[Alouette]

Tolkien's name on the cover is likely to make the translation a bestseller.

I only wish I could have read this essay when I was learning Beowulf in 11th grade. Although if it is anything like his essay "On Fairy Stories" which is a critique of the fantasy genre, it is not likely to be a page turner.

[proxy_user]

It's more likely to be like his edition and translation of 'The Fight at Finnesburgh'. Brilliant, yes, but a 148-page book on a 48 line fragment. He also tends to assume you know Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, and Latin at a minimum.

I'm OK with that, but I get stuck in Old Norse sometimes. Anyway, he's no worse than the Klaeber edition everybody uses in grad school.

[SuziQ]

I only wish I could have read this essay when I was learning Beowulf in 11th grade

Our son was studying "Beowulf" in a college English course recently. His translation was done by Seamus Heany. I had planned to use it for our kids when they do the Medival era in homeschool late next year, but I hope the Tolkien version will be published by then! I know Tolkien did "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" which we are going to use in Medieval studies as well. It will be fun to compare the Heany and Tolkien versions of "Beowulf". I don't remember ever reading it before when I was in high school or college, so it will be fun for me, also!