Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary

The translation by Tolkien is excellent, but 75% of this 400 page book is commentary, which, if you love commentary, I guess is OK.
That's a lot of commentary, though. I would look at this book at your local library before adding it to your collection.

In addition to creating the first fantasy epic, inventing a complete and insanely, thoroughly detailed world, and even making up its own language and alphabet, as well as teaching for decades, the great J. R. R. Tolkien also wrote a translation to the famous epic Old English poem “Beowulf.” Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien, reveals this translation in its entirety for the first time, and so much more.

Tolkien completed his first translation of “Beowulf” in 1926, but he was by no means done with the poem. Over the ensuing years and decades he continued to make changes and updates and lectured greatly on the epic alliterative poem. Christopher Tolkien presents this ideal translation from Tolkien, and then includes his father’s vast commentary painstakingly collected and organized. The book features notes on how Tolkien translated specific words and stanzas with plenty of additional notes. Included are also lectures and lecture notes Tolkien gave on the epic poem. Finally, the great author even penned his own poem (in both modern and Old English) that acts as a precursor to “Beowulf” as a sort of fairytale written in the same style, but not within the history.

Compared to Seamus Heaney’s very well known and popular translation of the same poem, Tolkien goes for a much more literal adaptation, where some of the moving alliteration is perhaps lost, but the true sense of the poem and the meaning the author or authors were intending is possibly better comprehended. With the description and vocabulary, Tolkien does a great job of making the reader feel as if they are there at Heorot with Beowulf and Hrothgar and the comitatus. He uses an older language of “doths” and “thines” because of the time he is writing in, but also to give a sense of age to the poem, which can be a helping or a hindrance for the reader. Nevertheless, Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf is a very welcome one that will be enjoyed by many and likely taught and studied in future medieval and Old English classes to come.

Originally written on November 18, 2014 ©Alex C. Telander.

For more reviews, check out the BookBanter site: http://www.bookbanter.net.

As the posthumous publication of everything publishable by JRRT continues, we come to what - in another world - would have cemented or destroyed his professional reputation had it been published by him, within his lifetime. He was reputed to be "the" Beowulf scholar of his generation, but never published an "edition" (though he wrote ancillary matter for others').

This is not an "edition." It is a prose translation, with commentary, and, well, ancillary matter. Even so, it is likely to have some (perhaps significant) effect on Tolkien's (posthumous) professional reputation. At that level, I am unqualified to judge it.

As a reader...

I found the translation quite readable. It maintains a great deal of the syntax and poetic effects of the original (so far as I can tell), but avoids unnecessary use of obscure words, seeking the plain modern-English sense of the poetry.

The commentary is humongous, several times the size of the translation. It concentrates primarily on two things: (1) how certain words or passages should be construed, and (2) how to understand the poem in context of the culture in which it was written. Both present serious problems, and Tolkien's thought processes as he unravels them are occasionally fascinating. But it got to be a bit of a glut for me after a hundred-fifty pages or so, and I admit to occasional skimming after that.

The "ancillary matter" I referred to is several other tellings of parts of the Beowulf tale by JRRT. The first, "Sellic Spell," is a telling of the first part of Beowulf as it might be a fairy-story, and is quite amusing. The second consists of two versions of a "Lay" of Beowulf, which are good enough but not Tolkien's best poetry.

As with most of the posthumous Tolkien, this is decidedly not for everyone. But I enjoyed it, by and large.

Current popular fantasist Terry Pratchett once said that "Most modern fantasy just rearranges the furniture in Tolkien's attic." These days, there are more and more arguments, for and against, about the idea of J.R.R. Tolkien as the Father of Fantasy. One thing that cannot be denied is that Tolkien left an indelible stamp on the still underrepresented and developed genre of fantasy, inspiring a great many authors to pick up their pens because of the work he provided, often using THE HOBBIT or THE LORD OF THE RINGS as blueprints.

Just as authors have looked back through the years to Tolkien, so too did the linguist and professor himself look back to those who came before him for inspiration. From the Kalevala to the Völsunga saga and the Nibelungenlied, from the Elder Edda to William Shakespeare's Macbeth and the varied mythologies of Europe, Tolkien drew from their pools to craft his legend.

And in that attic, secluded in a corner but protected and watched over with great care, is a chest of treasure. Creaking open those hinges and looking inside, those who take a peek will find the great legend of Beowulf, an Old English epic poem often cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.

