Tolkien transaltion of Beowulf?

[zxcvbn]

I know that J.R.R.Tolkien had worked on an English translation of the Beowulf poem.
However it was not among his posthomously published works. Does anybody know what happened to it?

Edit: Oops! Spelling mistake with the title!

[Bêthberry]

Edit: Oops! Spelling mistake with the title!

And here I thought you were playing with words, translation/exaltation, to say nothing of transpiration/transubstantiation/expiation/transposition--peppering your post with a taste for salt and other flavourings . :)

[Child of the 7th Age]

It's my understanding that Tolkien did a partial verse translation and a complete prose translation of Beowulf. The manuscripts are still in the library at Oxford. Here is a link to an article on the "finding" of these manuscripts plus references to the initial plans the Estate had to have Michael Drout (a prof at Wheaton College) edit and publish them. See this link: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/?id=TOLKIEN.WC2

Also, this quote by Drout: I found the manuscript in the Bodleian Library in Oxford in 1996 and, after some negotiations with Tolkien's son, Christopher, the Tolkien Estate granted me permission to publish an edition, which should be available in late December.

And another quote by Drout from someone's blog at stonetable.org: An American scholar, Michael Drout, was researching Anglo-Saxon scholarship and asked to see a copy of Tolkien’s lecture on Beowulf given in 1936. In the box of materials he was brought he discovered 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.”


Actually, Drout did not "discover" these manuscripts, and he has been very quick to say that in other interviews. Scholars already knew of their existence, but this is how the media framed Drout's comments. Unfortunately, these initial comments elicited a storm of media coverage, much of it misleading, and the Estate withdrew the permission to publish. Drout has been very careful to be silent since then, not even answering his own students' question on exactly what the situation is now. As far as I know, no one knows if and when these materials will be released for publication. This topic has actually come up on the Mythopoeia website several times where a number of people post who've done publications in the field, but no one has any further information on the status of this project. I wrote the Estate with a polite query on the present status of publication plans (if any) but did not receive an answer. Perhaps I will try again.

If someone knows anything more about possible publication of these manuscripts, I'd love to hear about it.

[zxcvbn]

Thanks a lot, Child of the 7th Age. It's a pity that the sensationalist media(whose knowledge of Beowulf is probably limited to the CGI film) ruined our chances of reading the translation. Hopefully the Estate will allow it to be published eventually. BTW, I can't think of any author who had more books published after his death than JRRT.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I suppose I can speak very, very broadly: publication of Beowulf is on indefinite backburner. We may however see other Tolkien verse (non-Middle-earth) in print, depending on CRT's health and energy.

[Child of the 7th Age]

Thanks for that confirmation of what I suspected. I wish that the Estate could find an Anglo-Saxon scholar they'd feel comfortable with to put these materials out. Given CT's background in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse, I am assuming he could do this but hasn't wanted to because of the enormous work that would be involved.

[zxcvbn]

I don't think Christopher Tolkien will be editing any more of JRRT's works. I imagine it'd be a tiring task, given his age(over 80 years old). Hopefully whoever succeeds him as JRRT's literary executor will publish the remainder of JRRT's unpublished writings.

[Gwathagor]

Several years ago, I did a large research project on Beowulf and vikings, and read about 8 different translations; but all along it was Tolkien's that I really wanted. I suppose it will have to get published some day. :confused:

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Christopher hasn't quit just yet! There may be more.

[zxcvbn]

Christopher hasn't quit just yet! There may be more.
Yes, but they won't be edited by Christopher himself. These days he's subcontracting the work to other Tolkien scholars and merely supervising them. eg. 'The Making of the Hobbit' by John Rateliff.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Oh, really? I beg to differ.

The Hobbit was subcontracted out to Taum Santoski and, after his death, to John Rateliff simply because CT didn't feel there was room in HME (which originally wasn't going to cover LR either)- and that project was initiated almost 20 years ago. Same with the linguistic material, which CT felt Hostetter, Gilson et al could handle better than he could- that began in 1992.

Anyway, CT has *not* stopped editing. He may not manage to finish, but he's still at work.

[zxcvbn]

I am not trying to belittle Christopher Tolkien in any way. He is clearly the #1 Tolkien scholar alive. But with old age comes problems like failing memory, which is why I don't think that he himself will be editing any books after CoH. I believe he said something to that effect in the preface of HoME XIII, about how he won't be able to publish the remainder of JRRT's notes due to his age.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

HoME XIII?

All I can say is that CRT is still working on some stuff, because he told me, quite recently, that's what he's doing. Age may indeed catch up with him, but he's not out of the fight yet.

[Child of the 7th Age]

Without CT, our understanding of Tolkien would be considerably less than where it is today. We owe him an enormous debt. I've mentioned before how differently things were viewed before the publication of the Letters (done by Carpenter but with help from CT) and later HoMe. Our knowledge and understanding of JRRT was immeasurably changed by what CT wrote. CT also did a good job of covering bases with the Hobbit and language manuscripts by giving the blessing to other scholars to work on them.

But as a historian, I just wish that there had been a similar arrangement for Beowulf. I remember attending the medievalists conference at Kalamazoo while JRRT was still alive and hearing scuttlebut about the fact that JRRT had done a translation of the work but that it was not yet in print. I kept waiting over the years to hear something more and was disappointed when the agreement with Drout did not work out. I almost wish that CT had made HoMe a volume or two shorter and instead given us the Beowulf. But I am undoubtedly in the minority on this. ;)