[J.R.R. Tolkien] New Tolken Book Found

[Bêthberry]

Squatter, I thank you for recognizing the point of my statement.

quote:Anglo-Saxon or Old English is not a particular dialect of modern English. It is a different language.

I'm not sure that this is what Bethberry was trying to say, Bill. It is possible to recreate Anglo-Saxon meter in a different language, just as Shakespeare's iambic pentameter is not restricted to English.

While Old English must certainly be studied as if it were a foreign language, by no means does that suggest there is no relationship between Old and Modern English. To those whose imaginations can inhabit our language, who can live inside it as it were and feel how it moves and breathes and flexes, there are ample ways to recognize the family relationship, much as the genes of the grandparent can be recognized in the appearance of the grandchildren. For instance, our prepositions come from Old English, as well as the inflections of the verb to be.

I speak as someone who has herself translated Beowulf (in part), The Battle of Maldon, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, Cædmon's Hymn, The Dream of the Rood, and prose as well, from the Anglo Saxon Chronicles, to legal prose such as the wills of King Alfred and Ethelfleda, and the religious prose of Alfred and Aelfric. I don't know anyone who took that road with me who would not agree with this.

I find Tolkien's translation fascinating, for to me it recovers the very rhythm of heroic song, intended to be sung over the table in the meadhall. He wanted something that got inside the skin of OE and breathed its being. Like Squatter, I have no difficulty accepting the diction. 'hove' is used correctly, and 'fleet foam flecked' is an admirable description to me of waves rolling, topped by white foam in their roiling, which then disappears.

And my thanks as well to Findigil for pointing out that Tolkien's diffidence was worlds apart from today's academics who publish at a cutthroat pace, not to share or enlighten, but to build brick upon brick of the unholy tower of self-promotion.

Bethberry