Tolkien translated BEOWULF and set it aside in 1926. He was only 34 years old, and he found the work to be mostly unacceptable. Over the years, as his scholarship of the poem and his thoughts on the content of the work evolved, he would make his way back to his chest and revise the volume. He also engaged in more scholarly pursuits with regards to BEOWULF, with his 1936 lecture Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics becoming a cornerstone of BEOWULF scholarship. It was in this lecture that Tolkien argued for the understanding of the poem as poetry, as a work of art, and not as a historical document.

Tolkien's own translation is a wonder. As a master of language, he worked to diligently undertake as literal a translation as possible, and he opted for a prose presentation rather than verse. Given over to his style, Tolkien's BEOWULF has beautifully rendered passages, but in some places, his insistence on accurate translation results in awkward phrasing. It can hardly be doubted that it was some of this leaden text that he was displeased with and thus why he had never intended for his BEOWULF to see the light of day in publication. On the whole, however, the beauty far surpasses the bleak. His take on the legend of the Geat warrior is sublime, and, more than a mere poetic retelling, it is an elegy.

BEOWULF takes up a mere 100 pages of this book. Filling out the rest of the bulk of the work, Tolkien's son, Christopher, has included some of his father's scholarship and commentary on the poem. This is extraordinary work, particularly if you have any interest at all in Beowulf and a study of all that can be found and debated about in this legendary poem. Note, however, that if you cringe at the notion of a scholarly insight, rest assured that Tolkien's walk through the ins and outs of BEOWULF could, in some ways, surpass the translation itself. The author's intimacy with the source material is extremely evident, and his love and understanding of the poem come alive on the pages. It is truly glorious to read.

More gems still remain, including The Lay of Beowulf, which are two ballads Tolkien wrote and used to sing to Christopher when he was a lad. And also included is Sellic Spell. Originally penned by Tolkien around 1940, it was his attempt to devise an origin story for the great dragon and of Grendel and his mother --- his imagined tale of what may have once been the story before BEOWULF. It is a charming and interesting fairy tale.

J.R.R. Tolkien seems never to have intended for BEOWULF, as he translated it, to see the light of day. Christopher made the decision to publish this work, as well as the accompanying commentaries and side pieces, not as a means by which people could compare his father's translation to that of others (everyone has been keen to compare Tolkien to the award-winning Seamus Heaney). Rather, he wanted the world to see the work that his father so loved, and he desired to present it as a memoriam to the author in his time --- a snapshot of a young professor and writer whose passion for BEOWULF compelled him to work, and that fed and inspired some of the greatest fantasy the world has ever known.

Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard.

Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary by Christopher Tolkien is one of many books to surface after the demise of J.R.R. Tolkien. There are those that say Christopher is taking advantage of J.R.R.’s archives. I say it is great to share in what would have been a great loss to us all.

The story is Well known and retold through many writings and movies. Now, short of reading in Old English, we have a translation by someone that may know more about Beowulf than we could gain in a lifetime.

The story is laid out in numbered stanzas and a commentary helps fill in what would have been overlooked. However, if you over look this and just read through you will find an extraordinary, intriguing story.

Then you may want to read a more complete version of "Beowulf: A Dual-Language Edition"

During the last years, the Tolkien Estate has released several hybrid books which combine original retellings and translations of ancient hero legends with further commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien on the source material, and Christopher Tolkien on his father’s work. Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf is the latest book in this series, and it has incurred greater interest since outside of his fiction Tolkien is best known for his essay “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics”. The enjoyment one can derive from this title, though, relates directly to one’s tolerance for arcane scholarship. I will also add that the book itself is truly beautiful (though my final opinion of it isn’t based on how it looks physically). The cover design is amazing, and its touch is just as good.

The book contains an introduction by Christopher Tolkien, Tolkien’s prose translation of Beowulf, “Notes on the text of the translation” (both of Tolkien and his son), “Introductory note to the Commentary” (Christopher’s explanation of his editing of his father’s comments), “Commentary Accompanying the Translation of Beowulf” (drawn from Tolkien’s lecture notes), “Sellic Spell” (three versions of Tolkien’s attempt at telling the old source folktale for the legend as we have it), and “The Lay of Beowulf” (two short poems by Tolkien). It should be perhaps noted, as Christopher Tolkien mentions in the preface of the book, that the book isn’t a final work (as it isn’t completely finished) and is instead meant as a ‘portrait’ of the author, both of Beowulf and Middle-Earth. As such it isn’t truly meant to compare with other modern translations, such as that of Heaney.

