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The One Ring Forums: Tolkien Topics: Reading Room:
Beowulf tranlation

Voronwë_the_Faithful
Valinor

Mar 19 2014, 12:59pm

Post #1 of 20 (577 views)
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Beowulf tranlation Can't Post

Tolkien's long awaited translation of Beowulf is reportedly going to be published on May 22, edited by Christopher Tolkien.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...-for-first-time.html

'But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world, when at times the clouds about the West were drawn aside.'

The Hall of Fire


Smeagol Bagginsess
Rivendell


Mar 19 2014, 1:19pm

Post #2 of 20 (396 views)
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Here's the official page [In reply to] Can't Post

www.tolkienbeowulf.com

So looking forward to this!


(This post was edited by Smeagol Bagginsess on Mar 19 2014, 1:21pm)


BlackFox
Half-elven


Mar 19 2014, 1:38pm

Post #3 of 20 (362 views)
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Excellent news! // [In reply to] Can't Post

 

"Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere." - Albert Einstein


Otaku-sempai
Immortal


Mar 19 2014, 2:29pm

Post #4 of 20 (382 views)
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Terrific news for Tolkien fans... [In reply to] Can't Post

...for scholars of Old English literature and for anyone interested in early epic fantasy literature.

'There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.' - Gandalf the Grey, The Fellowship of the Ring


Riven Delve
Tol Eressea


Mar 19 2014, 2:58pm

Post #5 of 20 (378 views)
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Wow! [In reply to] Can't Post

I am looking forward to sinking my teeth into this! Cool


“It was not Joy itself but its presence in a biological organism comprised largely of water, nitrogen and carbon that constituted the greatest puzzle. That we dream and wish at all is a powerful element of the case for belief that myths communicate some truth that cannot be communicated any other way.” --Alan Jacobs, The Narnian



squire
Half-elven


Mar 19 2014, 6:02pm

Post #6 of 20 (357 views)
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This should be interesting [In reply to] Can't Post

I wonder if the fact that it was done in the 1920s will date it so much, stylistically, that it will be ignored by teachers of the book in favor of more recent translations?

If not, we can expect a paperback edition to populate college bookstore shelves in the near future, and the Tolkien grandchildren can plan another vacation. But if so, I'm sure it will remain valuable to Anglo-Saxon specialists, and to Tolkien specialists. I know I'll give it a shot, having last tackled Beowulf when Heany's best-selling edition came out.



squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd & 4th TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion and NOW the 1st BotR Discussion too! and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary


= Forum has no new posts. Forum needs no new posts.


Elizabeth
Half-elven


Mar 19 2014, 6:17pm

Post #7 of 20 (353 views)
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I'm guessing it will outsell Heaney, dated or not. [In reply to] Can't Post

Many Tolkien fans will go for it that never heard of Heaney. I liked Heaney very much, and I'm looking forward to this one.








Malveth
Rivendell

Mar 19 2014, 8:00pm

Post #8 of 20 (342 views)
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Oops! [In reply to] Can't Post

I looked but didn't see this post :P
Happens to the best of us!
Here are some links:

http://www.tolkienbeowulf.com/

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/19/jrr-tolkien-beowulf-translation-published

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/jrr-tolkiens-translation-of-beowulf-to-be-published-after-88-years-9203016.html

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/19/j_r_r_tolkiens_translation_of_beowulf_to_be_published/




Elthir
Grey Havens

Mar 19 2014, 11:41pm

Post #9 of 20 (314 views)
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Exciting! [In reply to] Can't Post

Can't wait! Thanks for the great news!


SirDennisC
Half-elven


Mar 20 2014, 2:40am

Post #10 of 20 (322 views)
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I liked Micheal Alexander's [In reply to] Can't Post

modest effort made for Penguin Classics, 1973. Heaney lost me somewhere along the way -- I'm sure the fault is mine.

That aside, this is wonderful news!


Smeagol Bagginsess
Rivendell


Mar 20 2014, 4:15am

Post #11 of 20 (293 views)
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Can I ask why this news isn't on TORN's front page yet?// [In reply to] Can't Post

 


Voronwë_the_Faithful
Valinor

Mar 20 2014, 11:36am

Post #12 of 20 (303 views)
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Maybe because ... [In reply to] Can't Post

.... they don't know what a "tranlation" is. Tongue


More seriously, that is surprising.

'But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world, when at times the clouds about the West were drawn aside.'

The Hall of Fire


Elthir
Grey Havens

Mar 20 2014, 2:30pm

Post #13 of 20 (287 views)
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even... [In reply to] Can't Post

... Feanor didn't mind an s now and again, where they belonged at least Wink

That aid, I actually did not realize the error. But I've aid too much perhap.


malickfan
Gondor


Mar 20 2014, 9:23pm

Post #14 of 20 (263 views)
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It's now availble for preorder on Amazon.co.uk [In reply to] Can't Post

448 pages, in both Hardback and Deluxe Hardback editions's:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/...?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

http://www.amazon.co.uk/...ntary-by-tolkien.php

If it's not in your Appendices, maybe it's in mine?


Elthir
Grey Havens

Mar 20 2014, 10:28pm

Post #15 of 20 (274 views)
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I want a deluxe... [In reply to] Can't Post

... signed by CJRT and clawed by an actual bear.

Well, if that's available obviously. His pet security boars may have to do.


DaughterofLaketown
Gondor


Mar 23 2014, 1:23pm

Post #16 of 20 (216 views)
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All this talk of Beowulf [In reply to] Can't Post

Reminds me fondly of a comment made by one of Tolkien's students where they remarked that hearing him read Beowulf aloud was one of the best experiences of their life. Heart


(This post was edited by DaughterofLaketown on Mar 23 2014, 1:24pm)


EomundDaughter
Lorien

Mar 23 2014, 8:07pm

Post #17 of 20 (203 views)
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Since Tolkien [In reply to] Can't Post

was a teaching professor all his life, why has no one had this translation before today?....guess all of his students are long gone and cant comment..


