SirDennisC
Gondolin
May 19 2014, 4:28pm
Views: 2381
|
|
"J.R.R. Tolkien’s Translation of ‘Beowulf’ Is Published"
|
|
|
Just a reminder, Tolkien's Beowulf releases later this week, May 22, 2014 'to be precise.'
In the meantime here's a good read from the New York Times: Waving His Wand at ‘Beowulf’
“Beowulf” was an early love, and a kind of Rosetta Stone to his creative work. His study of the poem, which he called “this greatest of the surviving works of ancient English poetic art,” informed his thinking about myth and language.
But Tolkien was skeptical of converting this Old English poem into modern English. In a 1940 essay, “On Translating Beowulf,” he wrote that turning “Beowulf” into “plain prose” could be an “abuse.”
But he did it anyway...
...ah the impetuousness of youth!
(This post was edited by SirDennisC on May 19 2014, 4:29pm)
|