The first thing that shocked me was the great detail and care put into the book. It is clear that the book wasn’t constructed as a critical essay of his views (as was put in the preface by Christopher Tolkien), but a portrait. All of it, from start to finish, is constructed with great detail and care, truly benefitting the book.

The translation is in prose form, with an ear to how long sentences are and to alliteration, and not a poetic one (although a brief poetic translation Tolkien did is offered in the volume). The poem’s style is very well kept, though at times it can get bogged down. In this sense, it is better than a lot of translations, but also worse than some others. It shines in battle scenes and in the sadder, bleaker moments where the poem looks back to a better time or looks ahead to a worse one. One can almost hear echoes in this of the same sort as those passages of mourning for ages past in Lord of the Rings, when reminiscing about events of the first age. It is a biting sense of loss that comes across clearly in Tolkien’s Beowulf, and one of my favourite aspects of it.

The commentary of the book is perhaps even better, though this depends more on how much the reader is interested in the etymology of particular words, and so on. In this section, it delves into a broader-scale analysis on theme or possible sources. Though my limited knowledge of old English and linguistics (aside from latin, and even then) prevented me from fully enjoying this area, it was still fascinating to read Tolkien’s take on this. It was part of the reason why I decided to purchase and read the book, knowing the author’s interest in the poem.

‘Sellic Spell’ is interesting, though short. As Tolkien wrote, “This version is a story, not the story”. It has common folk-tale tropes, and stands well in this genre. It was enjoyable, as was ‘The Lay of Beowulf’. This latter one is under ten pages, and has a nice rhythm and force to it. Christopher’s recollection of his father singing them as bedtime songs made me chuckle, too. All in all I also deeply enjoyed reading this part of the book too, if only for the author’s take on it.

Tolkien’s Beowulf is beautifully complex, and the commentary is amazing. My only real complaint was that ‘The Monsters and the Critics’ wasn’t included, but then this isn’t really a flaw with the book itself. The poetic-prose translation and its related notes were deeply interesting, as was ‘Sellic Spell’, and ‘The Law of Beowulf’. I give it the highest rating, and thoroughly recommend it to Beowulf fans, whether scholarly or casual; Tolkien completists; and casual fans of Tolkien’s fiction, as it is deeply interesting to see the author’s take on Beowulf and the scholarly notes can be chosen to be read or not read. Whether you like or dislike the translation, it is undoubtable that it this book is at least worth to purchase and read. You will not regret to do so.

Not what I'd hoped for. Tokien is THE modern authority on Beowulf. As a lifelong fan I was really looking forward to this one, and also because I loved the "Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun" - Tolkien's modern English, fused translation/composition of the Atlamal, the Atlakvitha and the Gudrunarkvitha. I found this prose translation of Beowulf to be uncharacteristically dense, cumbersome and inelegant. For the record my favorite translation is the 1973 work of Michael Alexander. Sellic Spell was more enjoyable.It was full of Prof.Tolkien's signature personality -his dry wit and bottomless knowledge of the modes of story telling of northern antiquity. The commentary of Christopher Tolkien taken from his fathers lecture notes, and a lifetime of intimate knowledge of the subject, was as usual worth reading.

"Men-at-arms, remain here on the barrow, safe in your armor, to see which one of us is better in the end at bearing wounds in a deadly fray. This fight is not yours, nor is it up to any man except me to measure his strength against the monster or to prove his worth. I shall win the gold by my courage, or else mortal kombat, doom of battle, will bear your lord away"

PROs:

* Good story

* Likeable characters

* Perfect length

* Amazing language

* Influential

CONs:

* Names of all the tribes and people can get confusing

* Insertion of monotheistic religion into a polytheistic culture takes away immersion

"There was singing and excitement: an old reciter, a carrier of stories, recalled the early days. At times some hero made the timbered harp tremble with sweetness, or related true and tragic happenings; at times the king gave the proper turn to some fantastic tale; or a battle-scarred veteran, bowed with age, would begin to remember the martial deeds of his youth and prime and be overcome as the past welled up in his wintry heart."

Beowulf is a great Epic Poem, the first of the English language (Anglo Saxon, to be exact). It is a quintessential quest: we have a hero who sets off to a foreign land on a journey to battle supernatural foes. On his way he faces difficulty and strife, but is able to overcome and achieve everlasting glory.

The translation of Beowulf is very important; I personally read 3 different translations. I started with an older translation, struggled to understand it, moved on to a more contemporary one, and my experience was improved. About half way through the second translation, I started the relatively new Seamus Heaney translation, and Beowulf become one of my favorite works of literature ever. I am now unable to read the other two translations that I started with after reading Heaney's.

