Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary
di J.R.R. Tolkien
A cura di Christopher Tolkien
HarperCollins, London, 2014
Rilegato con cofanetto
Rilegato con cofanetto
Info
Dopo
ottantotto anni dalla sua stesura, la traduzione di J.R.R. Tolkien in inglese
moderno del “Beowulf” è stata pubblicata per la prima volta dall’editore inglese
HarperCollins e curata da suo figlio, Christopher.
La
traduzione, infatti, fu completata nel 1926 nel periodo in cui al Pembroke
College dell’Università di Oxford insegnava letteratura anglosassone ma Tolkien
scelse di non pubblicare mai le pagine manoscritte conservate alla
Bodleian
Library di Oxford.
Note
“The translation of Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien was an
early work, very distinctive in its mode, completed in 1926: he returned to it
later to make hasty corrections, but seems never to have considered its
publication. This edition is twofold, for there exists an illuminating
commentary on the text of the poem by the translator himself, in the written
form of a series of lectures given at Oxford in the 1930s; and from these
lectures a substantial selection has been made, to form also a commentary on
the translation in this book.
From his creative attention to detail in these
lectures there arises a sense of the immediacy and clarity of his vision. It is
as if he entered into the imagined past: standing beside Beowulf and his men
shaking out their mail-shirts as they beached their ship on the coast of
Denmark, listening to the rising anger of Beowulf at the taunting of Unferth,
or looking up in amazement at Grendel’s terrible hand set under the roof of
Heorot.
But the commentary in this book includes also much
from those lectures in which, while always anchored in the text, he expressed
his wider perceptions. He looks closely at the dragon that would slay Beowulf
"snuffling in baffled rage and injured greed when he discovers the theft
of the cup"; but he rebuts the notion that this is "a mere treasure
story", "just another dragon tale". He turns to the lines that
tell of the burying of the golden things long ago, and observes that it is
"the feeling for the treasure itself, this sad history" that raises
it to another level. "The whole thing is sombre, tragic, sinister,
curiously real. The ‘treasure’ is not just some lucky wealth that will enable
the finder to have a good time, or marry the princess. It is laden with
history, leading back into the dark heathen ages beyond the memory of song, but
not beyond the reach of imagination."
Sellic spell, a "marvellous tale", is a
story written by Tolkien suggesting what might have been the form and style of
an Old English folk-tale of Beowulf, in which there was no association with the
"historical legends" of the Northern kingdoms.”
- Christopher Tolkien
Contents
Preface
Introduction to the Translation
Beowulf
Notes on the text of the Translation
Introductory note to the Commentary
Commentary
Sellic Spell
The Lay of Beowulf
All'interno, il drago disegnato da Tolkien che cela...
... un foglio doppio con due disegni di Tolkien con due versioni di "Grendel's Mere".
Piccola curiosità, il volume è stato stampato dalla italiana L.E.G.O. s.p.a.
Questi i volumi della serie deluxe dell'HarperCollins. A partire da sinistra:
The Hobbit; Cofanetto con The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion e The Children of Hurin; Tales from the Perilous Realm; The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun; The Fall of Arthur; Unifinished Tales e l'ultimo arrivato Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary.
In questa foto le tre pubblicazioni inglesi che riportano il drago disegnato da Tolkien:
Drawings by Tolkien, The Hobbit deluxe (Allen and Unwin) e Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary deluxe e hardcover.
