SELLIC SPELL

So, now that there's an official announcement for TOLKIEN'S BEOWULF (www.tolkienbeowulf.com), things quickly come into sharper focus. There's no mention of whether both translations will be included, the partial alliterative verse one and the complete prose one. I certainly hope it'll include both; in any case, we'll soon see. As a commenter on my previous post pointed out (thanks, Nelson), there's actually no mention from an official source of Tolkien's BEOWULF: THE MONSTERS AND THE CRITICS being reprinted herein. True enough; in any case, it's readily available in the essay collection THE MONSTERS AND THE CRITICS AND OTHER ESSAYS [1983]. And, even better, if true it means there'll be all the more original, never-before-seen material. So this is pretty much a win-win situation, whichever turns out to be the case.

The biggest news from the official announcement is that SELLIC SPELL is definitely being published, for the first time ever, as part of this book. While quite short, it's an interesting work, atypical for Tolkien, and I'm glad we'll finally have it in print.

And, as an extra added bonus, it sounds as if Christopher Tolkien's introduction definitely dates the translation, which fills in one more date in the framework of dating all Tolkien's works and how they relate to each other --a particular interest of mine.

Too bad it comes out a week and a half after Kalamazoo: I'm sure there's many a medievalist there who'll be interested.

And now, two months + one day and counting

--John R.


P.S.: The Amazon.co.uk listing for the book is now up, and includes such interesting information as the page count (surprisingly high at 448 pages, making this a substantial book):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beowulf-Translation-Commentary-together-Sellic-ebook/dp/B00J46XTP4/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1395427609&sr=8-13&keywords=tolkien+beowulf

Amazon.com by contrast doesn't yet seem to have a page for the book but does have two for the Kindle edition, which on a quick glance seem to differ only by having two different prices ($23.99 and $15.40, espectively; see the two respective links below). No doubt this all soon be sorted out.

(1)
http://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-Translation-Commentary-together-Sellic-ebook/dp/B00J46XTP4/ref=sr_1_36?ie=UTF8&qid=1395427832&sr=8-36&keywords=tolkien+beowulf

(2)
http://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-Translation-Commentary-J-R-R-Tolkien-ebook/dp/B00J3V9PTO/ref=sr_1_38?ie=UTF8&qid=1395427904&sr=8-38&keywords=tolkien+beowulf