That is one of the things that makes Beowulf so great - the language. It is so over the top and unique; I can't help but to be drawn to it. I will provide one simple example out of numerous possibilities. Instead of simply saying "morning came", Beowulf reads: "The hall towered, gold-shingled and gabled, and the guest slept in it until the black raven with raucous glee announced heaven's joy, and a hurry of brightness overran the shadows."

I can't help but to be captivated by such language, and it is found all throughout Beowulf. The imagery is so realistic and detailed that it paints a thorough picture in my head of what it would be like to live in around 7th century Scandinavia, complete with lute players, mead halls, and wintery landscapes.

Beowulf is set in three parts, each of which, in my opinion, improve upon the next. Beowulf's struggle continually increases, and the states are continually raised. This adds a certain amount of tension that improves the quality of the poem. The third part of the poem, to me, is simply a masterpiece with its numerous allusions to bygone times... I can truly feel the sadness of the old king who lost his eldest son which Beowulf speaks of.

While reading, I couldn't help but to be amazed at how much Beowulf influenced another of my favorite authors - J.R.R. Tolkien. This shouldn't come as a surprise, since Tolkien created his own Beowulf translation. You can find very similar themes in Beowulf and in Tolkien's works - weapons having names, people introducing themselves by naming their ancestors, lofty language, similar names (he even got the name Eomer from Beowulf) and armor/weapon types, etc. In fact, the third part of Beowulf is almost identical to the story of The Hobbit.

One of the few complaints I about Beowulf is that it can be difficult and confusing to follow all of the different tribes and the kings/soldiers of all the tribes. At first, I tried to keep them all in order, but eventually had to give up; many of the names are similar but the people are completely different and even from different time periods. Footnotes certainly help, but it still took away some enjoyment for me. My biggest complaint is the insertion of monotheistic religion (Christianity) into the Norse polytheistic culture of the time. It almost completely destroys the immersion of the story that the great language creates. There are actually entire lines devoted to praising the Christian god and bashing paganism. The characters often credit the Christian god to their victories or struggles, even though he would have been practically unknown to them at the time. It is a bit like watching a movie about ancient Greece and seeing people driving cars in the background of scenes.

Overall, Beowulf is well deserving of its placement in the Western Canon. 5/5

"You are the last of us, the only one left of the Waegmundings. Fate swept us away, sent my whole brave highborn clan to their final doom. Now I must follow them."

Beowulf

Most known for Hobbit and mysterious rings, author JRR Tolkien gives over a translation of an ancient Norse tale while his son Christopher gives some rather informative and interesting tidbits of information. Along with the usual translation and background information JRR gives over his own rendering of the tale.

As the story goes a monster named Grendel is  terrorizing King Wrothgars famous hall Heorot. THe Ogre devours people whole. Hearing of  this from the land of the Geats is Beowulf who comes over with a company of men. The king of the Geats is Hygelac. Beowulf's father is Ectheow. The gernealogy was built in to a realistic time period but as the author informs us the story had been retold numerous times and was probably a fairy tale in origin. Beowulf is not really a historical character as his name appears nowhere else in literature or history books. While the the Pagan past was close by and there are references to it by the time the famous poem was redacted the Danes had already been christianized. Still  things were there to remind us and the tale is littered with old and new testament references.

Upon arriving there Hrothgar tends a feast to welcome the geat while an instigator named Unferth mock Beowulf about an old swimming match inj which Beowulf was delayed due to Nixes or Sea Demons that he had to fight off. which made it seem like his opponent won the match . It must be noted that Beowulf did not enjoy super high status. He had to prove himself. Beowulf had lots of strength but was rather young. As a youth he was used to swimming in the sea. 

The night the beast comes Beowulf wrestles with him and tears his arm off. THe monster flees to his underwater lair. But the problem for Hrothgar are far from over. the beast has a mother. Beowulf goes in pursuant of the beast. Going to the underwater layer Beowulf kills the mother and finishes off Grendel. Brining back the head Beowulf earn great reward. He goes back to hygelac's kingdom with new status. He eventually marries the kings daughter and reigns for fifty years. Peace is finally ended when someone steals a dragon's treasure and the dragon ends up ravishing the cuntryside. Beowulf must go to battle one more time.

JRR Tolkiens own version is called t"THe Sellic Spell" names are altered as are Beowulf's origins.I will let you read it to find out.

