From: Jamie Armstrong Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien,alt.fan.tolkien Subject: Tolkien's Beowulf found? Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 20:10:20 +0000 Organization: University of Durham, Durham, UK Lines: 19 Message-ID: <3E0F56AC.2070103@durham.ac.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: howlan09.dur.ac.uk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sirius.dur.ac.uk 1041192618 21343 129.234.54.9 (29 Dec 2002 20:10:18 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@durham.ac.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 20:10:18 +0000 (UTC) X-Accept-Language: en-gb, en User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-GB; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.mailgate.org!fr.clara.net!heighliner.fr.clara.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!diablo.theplanet.net!newsfeed.esat.net!feeder.news.heanet.ie!server5.netnews.ja.net!nntphost.dur.ac.uk!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch rec.arts.books.tolkien:105685 Seasons greetings to one and all! I was listening to the radio last night (BBC 5 Live), and there was a story running that someone had found Tolkien's translation of Beowulf. Apparently the person involved went to the Bodleian library in Oxford, and asked for a box file which was supposed to contain something to do with Beowulf. What they found was loads of notes by Tolkien on Beowulf and, at the bottom, his translation of the text. This translation is supposed to include references to orcs and ents. The story concluded with the statement that the text would be publkished next summer. It's also been reported in the in the Sunday Times, and the story has been covered on theonering.net: http://www.theonering.net/perl/newsview/8/1041182146 Exciting or what? :) Jamie ###### From: "Hamilton Nash" Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien,alt.fan.tolkien Subject: Re: Tolkien's Beowulf found? Date: 29 Dec 2002 20:34:38 GMT Organization: Concentric Internet Services Lines: 31 Message-ID: References: <3E0F56AC.2070103@durham.ac.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: 64.220.150.8 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.imp.ch!news.imp.ch!snoopy.risq.qc.ca!newsfeed.news2me.com!newsfeed2.earthlink.net!newsfeed1.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!nntp-out.svc.us.xo.net!nntp1-feeder.SJ.svc.us.xo.net!newsfeed.concentric.net!sjc1.nntp.concentric.net!nntp-master.svc.us.xo.net Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch rec.arts.books.tolkien:105734 "Jamie Armstrong" wrote in message news:3E0F56AC.2070103@durham.ac.uk... > Seasons greetings to one and all! > > I was listening to the radio last night (BBC 5 Live), and there was a > story running that someone had found Tolkien's translation of Beowulf. > Apparently the person involved went to the Bodleian library in Oxford, > and asked for a box file which was supposed to contain something to do > with Beowulf. What they found was loads of notes by Tolkien on Beowulf > and, at the bottom, his translation of the text. This translation is > supposed to include references to orcs and ents. The story concluded > with the statement that the text would be publkished next summer. It's > also been reported in the in the Sunday Times, and the story has been > covered on theonering.net: > > http://www.theonering.net/perl/newsview/8/1041182146 > > Exciting or what? :) All right!!!!!!!!!!!! This will be interesting, not to mention fun. Can't find my copy of what I consider the best translation I have ever read. Was done in prose. Just bought a new copy the other day. Can't wait for Tolkien's version. Wonder how it will stack up. > > Jamie > ###### From: the softrat Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien,alt.fan.tolkien Subject: Re: Tolkien's Beowulf found? Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 19:18:42 -0800 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: Reply-To: softrat@pobox.com References: <3E0F56AC.2070103@durham.ac.uk> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.92/32.572 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 15 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.imp.ch!news.imp.ch!newsfeed.vmunix.org!fr.clara.net!heighliner.fr.clara.net!news-feed.riddles.org.uk!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch rec.arts.books.tolkien:106033 On Sun, 29 Dec 2002 22:41:16 -0000, "Sally Pointer" wrote: >I quite liked the Seamus Heaney version that appeared fairly recently, but even so >its all pretty much of a muchness. Based on JRRT's translation of _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_, I believe that Tolkien's translation of _Beowulf_ will show up _Heaneywulf_ for the modern muck that it is. the softrat "Wannabe orcodentist" ==>Bakshi is Better!<== mailto:softrat@pobox.com -- If I don't blow my horn, who will? It's got my spit on it. ###### From: Wayne.G.Hammond@williams.edu (Wayne Hammond) Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien,alt.fan.tolkien Subject: Re: Tolkien's Beowulf found? Date: 29 Dec 2002 19:25:30 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Lines: 36 Message-ID: <9b02363b.0212291925.7f0efdfa@posting.google.com> References: <3E0F56AC.2070103@durham.ac.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.213.11.93 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1041218731 12409 127.0.0.1 (30 Dec 2002 03:25:31 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 30 Dec 2002 03:25:31 GMT Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.mailgate.org!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch rec.arts.books.tolkien:106065 Jamie Armstrong wrote in message news:<3E0F56AC.2070103@durham.ac.uk>... > I was listening to the radio last night (BBC 5 Live), and there was a > story running that someone had found Tolkien's translation of Beowulf. > Apparently the person involved went to the Bodleian library in Oxford, > and asked for a box file which was supposed to contain something to do > with Beowulf. What they found was loads of notes by Tolkien on Beowulf > and, at the bottom, his translation of the text. This translation is > supposed to include references to orcs and ents. The story concluded > with the statement that the text would be publkished next summer. It's > also been reported in the in the Sunday Times, and the story has been > covered on theonering.net: > > http://www.theonering.net/perl/newsview/8/1041182146 The _Sunday Times_ article -- posted in full elsewhere on this newsgroup -- evidently conflates Prof. Drout's story of his coming upon Tolkien's essay "Beowulf and the Critics" (the precursor of his British Academy lecture, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics"), Drout's edition of which has just been published, with the fact that he is now working on an edition of Tolkien's Modern English (alliterative and prose) translations of _Beowulf_. The article gets a number of other things wrong too. Not to diminish Michael Drout's moment of personal discovery at the Bodleian, or his achievement in his new book which is very welcome, but the existence of "Beowulf and the Critics" was known before he saw it: it was listed long ago in a public catalogue of the Tolkien papers at the Bodleian. It just wasn't published. As for Tolkien's _Beowulf_ translation, this has been even better known -- cited three times, for example, in my 1993 Tolkien _Descriptive Bibliography_ -- and brief portions of it have been published, e.g. in Tolkien's "Prefatory Remarks on Prose Translation of 'Beowulf'", originally his preface to the 1940 edition of _Beowulf_ translated by John R. Clark Hall, and in Hammond and Scull, _J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator_ alongside two drawings by Tolkien of Grendel's Mere. The translation makes very fine reading. Wayne Hammond