Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary

Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary

J.R.R. Tolkien (Author), Christopher Tolkien (Author)

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“A thrill . . . Beowulf was Tolkien’s lodestar. Everything he did led up to or away from it.” —New Yorker

J.R.R. Tolkien completed his translation of Beowulf in 1926: he returned to it later to make hasty corrections, but seems never to have considered its publication. This edition includes an illuminating written commentary on the poem by the translator himself, drawn from a series of lectures he gave at Oxford in the 1930s.

His creative attention to detail in these lectures gives rise to a sense of the immediacy and clarity of his vision. It is as if Tolkien entered into the imagined past: standing beside Beowulf and his men shaking out their mail-shirts as they beach their ship on the coast of Denmark, listening to Beowulf’s rising anger at Unferth’s taunting, or looking up in amazement at Grendel’s terrible hand set under the roof of Heorot.

“Essential for students of the Old English poem—and the ideal gift for devotees of the One Ring.” —
Product details
Publisher : William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (August 4, 2015)
Language : English
Paperback : 448 pages
ISBN-10 : 0544570308
ISBN-13 : 978-0544570306
Item Weight : 11.8 ounces
Dimensions : 5.25 x 1 x 8 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #29,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#77 in Epic Poetry (Books)
#1,093 in Classic Literature & Fiction
#1,993 in Epic Fantasy (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.7
1,606 ratings



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