I give this book five stars because (1) it's Beowulf, (2) it's Tolkien, and (3) it has a lovely cover. I confess to being thoroughly lost much of the time, both while reading the poem and while reading the commentary. But how fabulous it would have been to attend a Tolkien lecture! At least I got some sense of that. I most enjoyed finding little items in the commentary that resonated with my knowledge of The Lord of the Rings.

The most readable part of the book for me was Sellic Spell. Tolkien wrote:

This version is a (emphasized) story, not the (emphasized) story. It is only to a limited extent an attempt to reconstruct the Anglo-Saxon tale that lies behind the folk-tale element in Beowulf .... Its principal object is to exhibit the difference of style, tone and atmosphere if the particular heroic or historical (emphasis) is cut out. ... And by making it timeless I have followed a common habit of folk-tales as received." (p. 355)

Whatever its principal object, Sellic Spell was very readable and understandable compared to Beowulf itself.

My absolute most favorite part of the book is this line from Christopher Tolkien about including the Old English version of Sellic Spell. "[T]he interest of this text lies chiefly, in my view, in its demonstration of my father's fluency in the ancient tongue." [p. 407] It's touching that Christopher Tolkien is so fiercely proud of his father's accomplishments.

Anyone with a personal identity that can picture warrior scholars in deep time cracking up as rodeo clowns of upscale class bandits ruling corruption by insinuation of vile fig leaves from money that grows on trees might like this book extending hand arm shoulder trophy on the wall or ceiling beyond the story Leaf by Niggle. Obsession with what you can't get out of your mind is the ancient time for words other people have said like Nixon taping his own deleted expletives. Gobs of fracking might gush big time competition for shakes like this.

I have come to the conclusion that J.R.R. Tolkien has to have been the greatest writer of the last couple of centuries.

I have read so much of his writings (Not including the Hobbitt and LOTR, which I have through on 3 different editions (all progressively better)), and I am still blown away when I pick up a story that he wrote some 90 years ago, and can't put it down.

Beowulf has never been so fun to read! His translation has enlivened what has already been described as one of the greatest pieces of literature ever written. And considering that no one knows who did write it, that's saying a lot!

Thank you, also, Christopher Tolkien for taking on what had to be one of your greatest challenges in getting your father's unpublished material in print for the rest of us mere mortals to enjoy!!!!! Tolkien is King!!!!!!

I love J.R.R Tolkien and what I could read of this book I liked as well. However the Kindle version of this book is broken. I have downloaded it twice and it freezes a page before the Chapter Beowulf and also will not load that chapter if selected on the table of contents. My kindle reader needs to be closed as no commands are responsive. Several other parts of the book experience the same problem. I switched to other books in my library to see if it was a problem with my computer and it was not, they worked fine.

Given his passionate love for all things Anglo-Saxon, it's hardly surprising that the famed writer/philologist J.R.R. Tolkien did his own translation of the Old English epic, "Beowulf."

And since Christopher Tolkien is apparently determined to release every scrap of paper his father ever doodled on, the public is finally getting to see Tolkien's "Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary," along with an original piece based on Beowulf known as "A Sellic Spell." The translation is pretty good (if slightly clunky at times), but the real magic exists in Tolkien's own verse, which glimmers with the starlit beauty that he was so well-known for.

A creature named Grendel is attacking the beautiful mead-hall of Heorot, sneaking in at night to carry off and/or kill innocent people. King Hrothgar is powerless to stop the monster. But then Beowulf, an already-legendary hero from Geatland, arrives at Heorot specifically to kill Grendel -- and using only his superhuman strength, he is able to arm-wrestle Grendel to death. Not joking.

But that isn't the end of his troubles. Grendel's equally grotesque mother is enraged by her child's death, and attacks Heorot to lure Beowulf out. This time, he'll be fighting on HER turf, a toxic swamp where only he can go, and the legendary hero must marshal all his strength to stop the monster once and for all. And as the years go by, he's faced with a terrible new enemy, one that threatens his homeland and everyone in it.

Tolkien's translation of "Beowulf" is probably one of the more accurate, loving ones that is easily available, since the man had encyclopedic knowledge of Old English and its literature. And he clearly made an effort to maintain the meaning of everything he translated, giving it the rough, earthy flavour of Old English literature -- as lovely as some passages are, it's a story awash in blood, mead and noble warriors threatened by "billows of destroying fire."

