1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

Tolkein Translates Beowulf

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by Vengeance, Dec 30, 2002.

  1. Vengeance

    Vengeance Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2000
    Messages:
    5,894
    Likes Received:
    23
    As <B>Beowulf</b> is my favorite book (I like the "Kennedy" Translation myself), I'm intrigued to see this -- will DEFINITELY be on my "must buy" list this upcoming year . . .

    <blockquote>
    <a href="http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,5764569%255E13780,00.html">New Tolkien book discovered</a>
    December 30, 2002

    A YELLOWING manuscript by J.R.R.Tolkien discovered in an Oxford library could become one of the publishing sensations of 2003.

    The 2000 handwritten pages include Tolkien's translation and appraisal of Beowulf, the epic 8th century Anglo-Saxon poem of bravery, friendship and monster-slaying that is thought to have inspired The Lord of the Rings.

    He borrowed from early English verse to concoct the imaginary language spoken by Arwen, played by Liv Tyler, and other elves in the second film made from the Rings books, The Two Towers.

    A US academic, Michael Drout, found the Tolkien material by accident in a box of papers at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

    An assistant professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, Dr Drout was researching Anglo- Saxon scholarship at the Bodleian, and asked to see a copy of a lecture on Beowulf given by Tolkien in 1936.

    It was brought to him in a reading room in a large box. Professor Drout, who reads Anglo-Saxon prose to his two-year-old daughter at bedtime, said: "I was sitting there going through the transcripts when I saw these four bound volumes at the bottom of the box.

    "I started looking through, and realised I had found an entire book of material that had never seen the light of day. As I turned the page, there was Tolkien's fingerprint in a smudge of ink."

    After obtaining permission from the Tolkien estate, Professor Drout published Beowulf and the Critics, a version of Tolkien's 1936 lecture, in the US earlier this month.

    Even more exciting will be Tolkien's translation of the poem and his line-by-line interpretation of its meaning, which will be published next summer.

    Tolkien's name on the cover is likely to make the translation a bestseller.

    Professor Drout says Tolkien found inspiration for many of his storylines and characters in Beowulf. The Anglo-Saxon hero's friendship with Wiglaf is mirrored in the relationship between Frodo and Sam in The Lord of the Rings.

    Elves, orcs and ents, the latter a type of giant that becomes a walking and talking tree in Tolkien's work, are all mentioned in Beowulf.

    Merlin Unwin, son of Tolkien's original publisher, said: "Beowulf is a wonderful story, and if you put Tolkien's name to it, it would probably be a great commercial success."

    The Australian</blockquote>
     
  2. RIET

    RIET Member

    Joined:
    May 20, 2002
    Messages:
    4,916
    Likes Received:
    1
    I remember reading Beowulf in the 11th grade. Great book.


    By the way, Im assuming you'll be changing your signature soon.
     
  3. Vengeance

    Vengeance Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2000
    Messages:
    5,894
    Likes Received:
    23
    How come? It's a mildly humorous play on the word "spelling". I misspelled it in my sig last time we did this too. IMO signatures should be out of consideration for the spelling thread. But someone may have addressed it, as I haven't read the whole spelling thread . . .
     
  4. Kam

    Kam Member

    Joined:
    Jan 16, 2002
    Messages:
    30,476
    Likes Received:
    1,322
    I read beowulf in 12th grade. I hated it as much as macbeth.

    the only shakespearean crap i liked was lil romeo, and lil juliet, and julius caesar.
     
  5. don grahamleone

    Joined:
    Aug 11, 2001
    Messages:
    23,750
    Likes Received:
    35,393
    Kam Kam Kam Kam Kam I love the Sig Kam Kam Kam I don't know why Kam Kam Kam Kam Kam Kam Kam who cares Kam Kam Kam
     
  6. MacBeth

    MacBeth Member

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2002
    Messages:
    7,761
    Likes Received:
    2
    Why the shot!?!?!:(





















    ;)
     
  7. No Worries

    No Worries Member

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 1999
    Messages:
    32,889
    Likes Received:
    20,669
    I thought Beowulf was a Norse myth. The 13th Warrior (based on the Michael Crichton's novel Eaters Of The Dead) tied Beowulf to the Norse. Maybe the Anlo-Saxons shared mythology with the Norse???
     

Share This Page