Hamfast Gamgee
Tol Eressea

Mar 24 2014, 12:02am

Post #18 of 20 (197 views)
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I thought Beowulf had already been translated [In reply to] Can't Post

At the risk of heresy, what is different about this version?


squire
Half-elven


Mar 24 2014, 12:38am

Post #19 of 20 (206 views)
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"Gewat ða neosian, syþðan niht becom", - is that "Went he forth to find at fall of night" or "So, after nightfall, Grendel set out" [In reply to] Can't Post

It's a good question: aren't there "too many" translations out already?


With translations, it really comes down to your literary taste. A translator has innumerable choices to make when writing something in English that wasn't written in English in the first place (or Modern English in this case). How his choices sound to you, and how much his sentences make sense to you, can make his translation your favorite, or one you'd go out of your way to avoid.


I expect the Tolkien translation will be somewhat dated in its diction, but will convey by its word-choices and meter that the translator really loves and understands the spirit of the original writer: Tolkien's major contribution to Beowulf studies was his perception that it is a work of literary art by a poet, not just a dusty manuscript full of evidence about the Anglo-Saxon language and culture of its time.


Here's a fun compare-and-contrast exercise that I found; I hope it will make clearer how there can be more than one Beowulf translation, and how there is always room for one more.

From ‘The monster and its interpreters’ on the site
Editor Eric’s Greatest Literature of All Time

Translations of Beowulf
A passage from Beowulf in the original Old English and in four modern English translations.

Old English original (c. 700-1000):
Gewat ða neosian, syþðan niht becom,
hean huses, hu hit Hring-Dene
æfter beorþege gebun hæfdon.
Fand þa ðær inne æþelinga gedriht
swefan æfter symble; sorge ne cuðon,
wonsceaft wera. Wiht unhælo,
grim ond grædig, gearo sona wæs,
reoc ond reþe, ond on ræste genam
þritig þegna; þanon eft gewat
huðe hremig to ham faran,
mid þære wælfylle wica neosan.

Gummere (1910):
Went he forth to find at fall of night
that haughty house, and heed wherever
the Ring-Danes, outrevelled, to rest had gone.
Found within it the atheling band
asleep after feasting and fearless of sorrow,
of human hardship. Unhallowed wight,
grim and greedy, he grasped betimes,
wrathful, reckless, from resting-places,
thirty of the thanes, and thence he rushed
fain of his fell spoil, faring homeward,
laden with slaughter, his lair to seek.

Alexander (1973):
With the coming of night came Grendel also,
sought the great house and how the Ring-Danes
held their hall when the horn had gone round.
He found in Heorot the force of nobles
slept after supper, sorrow forgotten,
the condition of men. Maddening with rage,
he struck quickly, creature of evil:
grim and greedy, he grasped on their pallets
thirty warriors, and away he was out of there,
thrilled with his catch: he carried off homeward
his glut of slaughter, sought his own halls.

Rebsamen (1991):
Then Grendel prowled, palled in darkness,
the sleep-warm hall to see how the Ring-Danes
after beer and feasting bedded down for rest.
He found inside slumbering warriors
unready for murder. Bereft of remorse
from love exiled lost and graceless
he growled with envy glared above them
towering with rage. From their rest he snared
thirty hall-thanes loped howling away
gloating with corpses galloping the moors
back to his cavern for a cold banquet.

Heaney (1999):
So, after nightfall, Grendel set out
for the lofty house, to see how the Ring-Danes
were settling into it after their drink,
and there he came upon them, a company of the best
asleep from their feasting, insensible to pain
and human sorrow. Suddenly then
the God-cursed brute was creating havoc:
greedy and grim, he grabbed thirty men
from their resting places and rushed to his lair,
flushed up and inflamed from the raid,
blundering back with the butchered corpses.

At this point, I can’t resist a plug for my favorite translation (perhaps rendering is a better word), “Beowulf Eats Napalm and Sh*ts Asses, Which He Kicks”. Here is the relevant passage that we’ve been studying above:


‘Ovid’ (2010)
see at the start of this story
basically what Grendel is doing
is every night
when Hrothgar settles down to have himself a sweet party
in his meadhall
Grendel comes charging out of the swamp
humps the door down
and proceeds to play cockhockey with the internal organs
of all the people who are trying to get their booze on
he does this FOR TWELVE YEARS
there are several shocking things about this
one is that these are twelve years of solid murder we are talking about
but more importantly
where do they keep getting dudes
to come to these parties
after say
the first SIX YEARS of unstoppable death
you would think word would get around
like hey
party at Hrothgar’s crib tonight
are you coming
nah man I hear THERE IS A MONSTER THERE WHO MURDERS EVERYONE
but perhaps most bizarre
is the fact that Hrothgar CONTINUES to party throughout these 12 years
this is clearly a man who is committed to partying
i mean think about it
TWELVE YEARS
that’s twice as long as WORLD WAR TWO
and yet every night
Hrothgar mops the blood off his floor
invites all the friends who survived the last massacre
and does that sh*t all over again
AND HE NEVER RUNS OUT OF MEAD



squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd & 4th TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion and NOW the 1st BotR Discussion too! and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary


= Forum has no new posts. Forum needs no new posts.


Elizabeth
Half-elven


Mar 24 2014, 5:38am

Post #20 of 20 (208 views)
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Brilliant. // [In reply to] Can't Post

 







 
 

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