The translation can be clunky at times, with a few lines feeling like they were translated by Yoda ("Thereafter was fortune in war vouchsafed to Hrothgar"). This is not a work to be read casually. Instead, it seems to be Tolkien's attempt to stick as closely to the original text as possible, complete with kennings ("warriorking," "ring-mail," "hearth-comrades") and a tendency to splinter sentences into a string of connected phrases. He did abandon the caesura (which split every line rhythmically), instead making long, songlike stanzas that flow like streamwater.

The biggest problem is perhaps that this is a translation, and as such does not allow Tolkien's writing skills to fully emerge. A few moments suit his rich leaves-and-starlight style of writing ("He set the radiance of the sun and moon as a light for the dwellers in the lands, and adorned the regions of the world with boughs and with leaves..."), but not as often as I could have wished.

That is saved instead for "A Sellic Spell," which was Tolkien's attempt to recreate what he imagined the original story may have been like, based on his knowledge of Anglo-Saxon language and culture. Here, Tolkien's imagination and linguistic skill are freer and smoother -- he presents "Beewolf's" story like a mythic fairy tale, with moments of luminous beauty ("they saw the King’s house standing in a green dale; and all the valley was lit with the light of the golden roof") mingled with gory violence (" the hide split, and the bones burst, and her head rolled off down the passage into the water below, dripping with blood").

By Tolkien's own admission, "Sellic Spell" does not exactly mirror the plot of the actual literary "Beowulf." Instead, like so many of his works, it seems to be an intersection between literature, fantasy and myth -- he speculates on the original names of various characters ("Unfriend," "Grinder," "Beewolf"), while also streamlining out some of the filler and adding a more magical, almost ethereal quality to the prose.

And finally, Tolkien attempted to rework the story into "The Lay of Beowulf," which is more of a medieval-style ballad than an epic poem. Anyone who has read Tolkien's poetry will recognize his lovely style here, with many references to the moon, the sea, flames, jewels, swords and gold. It echoes of the songs and poems that he wove into "Lord of the Rings" (" Far over the misty moorlands cold/where the wild wolf howled upon the wold,/past dragon’s lair and nicor’s hold/and far from the lights of Heorot").

"Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary" is not the easiest translation of this classic work for casual readers, but it may be one of the most loving -- especially with the original retellings that Tolkien himself created, both in song and in prose. A long-lost treasure, at last revealed.

Wonderful. I feel as though I've been given a glimpse into lives and times of the folk among whom this story originated, people whose actions and minds so few windows have survived.

I haven't read the entire Beowulf before in any other version, though I remember studying it in high school English Lit. and have read bits and pieces since, but I doubt that any other translator could have produced a translation that could have pulled this off--in prose, no less--and left me more moved and awed than Tolkien.

I'm not an expert in the field; I don't even know Old English. But this makes me wish I'd been a student of the work and the language. What a privilege it would have been to have studied both under Tolkien himself--but that was before my day.

This really is exactly what the cover promises. It is pure Beowulf and pure Tolkien. Some people have complained that Christopher Tolkien spends too long musing about the book's provenance, but I think his introduction is sorely needed to help us understand a great mystery: why didn't J.R.R. Tolkien publish this amazing translation back when he first wrote it?! I am glad that his son has shared what he knows with us, because some of the Middle-earth material was arguably not fit for publication, but this surely is. It is a work of appreciable quality and has already become my favorite Beowulf translation.

I received Tolkien's translation of Beowulf as a gift recently and I think I am the only one on here that didn't like it. There are quite a few areas with flow problems because some of the sentences just don't make sense. Even when you read these sentences out loud they still don't make sense. I can understand why Tolkien didn't want to publish this because I personally don't think it is a complete product. Seamus Heaney's translation is far superior in my opinion and individuals new to the poem will find it more enjoyable.

An awaited release of Tolkien's translation. I think the core translation is available on line, but having a printed version with commentary drawn from Tolkien's lectures and notes is scholarly and pleasurable. Sellic Spell (with BeeWolf) and the Lay of Beowulf are fun.

I received Tolkien's translation of Beowulf as a gift recently and I think I am the only one on here that didn't like it. There are quite a few areas with flow problems because some of the sentences just don't make sense. Even when you read these sentences out loud they still don't make sense. I can understand why Tolkien didn't want to publish this because I personally don't think it is a complete product. Seamus Heaney's translation is far superior in my opinion and individuals new to the poem will find it more enjoyable.

