Oh, Tolkien [Geek-Moment of the Day]

[legoline]

The fun part about my exam is that I get to read Tolkien's essay on Beowulf. :D The essays's quite interesting, especially since it becomes plain obvious how The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit etc. weren't only influenced by Tolkien's admiration for Beowulf plot-wise, but more importantly by the general atmosphere about the poem.

Tolkien writes:

Beowulf is not an actual picture of historic Denmark or Geatland or Sweden about A.D. 500. But it is (if with certain minor defects) on a general view a self-consistent picture, a construction bearing clearly the marks of design and thought. The whole must have succeeded admirably in creating in the minds of the poet's contemporaries the illusion of surveying a past, pagan but noble and fraught with a deep significance—a past that itself had depth and reached backward into a dark antiquity of sorrow. This impression of depth is an effect and a justification of the use of episodes and allusions to old tales, mostly darker, more pagan, and desperate than the foreground.

Beowulf is not a 'primitive' poem; it is a late one, using the materials (then still plentiful) preserved from a day already changing and passing, a time that has now for ever vanished, swallowed in oblivion; using them for a new purpose, with a wider sweep of imagination, if with a less bitter and concentrated force. When new Beowulf was already antiquarian, in a good sense, and it now produces a singular effect. For it is now to us itself ancient; and yet its maker was telling of things already old and weighted with regret, and he expended his art in making keen that touch upon the heart which sorrows have that are both poignant and remote. If the funeral of Beowulf moved once like the echo of an ancient dirge, far-off and hopeless, it is to us as a memory brought over the hills, an echo of an echo.

(By the way, I love how Tolkien not only borrowed on the Anglo-Saxon fondness of wistful poetry, but also on their love for riddles. Aw, Tolkien. Bless.)

Comments

[equinox-blue.livejournal.com]

*flails* I get to start reading Beowulf within the next 2 weeks. And that makes me ridiculously happy, especially with all the Tolkein connections. :) *is a geek*

[legoline.livejournal.com]

Wheeeeee! GEEKS UNITED!

I'd recommend the verse translation by Seamus Heaney :) He didn't just put it into prose like many other authors did, he actually attempted to keep the Old English rhyming pattern etc. :D

By the way, I had a feeling you'd be the first one to reply to this post :D

[equinox-blue.livejournal.com]

I do get to read Heaney's Beowulf! It's actually been on my Amazon wishlist a long, loooong time, but sadly, none of my family wants to indulge my geekiness, hee. I've read other translations by Heaney (which ones, I can't remember right now), and I've always liked the work that he's done. He's brilliant. :)

By the way, I had a feeling you'd be the first one to reply to this post :D
HEE, you're getting to know me too well! :)

Okay, I'm off to take a quick nap, so I'll probably spam more later! haha =)

[legoline.livejournal.com]

Oooooooooooh excellent! Yay! \0/

I'm always open to spammage :D Have a good nap!