Mindsigh

Beowulf and LOTR

Posted by Jerry on January 8th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Writing

er… happy new year folks! just surfacing at last 😉

And I was reading a new edition of Beowulf – as you do – in this case a new verse translation by Michael Alexander published by Penguin – and found two references to middle earth within the first thousand lines! It’s a great tale – half Tolkien half Star Trek Klingon warrior culture… A classic at the speed of videoclips!

And of course I had to see the new Lord of the Rings on the second day after opening – what a great movie – mobile scars, vanishing cloaks and all 🙂 The trilogy will live like 2001 a Space Odyssey (also drawing on classical references), and the five movies of the Star Wars trilogy, among the great movie experiences of the new Century – of course Tolkien was a fine linguist and Anglo-Saxon scholar – so I was delighted to see the way some of Tolkien’s langage reflects its Anglo-saxon/Old English roots – check out this list:
Tolkien and Beowulf for a good sprinkling…

I particularly liked Fródan as Frodo – the wise!

And for a taste of Beowulf itself – check out:

Beowulf Project Gutenberg Version

Cheers

Jerry

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