Back at the start of the summer, staffer GreenDragon generously asked the publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to send me a copy of Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf to review. While I started the book right away, this review has been delayed by producing Happy Hobbit and attending four conventions, along with writing two books and a script on top of daily life and work, which is a long-winded way to say that I apologize for my tardiness!
While still an undergrad, I took a course in Old English which was an introduction to the language, followed by a semester of translating Beowulf. A year isn’t enough time to master a dead language, and I was attempting to master two at once, for I was also taking Latin at the time (an alternate nickname for me could be Hermione), so I won’t be able to go into the nitty gritty mechanics of the language like Tolkien does in his notes, but I will offer what insight my education allows!
This is what studying two dead languages looks like.
To offer some context, I will say that Old English is the name we have given to the Anglo Saxon language, for after a strong French influence after the Norman Conquest of 1066, Old English morphed into Modern English. It is important to note, as well, that Anglo Saxon is the language of our (even if you aren’t of English descent, you’re reading this in English) conquerors, for the Nordic tribes of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded England after the withdrawal of the Roman Empire around 410 CE. They renamed the island Angle-Land. England. So while Beowulf is attributed as being the first great epic in English, it is significant that it is a story from the culture that conquered the island and that its setting is in the conquering nation’s homeland in the north, not England, even though the manuscript was recorded and found in an English monastery, hidden beneath pages of religious text. All of this would have been known to J.R.R. Tolkien at the time of his translation in the 1920s.
Firstly, I will say that my reason for taking Old English was driven by my obsession with Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. I was first exposed to Beowulf in seventh grade when I read a version of the poem for one of my classes. Enamored with the culture and the exciting, heroic tale, it lingered in my mind in a way that few stories read for school had. In the Humanities Honors Program in college, we were exposed to the literature that laid the foundations for Western civilization and I once again read a translation of Beowulf (picturing Aragorn as Beowulf this time around, of course) and while in my proceeding English courses I avoided the works I had already read, Beowulf was the one text I would read every time I was asked. As such, I have been exposed to three or four translations, including my own.
When TORn’s new book, Middle-earth Madness, came out last month for Kindle and Nook, some fans were delighted, like Elizabeth Trogden who gives the books five stars at Amazon saying, “Just as the movies led me to the books, TheOneRing.net informed me of the many fans and their activities. This book wonderfully complements all of them.”
But there were others lit up Facebook and message boards with a clear request: “We want a printed version!” As Ithilwen commented, “I hope for printed version as well, it just seems way more fitting to read about Middle-earth from a paper book. Or maybe I’m just a bit old fashioned.”
Well, here it is. Real pages packed with hobbity goodness for you to hold in your hand and set on the shelf with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings movies the book is all about. It’s a little piece of TORn you can keep as a collector’s item and look back on as the years go by.
– Which creature design in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey the filmmakers weren’t satisfied with and secretly changed for the extended edition DVD
– Which Hobbit movie includes an item with J.R.R. Tolkien’s name written on it
– Which item Bilbo takes from Beorn’s house and takes home
– How Peter Jackson could make an adaptation of The Silmarillion without obtaining the rights from the Tolkien Estate
– and lots more, including interviews with Richard Armitage (Thorin), Sylvester McCoy (Radagast), Richard Taylor (Weta Workshop), Mark Ordesky (LOTR Exec) and many more of your favorites.
Want to read a sample chapter and see what all the fuss is about? Here you go!
Update: thanks to DanielLB on our discussion boards for pointing out that the book is also available on some Amazon sites for countries other than the U.S. (amazon.uk, amazon.fr). So check out your country’s site in case you can save on some shipping.
Previously only seen decorating the screens of The Hobbit panel at this year’s San Diego Comic Con (and in lower quality snapshots we were able to post shortly after), the full scroll for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has now been released, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.
This latest tapestry takes us through the final chapter of Peter Jackson’s epic Hobbit trilogy, beginning with Smaug’s attack on Laketown and finishing with the titular Battle of Five Armies.
Visit Entertainment Weekly’s site to take a close look at the scroll with a magnifier, or click on the preview below to see the full image.
If you’ve been eying this Ringwraith mini-statue since Comic-Con, now is your chance to finally order this fantastic collectible. This is the first item of those that we saw at Comic-Con to come up for order and even better, it is in-stock. The Mini-Ringwraith joins other statues from this line like Strider, Gandalf the Grey, and Arwen. You can get him for a great price of $75 and add yet another one of Weta Workshop’s superb Middle-earth collectibles to your collection.
Our friends at Harper Collins Publishers, along with our friends at Weta Workshop, have a new Chronicles book coming out for The Hobbit Trilogy. We’re pleased to team up with them to unveil the cover for the new book The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Chronicles: Art & Design. This book, like all the others in this series, is going to be fantastic allowing fans to see the amazing process of bringing this movie to life. You can Pre-order the book right now and have it in your collection on December 17th just before the movie comes out.
Another great book coming out for The Hobbit Trilogy is the The Hobbit Motion Picture Trilogy Location Guide that will take you from Bag End to Erebor and beyond. Ian Brodie is back taking us across Middle-earth much as he did with The Lord of the Rings Location Guides so expect to add another fantastic book to your collection. You can order this book right now with it arriving on October 28th.
The folks of the TORn message board Reading Room, the section of our forums devoted to discussion of Tolkien’s literary works, have just put out for a call for papers for the fourth TORn Amateur Symposium (also known as TAS4).
Previous TORn Amateur Symposiums have published essays on topics as varied as The Physics of The Hobbit, The Corrupting Nature of The One Ring, Concepts of Healing in Middle-earth, The Matter of Glorfindel, and Music and Race in Howard Shore’s Score.
For this TAS, the team of Brethil, Elaen32 and DanielLB are looking for papers that all touch upon The Lord of the Rings in some way.
