Sellic Work — A Review of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beowulf

Undoubtedly J.R.R. Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf has long been awaited by avid fans and scholars of Beowulf and those of Tolkien himself. For those following the works of Tolkien, his translation is indeed an addition to the vast, mostly posthumous publications the world has already come to love dearly. To the scholars of Beowulf (and Anglo-Saxon literature), it is perhaps another big step into understanding further the themes and the ingenuity of the ancient English works. Any serious student of Anglo-Saxon literature would know of the publication of Tolkien’s lecture Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics. The lecture shed a new light into what had once been a severely understudied area of English literature, and consequently was it thus an obscure path full of misguided criticisms and misinterpretations of Beowulf. Now has come to us once more a work of technical genius and scholarly wisdom, penned by an author so loved and a professor so well-versed in the ancient Germanic texts.

            Many people know of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional works, yet very few know of his scholarly publications or even understand their impact on their respective branches. Long before he was famed as a writer, Tolkien was first renowned as a professor knowledgeable in the different areas of Northern literature. He was also a linguist and a philologist, fluent in diverse Germanic languages, dead and living. His works on Beowulf, then, are written as such by a highly-qualified and moreover passionate individual.

            Critics of course disagree. Tolkien’s writing has at times been judged as crass or stilted; but one may discover neither descriptions generally true in the translation of Beowulf. He has matched with equal skill the technical genius of the original author. And although readers used to verse translations of Beowulf will find it odd that Tolkien’s is written in prose, they may find it excusable upon understanding that artistic detail and precision have been major objectives in Tolkien’s mind as he set out to execute his work. The verse form sacrificed, the compensation then exists in the Shakespeare-like quality of his prose as expressed, I think, in this quote:

 

Then about the tomb rode warriors valiant, sons of princes, twelve men in all, who would their woe bewail, their king lament, a dirge upraising, that man praising, honouring his prowess and his mighty deeds, his worth esteeming – even as is meet that a man should his lord beloved in words extol, in his heart cherish, when forth he must from the raiment of flesh be taken far away. Thus bemourned the Geatish folk their master’s fall, comrades of his hearth, crying that he was ever of the kings of earth of men most generous and to men most gracious, to his people most tender and for praise most eager (lines 2659-2669).

 

More important though than his technical prowess in poetic prose and the Anglo-Saxon tongue (as evidenced in the Sellic Spell), Tolkien provides scholars with insightful commentaries, highly detailed in nature, on particularly important passages of the text (lines 131-150 for example). Revolutionary ideas and theories perhaps previously unexplored or unheard of about Beowulf are aplenty.

What is truly beautiful in this translation is the heartfelt passion J.R.R. Tolkien has weaved into his writings, which is furthermore showcased in his composition of the Sellic Spell and the Lays of Beowulf. Christopher Tolkien was no closer to the truth than when he remarked that ‘the fact that it has remained unpublished for so many years has even become a matter of reproach’. Reproachable it is indeed as all the wisdom instilled in Tolkien’s works on Beowulf have become important cornerstones of that research area; and this translation further asserts Tolkien’s authority on Beowulf, laying grounds for further studies and a deeper understanding on the subject matter. Thankfully it has been published; otherwise the world of English and Anglo-Saxon literature would have permanently lost another portal leading back to the ancient days and its people’s uptake of human existence.