Tolkien's Beowulf - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Son of Númenor · 08-01-2014, 01:01 PM

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ar...slation-review

I just read this article which discourses on Tolkien's Beowulf translation, written in the entre-deux-guerres period but only published posthumously, with his commentaries and two pieces of fiction. I stumbled upon the article while reading an article at the same site about something completely unrelated - tension between ethnic minorities and the Chinese government in Xinjiang . I found Livingstone's ideas about Tolkien's impact on contemporary perceptions of medieval Northern European literature and the Middle Ages in general muddled at best. Does she feel that he did a valuable service in helping to make the artforms of the era more accessible to a broad, non-scholarly audience? Has he in some way corrupted contemporary popular culture's perception of the era? Surely he did not invent, or even contribute to, the (simplistic) perception of that time in Europe's history as one of intellectual stagnancy, rigid moral codes and social hierarchies, and violence. I would be curious to hear others' thoughts, and specifically from someone more knowledgeable than I regarding the assertion that Tolkien allowed his love of the form and ethos of the period to alloy his translations and commentaries.

It has been a long time since I have read any of Tolkien's non-fiction writings, and I have never been anything resembling an expert, but it seems silly to me to suggest that his fiction has somehow contributed to popular culture's continual misrepresentation of the Middle Ages. Is there a legitimate grievance somewhere in there? And what of Tolkien the academic, philologist, translator? Have serious critiques been made of the methods and biases of his scholarship?

08-01-2014, 01:01 PM	#1
Son of Númenor A Shade of Westernesse Join Date: May 2004 Location: The last wave over Atalantë Posts: 515	Tolkien's Beowulf http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ar...slation-review I just read this article which discourses on Tolkien's Beowulf translation, written in the entre-deux-guerres period but only published posthumously, with his commentaries and two pieces of fiction. I stumbled upon the article while reading an article at the same site about something completely unrelated - tension between ethnic minorities and the Chinese government in Xinjiang . I found Livingstone's ideas about Tolkien's impact on contemporary perceptions of medieval Northern European literature and the Middle Ages in general muddled at best. Does she feel that he did a valuable service in helping to make the artforms of the era more accessible to a broad, non-scholarly audience? Has he in some way corrupted contemporary popular culture's perception of the era? Surely he did not invent, or even contribute to, the (simplistic) perception of that time in Europe's history as one of intellectual stagnancy, rigid moral codes and social hierarchies, and violence. I would be curious to hear others' thoughts, and specifically from someone more knowledgeable than I regarding the assertion that Tolkien allowed his love of the form and ethos of the period to alloy his translations and commentaries. It has been a long time since I have read any of Tolkien's non-fiction writings, and I have never been anything resembling an expert, but it seems silly to me to suggest that his fiction has somehow contributed to popular culture's continual misrepresentation of the Middle Ages. Is there a legitimate grievance somewhere in there? And what of Tolkien the academic, philologist, translator? Have serious critiques been made of the methods and biases of his scholarship? __________________ "This miserable drizzling afternoon I have been reading up old military lecture-notes again:- and getting bored with them after an hour and a half. I have done some touches to my nonsense fairy language - to its improvement."