|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BlackFox
Half-elven
Mar 19 2014, 1:38pm
Post #3 of 20
(362 views)
Shortcut
|
"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)
Shortcut
|
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)
Shortcut
|
I am looking forward to sinking my teeth into this!
“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)
Shortcut
|
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)
Shortcut
|
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)
Shortcut
|
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)
Shortcut
|
Can't wait! Thanks for the great news!
|
|
|
SirDennisC
Half-elven
Mar 20 2014, 2:40am
Post #10 of 20
(322 views)
Shortcut
|
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!
|
|
|
Voronwë_the_Faithful
Valinor
Mar 20 2014, 11:36am
Post #12 of 20
(303 views)
Shortcut
|
.... they don't know what a "tranlation" is. 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)
Shortcut
|
... Feanor didn't mind an s now and again, where they belonged at least That aid, I actually did not realize the error. But I've aid too much perhap.
|
|
|
Elthir
Grey Havens
Mar 20 2014, 10:28pm
Post #15 of 20
(274 views)
Shortcut
|
... 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)
Shortcut
|
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.
(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)
Shortcut
|
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)
Shortcut
|
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)
Shortcut
|
"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.
|
|
|
|
|