h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi.

An excellent entry! You might be interested to know that J.R.R. Tolkien was professor of English in Oxford, where he translated Beowulf into modern English! Therefore it is quite probable that elements from Beowulf spilled over into the Hobbit or into LotR.

Fun,

Sten

I hate to follow up on my own postings, but when I wrote , I meant that probably one of the reasons for using elements of Beowulf in the Hobbit or LotR is that he was very familiar with the material because of his work as a Beowulf translator.

Still, have fun,

Sten

Thanks very much!

however, I seem to have mentioned an awful lot about Tolkien in the entry, and the influence of Beowulf on his fiction in particular. As for translating Beowulf: Doesn't every Old English scholar do that just as a matter of course? I know I have.

Since Tolkien's translation has not yet been published, and, indeed, was apparently never intended to be published, but was rather a process of scholarly investigation, I didn't see much point in mentioning it in the entry. Once it has been published, perhaps an update will be made. Take a look here, if you're interested: http://www.jagular.com/beowulf/tolk.shtml

oops! sort of a simulpost.

If one reads The Children of Hurin - the 'new' book by Tolkein one will see close parallels also.

Specifically the last part of the book where Turin leads a group of mostly cowardly men to kill the dragon Glaurung is very close to what it described above.
And only the Dragon-Helm of Dor-Lomin could withstand the fires of the dragon earlier in the book. Similar to the great shield of Beowulf.

It's also true I believe that Edoras was Beowulf's hall. The same is the Hall of the King of Rohan in the Lord of the Rings.

There are many borrows from Beowulf in Tolkein's work.


...and they call Harry Potter derivative...

Speaking of Potter, there's a scene in the Deathly Hallows which struck me as being a parallel to the haunted mere bit: (spoiler alert, sort of) deer at a magical pond, hero dives in and grasps a magical sword.

and

'the 'new' book by Tolkein'

'"new"'!

Almost as new as Beowulf no less.

I think the Narn i hin Hurin was one of his earliest stories too iirc.

I haven't read any Harry Potter so you needn't worry about spoilers with me.

Tolkien also did some work on Artherian legend I believe. He did (if I recall) write a version of the story of sir Gwain and the green knight. And his invented languages were based on his studies of old norse and other languages. I've always thought that the riders of Rohan were much like the ancient norsemen (i.e. vikings) in their own way. The point is he took bits and pieces from various sources and put them together in his own unique way.

>>...and they call Harry Potter derivative... <<

I'd hoped the was evidence I was being a bit facetious there. Do you think someone who can spot several bits of ancient lore within Tolkien's Silmarillion amongst other works is not a HUGE fan?

I rather think that being able to point to a twist or figure in a work of fiction and make an educated guess at where the author came up with the idea shows that the person making the guess is in fact a huge fan of the work in question. As an example Elrond was the great, great (not sure how many greats) uncle to Aragorn. Elrond's brother chose life as a mortal and began the line of kings that Aragorn descends from. Their line began on an island that was later destroyed. Sounds a bit like Plato's story of Atlantis in some ways.

Yes and there are very close parallels between the history of Gondor and Arnor and that of the Roman Empire.
Many of the Valar bear close resemblance to Norse gods

Your point is?

Just that it takes having an interest in an author's work to go to the trouble of noting the similarities between the fictional world and things that happened in the real world.