It's no mean thing that, in the introduction to his new translation of Beowulf, Seamus Heaney cites only one Anglo Saxon scholar for waking Oxford and the rest of the critical world up to the reality of Beowulf as something more than a mildly interesting cast-off of Norse folklore: and that's Tolkien.

I wonder why the surprise about the find, though. I read that Tolkien had been working on his own translation way back in H. Carpenter's bio. And whenever I go to Harvard Bookstore's used level, I half expect to find a copy somewhere.

The news to me is that it was never published.

This will be cool!

But it has never been published, or seen by casual readers yet. Every once in a while, some writer on Tolkien will mention having read his (published) translation of Beowulf: this is probably a mindographical error for his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (first published 1975).

So if the translation was a "discovery" by Drout, it was a personal discovery, and I'm sure that's what he meant when talking to the reporter. The 2000 pages probably includes Tolkien's complete lecture notes on the subject - he lectured on Beowulf frequently for 25 years. The translation is certainly nowhere near that long, I'm told by a friend who's seen it.

Prof. Drout is an industrious and worthy, if sometimes over-niggling, scholar (all traits shared by Tolkien). I'm delighted he's bringing this into print, and I mean to get his other Tolkien book RSN.

Of course, true geekdom lies in reading Physical Review Letters to your infant...

(A former colleague used to do that. He figured he needed to read the articles anyway, and the tone of voice was more important to his daughter than the actual content of the bedtime "story"...)

I also think the author of that Times piece and A.C. Douglas, referred to elsewhere on Teresa's blog, need to read "On Fairy Stories."

Chad, your colleague who read Physical Review Letters to his baby daughter reminds me of the movie, Three Men and a Baby. Tom Selleck's character does something very similar -- but in that case it's newspaper articles about boxing. It was hilarious. And as a librarian, I approve of reading to kids! That's how I got hooked. There's a photo my dad took when I was about 2 months old: my mom is sitting next to the bassinet. With one hand she is reaching into the bassinet (holding my bottle, but you can't see it or me); with the other she is holding a book on her lap.

I think the thing that's really astonishing about this is that nobody's previously worked out that Tolkien's translation of Beowulf by Tolkien would be publishable.

And, er, doesn't everyone read inappropriate material to their tiny children?

"The Monster and His Critics" is a much better introduction to The Matter of Fantasy, imho.

Beowulf,
Beowulf,
Prowess proud, this poem's proof;
Perfect prince, praised by all
Friends to fairly fill a fine hall.
Niggardly? No, not he;
Giving great gifts most graciously.

His tale takes off when Grendel gave the people pure pains,
Grabbing graven gold and dropping dozens of Thanes,
Then there came a king's kin to deliver the Danes:
Beowulf, Beowulf, Beowulf!