Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary

Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary

Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary

Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary

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Overview

New York Times bestseller

“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.” —Kirkus

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780544570306
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 08/04/2015
Pages: 448
Sales rank: 53,001
Product dimensions: 5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writing The HobbitThe Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays. His books have been translated into over sixty languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.


Christopher Tolkien (1924–2020) was the third son of J.R.R. Tolkien. Appointed by Tolkien to be his literary executor, he devoted himself to the editing and publication of unpublished writings, notably The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and The History of Middle-earth.

Date of Birth:

January 3, 1892

Date of Death:

September 2, 1973

Place of Birth:

Bloemfontein, Orange Free State (South Africa)

Place of Death:

Oxford, England

Education:

B.A., Exeter College, Oxford University, 1915; M.A., 1919
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