 of Beowulf, did Christopher Tolkien misread his father's handwriting here, or is "Rocke" really an existing variant of the old German word "Recke", warrior?

Carl F. Hostetter forwarded the question to Christopher Tolkien himself, who replied:

Rocke is a mere mistake for Recke which got into the typescript of the book at some stage and was never subsequently noticed. The typesetting of this book was a long nightmare (computer to computer), and it may well be that there are other errors of this sort — indeed there certainly are a number of errors, but almost none of those so far identified are significant: the only other one (so far as I know) that is really troublesome, beside Rocke, is on p.273, line 8, where till should be still!

Publication history and gallery

2014 hardcover   2014 hardcover deluxe edition   2016 paperback

• HarperCollins hardcover (May 2014), pp. 448. ISBN 0007590067
• HarperCollins hardcover with slipcase (May 2014), ISBN 0007590075
• HarperCollins paperback (2016), ISBN 0007590091

Reviews

• Michael D.C. Drout, Review of the book, Tolkien Studies. 12
• "J R R Tolkien's Beowulf: one man's passion for the threshold between myth and reality" by John Garth
• Waving His Wand at ‘Beowulf’ at The New York Times
• Shivering in Tolkien’s shadow at Prospect
• Beowulf translation commentary jrr tolkien review at The Guardian
• J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beowulf translation finally arrives at slate.com
• Beowulf, translated by JRR Tolkien, review at Telegraph
• J.R.R. Tolkien's Beowulf Translation by Michael Drout
• J.R.R. Tolkien: waving his wand at Beowulf at Sidney Morning Herald
• Tolkien and Beowulf by Jerry Salyer at catholicworldreport

See also

• Beowulf and the Critics (a 2002 book by Michael D.C. Drout)
• Beowulf Launch Party