An awaited release of Tolkien's translation. I think the core translation is available on line, but having a printed version with commentary drawn from Tolkien's lectures and notes is scholarly and pleasurable. Sellic Spell (with BeeWolf) and the Lay of Beowulf are fun.

i'm not a scholar, just an enthusiast of not only Tolkien, but Old English and Beowulf. so i win out on both. not being a scholar i cannot even begin to inform you as to the accuracy of the edited notes or of the editing job itself done by JRRT's son.

I am an English major and a Tolkien fan. I was very excited to hear about this version of Beowulf! I first bought a copy for myself, then bought one as a gift for my brother. Highly recommended if you are a Tolkien fan! The introduction is fantastic, the poem is a treasure, and I have not yet finished exploring the wealth of information in the extensive commentary that comprises approximately 2/3 of the book.

A beautiful Gaelish epic story, wonderfully translated by JRR. I've read and studied several translations of Beowulf and have read a ton scholars debating the nuanced meaning of single words in this epic poem. I'm so glad that JRR's translation has finally been released. Christopher Tolkien does a great job of editing the book. The book also includes wonderful lectures from 1930's. In these lectures, JRR is able to really captivate the audience and bring them into the mead hall. He's a great story teller. Beowulf obviously had a huge impact on the LOTR trilogy, and JRR's passionate interest in Beowulf is very evident through his lecture.

After reading a page or two, the reader knows why the author refused to publish this work. All the vigor and excitement of the original is missing in this boring review of what seems like yesterday's news. For a wonderful translation, go to the BEOWULF by Seamus Heaney, bilingual edition.

J. R. R. Tolkien's profession was the academic study of the English language. He was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford's Pembroke College from 1925. In 1945 he became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford's Merton College.

Beowulf is the earliest remaining example of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) literature. The story takes place around 700 and is thought to have been written in the 11th century, the speculated period of the only existing complete manuscript. This was probably during the reign of King Canute, King of Denmark, England, and Norway or one of his several Danish successors, as King of England. The story takes place in Scandinavia.

In spite of its age, Beowulf remains in our consciousness. The last major film was Beowulf in 2007, with Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone, Robin Wright, and Angelina Jolie. Grendel was also released in 2007 with Ben Cross and Marina Sirtis. Beowulf and Grendel was released in 2005 with Gerard Butler and Stellan Skarsgard. Another Beowulf, with Christopher Lambert was released in 1999. Another Grendel was released in 1981. Besides these attempts at direct re-telling, many related films have been made. Outlander was released in 2008 with James Caviezel. The 13th Warrior was released in 1999 with Antonio Banderas, and Omar Sharif.

The combination of a Professor of Anglo-Saxon and an inspired creator of mythical medieval-like worlds seems perfect for a translation of Beowulf. Tolkien completed his translation in 1926, although it wasn't published until 2014.

Tolkien's writings of Middle Earth began in 1917. By 1925 he had worked on The Book of Lost Tales and The Silmarillion. These weren't published until over 50 years later. His first published mythological work was The Hobbit, in 1937.

In his profession capacity, he and E. V. Gordon published a translation of the 14th century West Midlands Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in 1925.

The Beowulf translation is the work of a man just beginning his two parallel careers. As such, we should be restrained in our expectations.

Gawain, and its predecessor, Briciu's Feast, were stronger influences on the Lord of the Rings than Beowulf. LOTR is essentially an expanded Gawain. Beowulf's influence is largely limited to the life-style of the Rohirrim. LOTR is a lesson in the benefit of mercy, as it is the mercy shown Gollum, combined with his greed, that saves the world. Frodo was merely the Ring-Bearer. Gawain and LOTR share the ruse of the false quest, among other things. Mercy makes no appearance in Beowulf. There is no subtlety to Beowulf.

The current academic teaching standard is Seamus Heaney's 1999 translation. It has largely replaced Howell Chickering's 1977 translation. Heaney is a poet, by profession, and he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995.

Comparing them is awkward. The sources are slightly different, shifting line references. Heaney is a poet with an interest in translation. His translation is in poetic form, encouraging a line for line alignment with the original. Tolkien is a translator with an interest in mythology. His translation is in prose, encouraging mild reorganization of the source material. His desire to rewrite the story is on display in Sellic Spell, which is included in the book.

Given that our knowledge of Old English is incomplete, it is difficult to fault either translation. There is a definite difference in style. For example, lovers of Old English were anxious to see Tolkien's translation of the first word, "Hwaet". Heaney chose "So". Tolkien chose "Lo". In general, Tolkien chose more archaic words and phrasing, and Heaney choices seem more modern.

Tolkien's use of the word "street" at 259 (320 in Heaney) is another example of their different viewpoints. The word is in the source as "straet". It is from Latin and exists in Old English, but it carries a meaning strictly related to pavement design (closely related to my current work). "Street" implies a road that is designed and constructed in layers, as in "strata", meaning layers, which is the Late Latin root of street. The normal use of "street" is to identify local roads in urban areas, as opposed to highways. The association of straet with a part of the world unfamiliar with Roman engineering, even the seat of power of the Danish king, seems out of place. Heaney chose "paved track, a path" which seems more appropriate. Tolkien took the academic view of a literal translation of the source and Heaney was more concerned with the image the translation would create in the reader's mind.

I find Heaney more readable and probably pleasant when read out loud. I read Lord of the Rings, among other books, aloud to my children, so I am aware of the differences between words to be read and words to be spoken.

More interesting than the translated story are the commentary and Tolkien's three short versions of the story, Sellic Spell, Beowulf and Grendel, and Beowulf and the Monsters. All three are attempts to trim the story to its essentials. The largest section of the book is Tolkien's commentary with Christopher's notes.

For the small audience who may have an interest in Tolkien's view of the core elements of Beowulf, or who are interested in an academic translation, the Tolkien translation is valuable. Heaney seems more suitable for the general audience needing an easily read translation.

Yet another Tolkien book for Kindle that shows a lack of sympathy with the format, I'm sorry to say. This time, to maintain the printed edition's method of cross-referencing, the editors have forced its lines inflexibly onto kindle - so the translation, which is PROSE actually, comes out like VERSE. The result is a series of bleeding chunks....A great example of the kind of unreadable text which can result from dump-conversion, where reputable, old-school publishers try to cash in on the ebook market.

In both ebook and printed versions, though, one bad editorial decision that immediately stands out is to print the poem as a continuous text, without section breaks or subheadings - a terrible strain for the reader. To be fair, this is the usual thing in 'Beowulf' translations. (Seamus Heaney's is the only one I know of that introduces marginal notes and running headers). The original manuscript breaks the poem into 43-or-so numbered 'fitts', corresponding excellently to dramatic and narrative breaks. The recent student edition of the poem by Mitchell and Robinson reproduces them, with their own descriptive headings added (in modern English), and this gives a much better feeling of the poem's structure - it's a pity that this practice isn't followed in the translations.

Having said all that, the book is in any case only worth buying for the commentary, for the light it sheds on Tolkien's thinking and his views on the poem, at the time when he was writing 'The Hobbit'. (As a guide to studying the poem itself, today, it should be treated with caution.) The translation manages some short bursts that are exceptionally powerful, and is constantly illuminating, but it is swamped by the drawn out prose phrasing, which can sometimes be clumsy, and often obscure.

To be fair again, Tolkien's translation was only meant as a study tool, and anyone translating the poem would be unwise to ignore it. And the damage it can do to this astonishing poem's reputation is mitigated by the fact that ALMOST every other translation fails to do it justice. Either it's the long-winded prose as here, or it's the frankly maniacal obsession with reproducing Old English alliterative metre in modern English - a trap even Seamus Heaney fell into.

The closest match in modern English to the atmosphere of Beowulf (as you experience it when you read it in Old English, and as I believe its original audience experienced it) would be the iambic pentameter blank verse of Shakespeare or Milton - and a translation that respects the poem's diction could never end up as an empty copy of either. This became, and remains, our natural verseform for this kind of deepminded and reflective narration of action. Luckily, there are two modern translators who have taken this approach: for the shorter Old English poems there is Rupert Hamer's "A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse", and for Beowulf there is R.M. Liuzza. Both offer parallel Old English texts, and Liuzza adopts the original manuscript divisions.

"Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary" contains Tolkien's 1926 prose translation of the epic poem. Also included are lenghty essays from lecture notes Tolkien did in the 1930s, a previously unpublished story called "Sellic Spell" from 1945, ad two poems. Highly recommended!

I pre-ordered this ages ago on the basis of a few paragraphs of Tolkiens alliterative translation of Beowulf, which were published in the national press, and to my mind knocked Seamus Heaney's translation out of the park. Inexplicably this hardback does not include the [incomplete] alliterative translation, and instead comprises of a creaky and academic prose translation which, quite rightly Tolkien chose never to publish, as the Beowulf poem is completely unsuited to the form. Why on earth Christopher Tolkien and the publishers decided to include Sellic Spell and commentary instead of both of Tolkiens translations is absolutely mystifying; unless that is cynically planned for a later edition. One for the returns department.